Gus Van Horn Turned Eight

Editor's Note: Below is what I composed this morning, thinking I'd stop by a book store before lunch and post it. That didn't happen, but the cable installation seems to be going well. So it looks like I will (finally!) be blogging as normal tomorrow morning. 

I'm back, sort of, after what I think is the longest time I have gone without blogging since starting Gus Van Horn just over eight years ago. On top of that, the blog turned eight on the twenty-fifth and I missed the party for the first time.

Whenever upcoming travel or an extremely busy schedule have made me unsure of whether I can post, my policy has always been to make note of that fact here, ahead of time. I have always erred on the conservative side regarding such factors as the availability of an Internet connection or unusual time constraints, and this has generally resulted in me being able to return to full blogging "early" or even to continue without interruption. This time may be different: I'll find out for sure this afternoon when our telecom provider shows up to install our phone/cable/Internet services.

On top of that, I have needed every minute of the two weeks of blogging time I allotted for the move. The baby (as expected) and moving from a tiny, cramped apartment to a two-story house (to our surprise in some respects) have made this move more time-consuming than any of our previous moves. I'd scheduled the cable installation over a month ago for late last week, but the cable jack was in a poor location. This turned out to be a show-stopper. I imagine for liability reasons that simply running a longer cable from the jack to where we wanted our entertainment center and modem was not an option: The worker explained that he'd have to bolt down any cable extension, and either that or relocating the modem -- which is what we decided to do -- would require our landlord's permission since either involved drilling holes. The need to do this bumped us back to today.

So we've been without Internet, except for our smartphones and very brief trips to a book store for over a week. As nice as it is to have those options, they are still poor substitutes for being able to access the Internet at a convenient time and place with a real computer. (It has been astounding to learn in this way just how often and for how many things I now use the Internet.) Assuming the rescheduled installation doesn't hit a snag, I'll be back tomorrow morning closer to the usual time. Otherwise, posting times may be somewhat irregular for a few days. In the meantime, let me thank you for your patience, and for your many years of support.

-- CAV