One-Week Hiatus

Sorry to spring this on you at the last minute, but I will have to leave you guys hanging here for another week.

My grandmother passed away unexpectedly on March 6. She went in for surgery early last Monday morning. It was supposed to be minor surgery that just went very wrong, through no fault of the surgeon. Any Lousville-based readers who eyed the Courier-Journal obituary section last week may have seen the 11-inch column dedicated to her that ran for three days.

I could go on and on about how special this lady was, but there are no words, really. She was 88 years old but if you ever talked to her or had seen her go about her day, you would never know it. She was wise, insightful, sharp as a tack, and much more of a caretaker than she was ever taken care of. Above all, she was interested in everything and absolutely fearless. These things just make her death seem more like a tragic mishap befallen someone my own age rather than the quiet, slow passing of an elder.

Lots of people ask me how I manage to work a full-time IT job and then come home to write and draw this comic. I say I got it from my Grandmother, who would stay up far past midnight several nights a week to practice the piano, organize church functions or index her recipes.

Family obligations last week just happened to fall inbetween the quiet times when I would normally create the comic, so I completed the strips for last week without interruption. However, my bereavement leave from my day job has left me with several deadlines to play catch-up with this week, so I am forced to stop the comic, just for a few days.

I noticed that this week saw a steady increase in regular visitors. I am unable to track down the source of all my new readers, but I ask that you guys who just discovered this strip please trust me when I say that I don't take breaks lightly and that I will be back when I say I will. There are over 650 strips in the archives, so feel free to kill some time with them.

Thanks for the emails I got over this weekend from people saying how "geeked" they were about the Haley vs. Haley standoff. I know how this story ends, and trust me, you will not be disappointed.

Peace!