Hey Grovers! Sorry there isn’t a new strip today, I’ve been out of it for most of the day, walking in a fog. Got the results back from my biopsy, and it wasn’t the news I was hoping for. Cancer. I’ve got a scan tomorrow to see the extent of it, whether it’s confined to the prostate, or if it has spread. I’m sorry, but I have to take another break, while I gather myself. It’s really hard to write comedy when I’ve got this weight on my mind. I hope to be back soon, but depending on the scan results, it may be out of my hands depending on how we’re going to tackle this. I’m so appreciative of the Grovers that have made donations, words cannot express the gratitude I feel towards you all, but I wanted to say thank you for hanging in there with me through this troubling time. Keep this old cartoonist in your thoughts.

See you soon!

Hey Grovers, just wanted to let you know that I’m scheduled to have this old, rotted prostate removed on the 12th of June. Should be in the hospital for 2 days after, coming home that Friday. But not to worry, I’ve produced enough comics and uploaded them for autopublish through Friday, June 21, just in case I can’t sit at the art desk to do them. I’ll be having a robot perform the surgery, so I shouldn’t, according to the doctor, have the same after effects as the old, traditional surgery had on patients. I worked with a guy years ago who had it done the old way and I remember him always having to make sure his inflatable donut had enough air in it for him to sit comfortably. So, fingers crossed, I’ll be up and at ’em and not feeling any pain after the surgery, as my urologist assures me I won’t have any.

On a side (and sad note), our oldest cat Isabel passed some time during the night or early in the morning. She had been sick and refusing to eat, and at nearly 14, we knew her time with us was drawing to an end. I’ve been trying to feed her via syringe for a few weeks, but she really wasn’t having much of that. She attacked me a few times when she saw me approaching her with the syringe, but I kept trying. We had discussed having her put to sleep, but the cost for that has become so outrageously expensive (how DARE you make it so expensive, animal care field?! Not to mention the cost of cremation has gone up, too) and we tried to make her as comfortable as possible in her final days. At least she passed on a soft sleeping bag in the closet (her favorite spot to sleep during her life–well, when she wasn’t cuddled up with my wife in our bed). She may have been a pain in the ass during her life, ruining every new mattress we bought (your litter box is literally 6 feet away in the bathroom!) and getting into trouble, although she would come up to me, curl up in my lap or brush against me to apologize, but I am extremely devastated at her passing…probably because I spent so much effort trying to keep her fed and nourished in her final days. It’s only now that the sobbing has stopped enough for me to function in between tears. Goodbye, Izzy…see you on the other side.

Hi Grovers! I’m coming along nicely with my recovery post surgery. Wounds are healing and the superglue used to hold the incisions together is starting to peel off. Gotta’ resist the temptation to peel it like skin after a bad sunburn.

With the hospital bills piling up and the hosting renewal coming due in early July for Willow’s Grove, I thought it was about time to consolidate my hosting under my company umbrella instead of paying for 2 hosts. As I can host multiple domains with my company hosting, now’s as good a time as ever to cut out the hosting I’ve had for WG since 2008 & save some $. I’ve been meaning to do it for years, but am not a big fan of site migrations. I’ve done it for a few clients, but that was business, not personal and so I’ve procrastinated, putting it off for another time. Now the time has come, so I am doing the backups in prep for the site to be migrated this weekend.

So, the site will be down, hopefully for only 24 hours, but sometimes it can take up to 72 hours for DNS to know where to go, which is why I picked the weekend to do it as I only update Monday through Friday. If you see the site is down this weekend, be patient and come back on Monday for a new week of strips…cross your fingers that it goes smoothly. Now, for me to find a good migration tool that will backup and move not only the files, but the database as well, so when the DNS points to the new host, it will be seamless.

See you all on the other side!