Thanks for BEARing with me...

This week has definitely been the worst period of blogging negligence in my entire (short) career. I feared that some of you, thinking I’d abandoned this feeble noble effort, might have moved on to plow more fertile fields. Nothing was growing on this idle plot of cyberspace.

There was only one night that I was actually too busy to get to my computer. That was Wednesday, the night my daughter came over with eight huge bags of goodies for the benefit auctions. There were so many donations that it took two of us working until well past my bedtime to separate them into reasonable auction lots, and it was really fun to do. Unfortunately, that experience demonstrated once again how much stamina I no longer have. My behind dragged the floor for two days afterwards.

On Thursday night I darted in after work and plugged in that little haiku-thingie, so you’d know I was alive and well, and planned to come back and post something more substantial after Big Brother. Hah! I fell asleep and didn't wake up until after the eviction. I watched the last few minutes, then hurried back to my computer to see the kickoff of the first batch of auctions. Whoopeeee! Very exciting! And that's about the time that my computer started sloooooooooooowing dooooowwwwwnnnn and then just froze.

I'd tried to switch back and forth between eBay and my favorite blogs right before that happened, something I've done a hundred times before without any difficulties whatsoever, so my first thought was that I shouldn't have clicked on the "install updates" window that had popped up the day before. I rebooted and tried again. It started up okay, but I could only switch between windows half a dozen times before it would lock up again. Talk about aggravating! I’d read somebody's blog, write a comment, enter my login information and try to submit the comment, and it would just sit there. It wouldn't send, nor could I even move to another window. In fact, by that time I couldn’t even reboot; I’d have to push the button to turn off the computer. My sparklingly brilliant comment, of course, would be lost (as would be my temper).

Friday was more of the same, but by then I’d figured out that I could get online as long as I didn't mess around. I'd have to take care of urgent e-mails, check the auctions, read one or two blogs if I could, then reboot again. Over and over. Still, by late Friday I’d managed to find out that Carmon had gone away to an art show, Janet had been stuck in an elevator at the hospital, Mike's father-in-law had passed away and Mike was taking good care of Daisy, and Dooce could be brave and funny in the face of newly discovered skin cancer. That’s how fast things were happening in other people’s lives while I sat here and fought with my stupid computer.

Today was much better. It dawned on me this morning to check my cookie cache. I tried to identify which cookies I needed to save, but it didn’t take long to remember that I’m not that detail oriented , so I just adopted a mercenary attitude and deleted every single one of the little suckers, friend and foe alike. My immediate computer problems were solved instantly. The problem of figuring out what the heck all my passwords were will take a bit more research, but at least it won’t have to be done all at once.

Soooo. Enough complaints. The good news is that the auctions have raised more than $10,000 in less than 48 hours, enough to save the house, provide a little cushion for the lampworker who is no longer a damsel in distress, and put big grins on the faces of all the people who pulled together to make this happen. It felt so good today to give a big hug and a hearty high-five to the one of them I love most.

It feels good to be back here, too. I know it hasn't been all that long, but I’ve missed being among my fellow writers and readers and can’t wait to catch up.