Back in the saddle, that's where.  By way of celebrating my birthday, I took a week off to visit some Civil War battlefields, a thing I've been wanting to do for some time.

We were on a tight schedule (devised by me):  the family car logged 1,743 miles, Sunday to Sunday.  I've had no time to follow the news, read the blogs, or take more than a cursory look at email.

I'll be doing my best to catch up.  The main point here is just to thank the many readers and listeners who emailed in with birthday wishes, and in some cases sent gifts.  THANK YOU!  More personalized thanks will go out as I clear the backlog.