Sabbatical

It’s been a wild year. Relay turned 10 and 512 Pixels turned 16. Later this week, are winding down our 6th-annual fundraiser for St. Jude. In January, I joined forces with David Smith and survived my first major iOS release, helping get Widgetsmith 7 out the door just a few weeks ago.

On the home front, my wife started a new job, our middle child started high school, and I took on a volunteer role that I cherish, but can prove demanding.

All of this is to say: I could use a break, so I’m taking one. I’ll be on sabbatical starting on Friday, and will be back in early November.

Please don’t hear what I’m not saying: everything is great! No one is sick, and there’s no secret plot anywhere. I’m just going to log off for a bit.

I won’t be publishing any content during this timeframe; I won’t be on any shows¹ or writing any here during that time. If there is an Apple event in October, I won’t be covering it, and hereby name the One True John Voorhees to play for me in the Rickies if a game is held.

My absence puts more work on several people, so I owe a huge thank you to Myke, Federico, David Sparks, Kathy, Kerry, Underscore, and the Relay Discord moderation team for keeping the machines running while I am away. Taking this much time away is an incredible privilege that I do not take lightly, but a decade into Relay, it felt like the right time to take such a long break.

So what will I be doing with my time away?

Work-wise, after helping close down the St. Jude campaign in a few days, I’ll be doing just enough bookkeeping to keep the bills paid at Relay. Beyond that, a lot of time is unplanned by design. I have some projects around the house and a stack of books I want to get through, but I’m leaving a lot of days blank on my calendar between school drop off and pickup.

I am pretty bad at taking time off, but hopefully I get the hang of it after the first week or two.

I look forward to returning to you in November. Have an amazing month, Internet, and I’ll see you soon. 🧡