I don’t do the therapy thing. Never have. I don’t think it’s useless universally, but for me I just can’t ever conceive of talking at a stranger about my personal issues and having that help.

Now writing about my personal issues to a whole bunch of people who are more or less strangers? (no offense meant to y’all)… I suppose that’s exactly what’s about to happen here, but hey, I’m not having to pay you anything.

Anyhow, Dawn does see a therapist and said therapist said to her that on the topic of grief and loss due to death of a loved one, it can take up to six months before your mental and emotional state return to a state of normalcy. I suppose I bring this up because by the time you’re reading this, six months will have passed since my mom passed away, and here we are with our first new comic page since she went into the hospital. On the one hand, maybe that’s just coincidence, but on the other maybe it helps to have some occasion to anchor onto even if it wasn’t exactly a happy one. Humanity as a whole does have a fondness for taking days out of the calendar and giving them significance. Anything that helps keep them from just blurring together, right?

Wednesdays were one of those anchors for us, but on the whole I think taking a hiatus from the comic was the right call, and I want to thank you all again for your patience and understanding. As warned, we may not get back to our once a week schedule until after the Holidays — I mean, this whole “six months” estimate is all well and good but the reality is murkier. Our Christmas this year is going to be short a couple of very significant stockings and I suppose I’ve still got some amount of breath held in terms of seeing how that goes.

But I cracked open MS Word and got some writing done, and Dawn got some drawing done, and as a result we have a bit more story to dole out for those of you who were yearning for your Zombie Ranch fix. Your loyalty is very flattering, and though it might not exactly be an action-packed cliffhanger at the moment, I hope it feeds the need and your humble proprietors have demonstrated that in the wake of all the loss, they haven’t lost their touch.