Into the Storm....

So, church, much as a Sandy wind – and rain, and Lord knows what else – prepares to bear down outside, when it comes to the tumult of ensuring these pages' future, none of us are off the hook just yet. 

(At least, that's the case unless some 500 of this crowd should be expected to carry the full load for a reader-base that – on a "normal" day – measures roughly 30 times that.... 'Round these parts, see, the church has its own name for that kind of dynamic: "closed parish.")

With the downpour just beginning, for what it's worth, it's the intent that as long as the power stays up on this end, so will the shop... and should a blackout come, contingency plans to keep plugging along – both on "Page One" and along the right sidebar here (which you do read, right?) – are already in place. 

Among other things, this'll hopefully be the year the long-held "Halloween Story" finally makes its way into print. If the office gets flooded again, however, the clean-up clearly has precedence... to say nothing of a lot of griping.

Whatever happens, as always, the result will be here for free on this side of the template. Like everything behind the scenes, though, the work involved in pulling it off is anything but cheap. 

To give just one current example, the tab for switching to a much friendlier/more convenient platform for audio files – crucially, one able to accommodate the needed bandwidth for this readership's size – would run just shy of $1,000 a year. Hopefully the plan won't have to be nixed on funding grounds (read: lack thereof)... if that turns out to be the case, though, the scribe wouldn't be the one to blame.

Bottom line: unlike the weather, it bears reminding that what comes next is anything but beyond this crowd's control – as always, the future's fully in your hands....

As ever, all thanks, and back to it. 

Most of all, though, to everybody else hunkered down in the Storm-Zone, be safe and take care of yourselves... for all the rest beyond, please give us the kindness of your prayers....

...and with thanks to an unsung guru of the New Evangelization, here, the new Missal's Collect for moments of this sort:

O God, to Whose commands
all the elements give obedience,
we humbly entreat You,
that the still of fearsome storms
may turn a powerful menace
into an occasion for us to praise You.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
One God,
for ever and ever.

Amen.

Hang in there, folks – let's make the best of it.

-30-