ou might have noticed a noticeable gap in my latest postings. Like, I haven’t been here for a month.

It was a long string of unfortunate events. Like all true adventures, I was supposed to go to a train operation session that didn’t go so well. Got home and wiggled my mouse (what? Oh, THAT) to perk up my computer. Found that Firefox showed the old “trouble with that site” thing. Tried to restart the wifi. Nothing. Checked the router. Running. Checked the wife’s computer. Connected. So that meant that I had something wrong inside my box.

Went through the settings and didn’t find anything amiss. So yes, hardware problems. But the problem was that I didn’t want to take the computer over to the local shop – they don’t even look at it when you bring it in – they just drag it into the back and no computer for ten days while they “get around to it”. The problem with that is that I had another issue of the Journal Box (the model railroad newsletter I put out). No, I could not afford to lose the time without my computer, my files, and my email submissions.

So this started the most difficult issue I’ve ever assembled. I would work on it here, but all email submissions I had to work with (and my posting of questions and stuff to the contributors and board members) meant that I needed to ferry it to the wife’s computer on a thumb drive. And in the back-n-forth world of newsletter assembly, it’s a real pain in the ass.

So we went to print and then I decided to look up a closer (and hopefully faster) shop. Found Tim can fix it, a small local hole-in-the-wall with an eclectic guy working it. He confirmed that it was certainly hardware. Also, he mentioned he could speed things up with solid state drives. Great. Got the computer back in TWO DAYS, which was great because I was only just starting to jones for my plastic friend who’s fun to be with.

And now I’m up and running (and blogging) again. I’ve got a literal stack of books to review from my vacation (including two new series that I am enjoying). So, more more much more to come from me.

Glad to be back.

>>>AND, AS ALWAYS, BUY A BOOK FROM ME DOWN THIS LINK!<<<