Funny how life works out that way!

Well, it has been a while, hasn't it? Okay, first let me explain where I've been since my last posting in November. Running a music order business (www.finemusic.ca) means November is starting into my busy time of the year. Imagine my dismay when, just as things are getting busy, I lose the motherboard on my computer! Frantic repairs failed and even more frantic shopping for a new system followed, with the end result being a brand spanking new business-class computer with a LONG warranty, just in case. Then it was working on getting back up to speed again with a whole new system while managing the ever-increasing business over the Christmas buying season. My thanks to the attentive staff at Beatties Basics and Compusmart in St. Catharines for giving me the advice I needed to select the right system for my needs.

That should have been the end of it, but it is funny how life gets in the way every now and again. Three days before Christmas, father went into the hospital with a serious infection that kept him there for three weeks. Once he was ready to leave, it was apparent he wasn't ready to go home and live on his own again, so a hastily-arranged search of area retirement residences brought us to the great people who run St. Catharines Place, and they just happened to have room for dear ol' Dad. A move ensued, and then the massive amounts of changing from one home to another: change of address, paying of bills for Dad, preparing to sell his apartment and emptying it of many years of memories. It is hard work, and I don't mind telling people it has been a very difficult roller-coaster of emotions as you try to evaluate every piece in the apartment - do you save it or pitch it? I am still at it, but in the home stretch of preparing the apartment for sale at the end of the month. And Dad? He's doing fine, and looking better every day.

So, that is what has been happening the last few months. There simply have not been enough hours in the day to get everything done, and something literally had to give. So thanks for your patience, and rest assured I will be writing (ranting?) with somewhat more regularity from now on. I want to write about the planned summer music venue planned for Niagara-on-the-Lake, for example, but want to read up on it first and get all the details before I offer my views on the idea. That's for another day...