The May Sumo Pool

[Dale Carlson <drc@oz.net>]

Hi,
First, I apologize to those who have written to
me, but not yet received a reply. Things have come
up, as they say. I'm trying to catch up...

Well, my mother is quite unwell, and has required
alot of my time. I've hardly had a chance to spend
any time online (or anywhere else, for that matter).

As if that's not enough, my friendly local Toyota 
dealer has chosen this time to attempt to buy my
whole neighborhood and demolish it, in order to expand
an evil car lot (apologies to any car dealers on the list :)
I think I'll be forced to bow to the inevitable (some might call
it progress). But I've lived here for 30 years. I am a packrat.
Name anything- from British cars to player pianos to antique
radios, and I have a bunch of them. The thought of moving 
everything seems about as easy as mounting my own personal 
voyage to Mars (where, I trust, there are no car dealers).
And my home has alot of memories within. It's not just a
house or a piece of land. I'm not very happy about being 
forced to give it up, to say the least.

Well, it comes down to this. I need to spend alot of time on
other things for a bit. I'm not sure how to negotiate a 
win-win deal with the Toyota dealer, who has far most practiced
negotiating skills than I (I'll resist saying that he screws
people for a living [oops, I just did :-)]) Hopefully this
will all be amicably resolved, my mother will recover somewhat,
and things will be back to normal soon.

OK, here's why I'm making such a lengthy personal post. I don't
think I'll be able to do the ISP in a few weeks. If somebody
wants to take over temporarily, then great. Terry (AKA Usagigoya)
has already started work on the juryo banzuke (thank you). I can try 
to do the other divisions in preparation for the May contest. But
if I could be excused for one basho, I'd really appreciate it. I
know that many of you really enjoy the sumo pool, and I'm not
announcing my retirement or anything :-) Maybe we can just suspend
play for one basho?

I'm very sorry about this...

Thanks,
Dale

P.S. Abe-san's comments about the "genius" of the hoshitori
contest (regarding the 50-50 kachi/make-koshi results) are
under renewed consideration for the ISP :)