The writer is one of our contributors - most of you would not recognize the name as he wasn't an active member on this board (until recently) and of course we normally employ pseudonyms on the main site as well. He was not too happy because I hadn't responded to his latest contributions or activated his membership on this board, which I believe went back to last February. I can't say I blame him - six months is a long time to be kept waiting – and I wondered if any of our old contributors (excepting our Resident Artists) had been curious about why I wasn’t posting anything they sent. They of course don’t know they’re not alone – I often don’t even see requests for spankings until weeks have gone by.
The truth is that for the most part, I simply haven’t seen the mail because the mailbox is so full. And the mailbox is full because I just can’t get to it. I’m not looking for sympathy here but only understanding, so once again let me lay out for those who don’t know what my daily life is like.
To begin with, while I’m no kid I’m not retired yet either. I have to work, and Illinois still hasn’t recovered from the crash and recession (as usual, we’re trailing behind the rest of the country which has been doing much better since, oh, about January 2017). I’m still working for myself, but none of my various business activities has ever paid off. My last royalty payment for the one comic book I ever wrote was $1.42. In short, I’m broke but don’t have the free time unemployed people do because I’m working as hard as ever for much less money.
Then I’m caring for two elderly relatives and a bunch of sick cats who require constant attention and medication. They get more health care than I do – Obamacare cost me my good private insurance and Illinois then kicked me off Medicaid because the State is the only entity more broke than I am. (Do not buy Illinois government bonds – they’re rated one step above junk, and that’s being generous).
So I have to spend part of each day trying to qualify for some sort of insurance.Because I can’t afford to hire anyone, I have to do almost all my own household and automotive repairs – and my car is 33 years old, so keeping it on the road is a major problem (it currently has no heater or rear defroster, windshield wipers that don’t always start, no fuel gauge, no radio, a leaking exhaust manifold, a bad steering column, power windows that roll down but not up, leaking transmission and axle seals, a broken door frame, and the power seat doesn’t move – and that’s after working on it for days on end last month repairing other problems).
It’s living in a state of constant emergency, never having the time to get to anything until a crisis is reached. The biggest fire at the moment is what I work on. At the end of the day when I’m too tired to work on anything else is when I can finally think about CSR. And even then any maintenance problems have to come before new updates, reading this board, or answering the mail.
I’ve read almost nothing on this board for more than six months. I have no idea what B00m’s O.T. Katie’s last adventure was, although I know people are posting attachments on the board because I see the file numbers at backup time. Phil S. could have found the Holy Grail (a Superman/Supergirl spanking) in the Superman comic strip and I wouldn’t even know about it.
Some time after 11:00 P.M. I get out this week’s update and code its size and position on a new web page. The next day I type up the copy and put on the finishing touches. I usually have just enough time left to update the gallery index and Home Page to get the update done on time.
So what can I do? Go on hiatus and forget about the updates while I read 250 emails plus whatever more comes in, each one of which might take me anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour to deal with? I’d lose a lot of readers that way.
Talk about a rock and a hard place!Now with all that said, I actually do have something of a plan. It involves asking poor Dr. Cylon (who sends me more material than anyone else) to wait until I get to the other mail before I can look at whatever he’s sent my way and going back to FIFO (First In, First Out) practice. It’s not much of a plan, but it’s a start. And I can only ask for patience from everyone else who’s waiting to hear back from me.
