I got a very interesting comment from friend Megan about my hiatus on blogging -

                           "Man, I can respect your decision but I don't like it. I have come to look forward
                            to the quiet moments when I can sit and laugh."


Now, that's just about as sweet a compliment as a feller could ask for (right behind "Your b*tt looks just like Mel Gibson's b*tt in Lethal Weapon"), but the dear lady is unaware that the sentiment that she is expressing is exactly the reason why I had to take some time off.

I don't know who it was who first said "Smile and the world smiles with you - cry, and you cry alone", but I've found it to be true. And when a fellow is as predisposed to self-pity as I am, he gets plenty of opportunities to learn this important truth.

(When I was in Indiana, I was at a women's meeting in Gas City (don't ask why) and I heard a young lady say "I can tell when I'm in self-pity - when I start to tell my sponsor something, and I realize that even I don't want to hear what I'm about to say" : )

Of course, it's my own fault - self-pity is that, by definition. I would like to claim extenuating circumstances - but isn't that, again by definition, pretty much what is necessary in order to generate self-pity: a belief that my circumstances are extenuating?

It was all set up last week, during my easy three miles on Wednesday - I found out that, 2&1/2 weeks after my failed halfathon, I still couldn't run at all.  Dangit.

Then, on Sunday, Ethel and I were driving around, and we found the house pictured above in the Circle Mountain area. This is the kind of house that I've dreamed about since living in Tucson in the mid-90s, and when I found out the price of this home, I was amazed - I could afford it easily!

So on Monday Ethel started looking into what it would take to buy this house, and I found out that the same economic conditions which made this house so incredibly affordable meant that I couldn't buy it - because I'm actually upside-down in my current home (even though I made a very substantial downpayment thirty months ago).

That....sort of bummed me right out.

Then I found out that my company is NOT going to be moving to a location just fifteen miles from me (that being the last thing that I had heard. I'd really, really tried not to buy into the rumor, but it seemed so solid...). Then I found out that there's a problem with my retirement account, and my cold turned into a cold and a sore throat, and then....well, you get the idea.

Then I saw my doctor and found out that  he doesn't have any idea why I can't run , and he has nothing to suggest -  and, no, he wouldn't give me refillable prescriptions for  Human Growth Hormone, supplemental testosterone, Penis-Growth pills, and Viagra, so then I had not only my own depression to deal with, but Ethel's acute and verbal disappointment (she hasn't smiled since getting that news, not once).

So I went into a funk.

Now, when I'm in that kind of a funk, I can't just dump it on you folks. No, first I have to do the paperwork - I have to do some writing, and I have to spend time on the phone with my sponsor, and Ethel and I have to have a fight, and I have to get better, before I can say ANYTHING here.

However, Megan's statement does bring to mind a possibility; my boys and Ethel tell me that there are certain Fat Charlie posts that they really liked. So maybe I should have a "Fat Charlie's Greatest Hits" link, and then - on funk days - I can just post a link to an old one. That might help.

If you can think of anything you've really enjoyed in these pages that you think others might enjoy, just let me know, and I'll add it to the Greatest Hits. If you don't know which one it is, in particular, just describe it in a general way - Silas, I believe, knows a bunch of 'em by heart :)

If you think of anything, you can put it in the "Comments", or you can email me at this address .

Thanks for your support. And I'll work hard on avoiding self-pity. No, really, I will. Even if I am old, and I've lost every chance at a happy life - I've thrown it all away! I've sold my birthright for a mess of pottage! I can't BELIEVE that I was so stupid that...oh, wait. Sorry!