I will be offline for a day, a week, who knows. I wanted to mention so those few of you who notice me in the corners of various message boards, games, or other online communities will understand my sudden absence.

My mother died.

Her 80th birthday was this week (biologically she was my grandmother), but she had to spend it in an ICU, and then at 10:30am AZ time yesterday she passed away, painlessly, with my sister and father near her.

She will be missed beyond the telling of it. I loved her very much.