4,000 shards?

Well here I am, way behind my cohort, still missing days when life is too busy, but still here.

I put in a bit of effort today, spending time looking for something appropriate, but even in brilliant sunshine casting lots of strong Arachne shadows I didn't spot anything like as fun as the one I stumbled across 3,500 postings ago - still my best Blipday photo.

Actually my first photo-trip out today was cut short by a phone call from Firstborn who, since he got back from performing at a festival last night, has been helping me with a fiendish spreadsheet from the builders detailing all the work they've done over the last 13 months and coming up with a figure for my final payment. There've been lots of interim payments along the way but there'll be no more opportunities for adjustments so the final one has to be right. It seemed to me like some VAT had been counted twice (if I'm right this would be an error - my builders are honest) so I sent it to Firstborn because he deals with spreadsheet costings all the time. He agreed with me, but not in quite the same way, so we have spent this afternoon reconciling our figures and coming up with words to explain our workings to the builders. If we're right about the error both they and I will benefit. Meanwhile, my payment is delayed and I am in breach of contract...

All this is really to say: thank you for putting up with my very evident monomania over the last year-plus, thank you for being there and supporting me, thank you for writing such thoughtful, informed answers when I pose questions like the one two days ago, thank you for being a bunch of really interesting people and for sticking around in this delightful place, and thank you to those who keep it all running.

Please don't waste your hearts on this - I've another Blipday coming up in a fortnight and I'll try to do something a bit better.

Oh, and sorry for being such an utterly useless commenter at the moment.