At the end of April, a major hack on a well-known web server management program caused problems for thousands of website owners all over the world. Two of my three sites went down. They were since restored, however, my ability to conveniently provide updates to those sites are still affected. My web hosting company is working dilligently to help me restore access, but for the time being, website updates will be slow and cumbersome.

To make matters worse, today I suddenly found myself unable to send and receive email through my internet service provider (Spectrum.) I don't think this problem is related to the one above, but I can't say for sure. All I know is that these concurrent problems have combined into a technical dilemma that is going to take time to fix.

For the time being, I can still be contacted through my website as normal, but direct emails sent to me at my wi.rr.com address may get delayed.

UPDATE MAY 10: My Spectrum email is working again. It just started working on its own, indicating it was a temporary glitch on Spectrum's end.

I played a job in Ripon, WI today. The route was easy enough to remember — I-45 north to Hwy 23 west — that I didn't bother installing my GPS. But then I missed Hwy 23. I thought it was closer to Oshkosh. So now I'm winging it. I knew Hwy 21 would take me straight west, so I figured I'd head that way and get my bearings, but Hwy 21 west was detoured due to construction. The detour took me north to Winneconne.

Now I'm screwed because I don't know any roads up that way. I pulled over and got my phone out. My phone's GPS is disabled, but I could still Google a map of the area. Trying to drive while reading road signs and squinting at a tiny phone screen, however, proved to be impossible.

The blue route is the route I wanted. The red route is the one I took.

I rolled up to the venue just five minutes before the start of the gig. I was able to get my drums set up in less than 10 minutes, so it worked out okay. But I'm thinking I should get myself a backup GPS to keep in the car.

I truly feel bad for not being able to write April Fool's articles this year. My website traffic absolutely explodes every April 1st, so I know I'm going to be disappointing a lot of people.

If you look back at my news archives, you'll notice the frequency of my news articles dropped off significantly last summer. I have been preoccupied by other priorities over the last few years, and especially over the past several months. Don't worry, nothing is wrong. I've just been very busy and have had to take a significant amount of time away from my life to devote to other matters.

I had been hoping to release a music project this spring, but that will be delayed a few more months yet. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I am estimating life for me to get back to normal by May. I'm looking forward to that!