Atonement for Absence or "I was delayed..." (Stares off in Gandalf)

 To my terrific shame, I have not been updating things as much as I should. I promise, that is something that I intend to fix. I know if you've been lurking on the internet for any degree of time, you've seen posts like this and you know that it is often the start of a death spiral of no posting, but I am determined to buck the trend! Perhaps I will end my career as Steve the Grey and make my sudden return as Steve the White (sorry to whatever Saruman-like Steve I displace...although maybe not sorry; he knows what he did). Regardless...I will do better posting. 

Why am I posting today? Well, a little self-promotion. Do you know what a smial is? A smial is a hobbit hole. It's also the name for a chapter of the Tolkien Society ( https://www.tolkiensociety.org/ ) which is the international society for JRR Tolkien. I'm a member, and to my disappointment, when I went to renew my membership during the summer, I found that there was no local chapter of the society. Tragedy! Shame! I cannot endure such a thing being upon my house. So, I formed (which is a *powerfully* hyperbolic word that implies creation, exertion, and things that...did not happen) but I formed nonetheless a local chapter of the Society - Fornduin Hall. Fornduin would translate to "North River"...a logical name for a South Shore chapter. 

Since, we've been meeting at the John Curtis on the third Tuesday of each month from 6:30 - 8:00 PM. We are a growing society, and I would love to see you come and join our currently "Inkling sized" group. If you're interested in Tolkien, and would like to chat about the Professor and his work, come join us! We're very informal, and the closest thing we have to structure so far is I come up with a loose theme and we use that as a springboard. So far we've spoken on Languages, Maps, and (in honor of Spooky-season aka October) the nature of Evil in Middle Earth. We have as our tentative next topic "Elves" for November (11/18). On the horizon, we are going to have a feast! So many exciting things going on.

 So, please forgive my horrible posting record and allow me to offer you in atonement a cozy club to speak of Tolkien, and a promise of food fit for a hobbit. Mae govannen, my friends!