Arrivederci, Abe’s. Adios to the Voicemail business.

Mount Shasta, February 1, 2007: As of noon today, my voicemail business is adios, muchachos.

I’ve sold my interest in that company, and will no longer be running it. No longer to be answering that phone, saying those words, operating those particular computers, no longer doing that billing. And to those thousands of clients whom I served for the last twenty years, I am deeply grateful to have been a part of your lives.

I’m grateful to Abe’s SuperBudget Voicemail, the entity created, which took on a life of its own, relaying the messages that lie at the center of hopes and dreams, good times, and in the center of the comings and goings of so many lives. I’m glad to have been able to create this service, and I’m grateful that so many found it useful.

And I’m grateful to Abe’s for providing food and shelter for my family and myself, all these years. Thank you for the whole-wheat bread, thank you for the vegetables, thank you for the coffee and tea, cookies and cakes, yoghurt, honey, and rich creamery butter. Thank you for everything!

It will go on, Abe’s will, providing those useful services, keeping folks in touch with the worlds in which they live, they strive, they seek their fortunes, they find their loves. Let it serve you well. The company is in good hands. Only, it has passed from mine.

For my hands have found other occupation … creating music, fun, and happiness to stream out into the universe, for other lives, for other loves, for other travelers in this world.

So on behalf of myself and my family, in the words of Dorothy Collins, Giselle McKenzie, and Snookie Lansen, singing so long ago …

“So long, for a while. That’s all the songs for a while. So long to your Hit Parade, and the tunes that you wished to be played … so long.”