Well, that was interesting -- a one-day forced hiatus. For a while, some folks were getting through to this site, some weren't. Then, by this time yesterday, it all went kerblooey for everybody.

A mixup by my web host allowed my web domain to expire. When that happens, you lose your site back to the registrar -- in this case, an outfit called eNom -- and they turn it over temporarily to the "cheap airfares" weasels who occupied this space yesterday. Meanwhile, you get to scramble around to get your own site back up.

Fortunately, I was able to fight through some formidable phone menus and get through to helpful human beings both at eNom and at my web host, and they got the situation rectified for me as quickly as humanly possible within the confines of their organizations. If you ever read this, Veronica and Elida, thank you for restoring my faith in humanity.

There was a time when this sort of thing would have sent me ballistic, but for some reason I was able to keep pretty cool this time. Maybe it's because I could have prevented the mishap myself if I had been paying closer attention. But more likely it's because so many readers had my back. I got e-mails, even phone calls, from concerned frequenters of this blog, expressing concern and offering suggestions. People blogged on their own blogs about my disappearance.

That was awfully nice. My hat's off to you, people.

In an eerie paralel, Cousin Jim at Parkway Rest Stop has also gone dark, quite involuntarily. His situation is a bit different from mine. His entire internet hookup is down. But on the other hand, his site is up, and Eric from Straight White Guy is doing yeoman's duty as a guest blogger. It's great to have friends.

Speaking of which, special thanks are due to my buddy Bill McDonald, who reprinted my morning post and let me vent a little over at The Portland Freelancer. A special guy.

O.k., enough about that. Lesson learned. On with the show.

UPDATE, 1:46 p.m.: Before I went out of commission, I had a couple of posts that got lost in the shuffle. This one in particular may be worth your going back for.