My father's father was a pharmacist. He had a small pharmacy and soda fountain in Collingswood New Jersey. During the school year my grandparents ran their pharmacy. But when summer rolled around, my grandparents closed their store and headed for Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony. For the entire summer my father and his parents would listen to classical music. When the season ended, my grandparents packed up and headed back to New Jersey to reopen their pharmacy.

I have no doubt that my grandparents lost customers over the summer. But my grandparents considered it a worthwhile tradeoff — cultural and spiritual fulfillment in exchange for customer attrition. I am afraid I have no such grandiose excuse for failing to blog over the summer (here's what I did this summer). None of the cultural or spiritual fulfillment, all of the reader attrition. But, like my grandfather, I'm returning from the summer feeling recharged and look forward to blogging with greater frequency. Thanks for hanging in there with me.