This blog has frozen. No, really. Even the Internet is not immune to the record-breaking cold that swept over America last week, and TMTF is encased in a thick layer of ice. My readers assure me they’re still able to navigate this blog, fortunately, but updating TMTF will be nearly impossible until it warms up. The ice is too thick, and a flock of penguins keeps getting in the way.

Typewriter Monkey Task Force: Now Featuring 100% More Penguins!

Since TMTF is on ice, this seems like a fine opportunity to take a break. I feel like I’ve taken too many breaks from this blog, but I have good reasons.

1. TMTF has frozen.

See above.

2. My typewriter monkeys are serving two weeks for arson, public indecency and possession of illegal pyrotechnics.

Don’t ask.

3. The past four months have been crazy.

Since September, I gained a housemate and gave up a project on which I had worked for nearly eight years. My car, Tribulation, lived up to its name and spent more than a month on the fritz. I had bouts with sickness and depression; in fact, at this very moment, I’m recovering from a really bad cold.

Most significantly, my job became very difficult.

I don’t write much about my employment in a home for gentlemen with disabilities. It’s a great job, but the last thing I want to do in my free time is to blog about work. However, without going into tedious details, I’ll share just a little.

Four major complications arose at my workplace in October. Months later, my coworkers and I are still feeling their effects. There have been a few days (and nights) in past months when my job has seemed kind of awful.

My life appears to be calming down at last—thank God! All the same, I could use a couple of weeks to rest, work ahead on this blog and finish the Ace Attorney game I started way back in October.

4. I have resolved to keep up with this lousy blog.

Keeping up with this blog is one of my resolutions for 2014, and I intend to keep it. I think giving myself a head start early in the year, even if it means taking a break, is the most sensible plan.

To tell the truth, I feel insecure when I take breaks from blogging. I have an irrational fear that readers will abandon TMTF the instant it stops updating regularly, or that it will fall apart the second I look away. It is at times such as these that I must reorder my priorities and remind myself that importance and urgency are not the same thing. This blog is important to me, but it doesn’t have to be urgent.

I think TMTF should chill out for a while.

We’ll be back on Monday, January 27. Here’s hoping this blog has thawed out by then!