Life 1, Cuttlefish 0

Something had to give. It is the time of the semester when assignments come due, and grading piles up. It is the time of the year when furnaces, cars, bikes, and computers break down (I don't know how they conspire to do this, but they do). It is the time of life when the maximum number of offspring are requiring tuition to be paid, loans to be applied for, this that and the other to be bought. It is the time of the economy when two decades worth of savings are worth less than a decade ago, as if ten years of work was for nothing. It is one of those rare years when I have no summer teaching at all, and thus no summer income to speak of. It is the time of my life when, with finances like this, my 25th anniversary is coming up in a couple of months. We'll likely split a can of soup in celebration.

Something had to give. I can't cut back on my job, or they won't pay me. I can't cut back on parenting or spousing, just because. I can cut back on doing something I very much like to do, but which takes time I don't really have right now. So this might be it, or this might be it for a while. I really don't know right now.

I love my readers. They have helped me through so much already. I don't regret a moment of my time spent putting life into silly rhymed verses. I still owe some of my readers a signed copy of my book (I haven't forgotten!), and I will do that. One kind and talented reader is helping me (the delay is all mine) to re-write the book, add some commentary and re-organize, so that may come out eventually... and I will, of course, keep checking email and comments.

But something had to give, and so I am, at the very least, taking a break. I hope to see you soon, but if not, I still thank you from the bottom of all three hearts for supporting me, for enabling my obsession, for helping to create the Cuttlefish persona.

For now, though... Good-bye.