I will be out of the office during the week of September 30.

The leaves are changing color in New Hampshire. For the first time I’ll be able to see them in full, glorious color with the Oxy-Iso glasses that cure my colorblindness.

The nest is empty. Andrew Berls played a material role in the relaunch of Causes.com during his summer internship before heading back for his senior year at UC Santa Barbara. Nate Berls has started his freshman year at UC San Diego as a Physical Sciences major. My wife and I are taking a vacation for the two of us, the first one in more than twenty years. Based on early evidence after the first couple of days of travel, it appears that she is lovely, accomplished, interesting, and my favorite travel companion. What a relief! So far the empty nest is going well.

I’ll be hiking each day this week, frequently out of cell phone range until the middle of the afternoon (PST time). I expect to be responding to messages and handling emergencies but perhaps with a delay before I can reply.

If you have an emergency that requires immediate assistance, call my trusted colleague Mike Cook at (707) 827-1524. He may be able to lend a hand.

As always, tell your computers that I will be very cross if they misbehave while I’m gone. Hope your technology treats you well! I’ll be back in the office with lots of pictures of leaves on October 7.