If you read Mr. Mark Bialczak’s post yesterday, or if you came across one of the numerous reblogs of that post, you’ll know we were missing our favourite guest poster and frequent commenter, Paul Curran. Well. I happened to be going to Ottawa today for an appointment and another blogger happened to have Paul’s address so I went and knocked on his front door. And guess what? He was there!

As it turns out he had an infection that caused complications and he was hospitalized for two weeks. Then he got home to find that his modem had blown up, so he’s been without the Internet. He seemed a little flabbergasted to find that all of WordPress was missing him and he asked me to extend his apologies for causing everyone to worry and to let you all know he appreciates that we were thinking of him. It must have been a bit of a shock to have one of us show up at his house!

If all this has shown me anything (and believe me, I’m not patting myself on the back for the little detour I made – it was really nothing) it’s that our “friends” on the Internet are every bit as real as the ones we see in person. The next time it crosses my mind that the people here in this community don’t really care, I’ll think again.

Paul is actually the sixth person I’ve met with face to face who I first encountered here at WordPress. It was a great pleasure to shake his hand. He’s every bit the gentleman we all know and love. Thankfully he’ll be back as soon as his Internet provider replaces his modem.