I’m not a big fan of excuses. Have you ever sat in a meeting waiting for one person to arrive? Then he comes rushing in the door, talking about the traffic or some other thing outside of his control. I much prefer, “I’m sorry I’m late, I should have left earlier.” As the old saying sort of goes, “Excuses are like anuses, everybody’s got one.”

Nevertheless, I’m about to start pitching a couple of excuses for my lack of posts. First, we had the wedding of our daughter Anna last weekend at our house. People started parking in our yard just as the clouds dropped rain like it was coming out a faucet. I knew that a party for 150 was a bit of a logistics stretch for us. I learned that a wedding involves way more everything than a party. So it goes.

I couldn’t understand why I felt so bad right after the wedding. The ceremony was beautiful and we love our new son and grandson. I thought the stress must have gotten me, but I generally handle stress well. Turns out some little virus (or as my scientist son calls viruses, “Pure malevolence with a hard shell”) started to play with my systems. Eight days later I’m coming out the other end. I don’t know if it was swine flu, but I haven’t been that sick in nearly 20 years.

As for the Oui Vey, I re-read one of my favorite books as I was starting to feel better. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History/Here My Troubles Began just amazes me with its depth and accessibility. It’s a graphic novel (a comic book) about a Holocaust survivor and his story. If you’re going to read one book this year, make it a Pulitzer Prize winning comic book. Among other things, it’s a testimony to the value of competence.

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