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Geek Note: This is a very special issue of It’s Geek To Me!  Read on to find out why.

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I know that many of you have been missing the column in the Northwest Florida Daily News, the Destin Log, and other publications in the (Florida) panhandle.  I know, because of the e-mails I’ve received from you, kindly asking if I was okay, and if the column had been dropped from publication.

Well, it is with great sadness that I must tell you that after 893 issues, and 17+ years in print, the managing editor in charge of the above-mentioned newspapers has decided that the column no longer fits with the direction he wants to take their newspapers.  At first, due to an unknown SNAFU, I didn’t even know it had been dropped, and I’ve spent several weeks making attempt after attempt to reach someone.  I finally looked (duh, Geek!) at the paper’s masthead – that little information area inside the front page of every edition – and I found what I was looking for.  I called and received the unfortunate news.  I asked for and was granted one final column so I could let you, my dear readers in the column’s home market, know what has happened.  After being a part of your morning “read” for such a long time, I didn’t want you to leave you hanging, wondering what happened to me, or to It’s Geek To Me.

So…  Well, this is rather awkward, isn’t it?  I hate goodbyes.  Instead, let me just say “Thanks.” Thanks to Del Stone, who was my first contact at the Northwest Florida Daily News, who believed enough in me to give my writing a chance, even though he couldn’t pay me for what I was doing.  Thanks to staff photographers, copywriters and typesetters who have handled each edition that I’ve submitted in Microsoft Word format, and had to reformat into their publication software, correcting my non-journalistic foibles along the way.  Thanks to the many people who have written-in over the years, supplying me with fodder for the column.  I have very much enjoyed meeting many of you at personal appearance events, and even occasionally being recognized out in public even though I no longer resemble the picture that publishes with my column.  I have a couple of funny stories about that, but there’s not room for them here.  And finally, thanks to my lovely bride, whom you know as “Spouse Peripheral.”  She too has provided both questions and anecdotes to the column and has tolerated me dragging her out to public events and has been my “gopher” when I made appearances.  I love you, Wendy.

Now for the good news.  It doesn’t really have to be goodbye!  Although the column won’t be appearing in the print editions of the Gannett family of newspapers in the panhandle anymore, it will live on in other papers outside the local market, and more importantly, in local electronic media outlets. For example, Dennis Gilson at Niceville.com will start carrying it on Sundays starting with the September 8^th edition.  I’m seeking new venues all the time, and I have other potential outlets in the works, including some at the national level.  I plan to start publishing it on the column’s much-underused Facebook page, and perhaps on my feed on X (Twitter). And of course, you can always read the entire run of the column all the way back to Issue #1 on the column’s website at ItsGeekToMe.co (not .com!).

Something else that’s not going away any time soon is my annual free Christmas lights and music show, Geek Lights on the Corner.  The 2024-2025 season is the show’s 17^th year of celebrating, and you can bet we’ll once again be bringing you lots of joy, laughter, and Christmas magic, with new songs, new characters, and yes, more and more lights.

With that, my dear Geeks, I will close this poignant and special edition of It’s Geek To Me.  I hope you will continue to seek me out in the column’s new locations for answers to those baffling technology questions. In the meantime, I wish you what I have done so often: “Good luck, and happy computing!”