First and foremost, thank you to the Instapundit readers, and apologies that it took so long to get you all out of WordPress jail. I don’t check the blog when I’m at work, so anyone who commented after I went to bed last night (which would be all of you) had to wait until I got home from work, at least for your first comment.

I think I got all of you.

There will be the occasional thoughtful post in the midst of my normal blather, and I will get kind of opinionated here and there. This is to be expected.

I do still wrestle with the demons of depression, although I haven’t been as bad as the time I described in many years. Part of the credit goes to The Husband, who’s helped me to gain self-confidence and to believe that I actually am worthy of care. Part of it goes to me being too bloody stubborn to stop fighting.

I’m not going to try to say how much credit goes to what because in the end it doesn’t matter. A lot of people have helped over the years, and I’ve done a fair amount of work towards if not fixing my issues at least learning how to recognize the demons when they start so I can kick them back before they get too powerful and too loud. It’s not easy and it probably will never be easy, but it’s enough. I’m in a good place emotionally and actively trying to get healthy for the first time in many years.

I also have the cats to thank. Her Royal Fluffiness, Miss Shani, alas departed for the Rainbow Bridge two and a half years ago, at the ripe old age of 21. The current cats, Little Bugger aka the Bugger-Cat, Baby who we suspect isn’t entirely cat because he keeps forgetting how to cat, and Princess Buttercup the undisputed ruler of the household all do their best to make sure I am thoroughly catted no matter what else might befall me. They’re very attentive, and there are few things better at driving away a fit of self-pity than a bundle of warm fuzzy purr in your arms poking its nose into your business to make sure you’re giving all your focus to the Cat, as is right and proper.

Speaking of which, it’s awfully quiet right now and only one of them appears to be on Human Monitor Duty. I’d best go check that one of them hasn’t decided to play with the trash or raid the pantry. Again.