So this is the part where I pop my head into the office for the first time in a long while, give a half-smile and nod to some surprised faces and a few scowls, and begin stumbling over my apologies for not being around and fulfilling my site duties (blog writing, podcast, etc.)

The last quarter of this year has taken so much out of me due to unplanned and unavoidable circumstances, and for the sake of venting a bit I'll mention a few.  Not to give excuses, but because I hope it will deflate the internal pressure and I will manage to get on top of things again and return to the community here that I cherish and desire to support.

My family placed a great deal of resources toward a short-sale house purchase back in September.  Never do this.  (The short sale part.)  In four months we have not heard from the bank holding the seller's property we were trying to buy, and despite extending the contractual obligations for a return reply, we've gotten to the point that it is costing us too much to continue this pursuit.  The last deadline is fast approaching, and the severe weather around here has since begun to visibly damage the now vacant home.  To say my beloved and I are disheartened is quite the understatement.  We've gone through meetings and phone calls and emails and banks and countless pages of paperwork, taking up a great deal of time and energy.  If we don't hear from the other party before the end of the year, we will not buy the home we've been preparing to move into for all this time.  My wife and I know that if this is not the house for us, God will close the door, and if it is meant to happen, He will open it.  It will be pretty obvious which within a few days.  In the mean time, we've made sure to do everything we can on our end, and it has just exhausted us.

The weather here in Pennsylvania struck early and hard, dumping a near comical amount of snow in short order, and it has taken its own toll on time and energy.

The biggest difficulty, and the one that I'm the most limited to discuss for detail, has to do with family issues.  Blessedly my own immediate family is doing very well, and for that I am truly thankful.  But over the last few months a few situations have come up with other family members that simply defy expectation and shake one down thoroughly, making a person question long held assumptions and wonder how to move forward.  Some decisions do not carry the weight of morality as much as simply a weight of consequence.

I've already received criticism for divulging more detail to others, so I shouldn't really explain further.  But what reserves I had remaining from other scenarios have been completely drained from this last one.  Wrestling my wonderful rug-rats at the end of the day has just left me spent.

I do not intend on further sabbatical or delay from what I ascribe to be my duties here, though I do not intend to be ambitious for a little while longer.  Hopefully the wonderfully patient Bickman and I will get an end-of-the-year podcast out and I can finish up with a blog entry or two.

Any prayers and thoughts sent our way are greatly appreciated, and your local Slackur should be up to better running capacity in short order.

In the meantime, I'll be around, and once some of this is cleared up I plan to be pushing more content than ever.

Permalink | Comments [5] | Digg This Article | Tweet