| UFO ROUNDUP Important News | |
| June 23, 1999: Editor Joseph Trainor's Absence | |
With the assistance of Maurice DesJardins there is at last some news on what has happened to Joseph Trainor and UFO Roundup. Maurice wrote to Joe and the reply he received is reproduced below: June 23, 1999 Dear Maurice: I received your letter yesterday. Thank you for the opportunity to explain what's happening with UFO Roundup. Please feel free to put this letter on the Net. I never realized so many people were readers of the newsletter! A couple of things spurred my move to Minnesota. Back in October my landlord in Warwick gave me the option of dropping my apartment lease. I decided to do so, mainly because if I'd found a better paying job in New England, I wanted to be able to move immediately. Well, after I did so, the landlord raised my rent by $50, so it went from $515 per month to $565! Back in October, I had two jobs--my day job in East Greenwich, and I also taught a course in fiction writing at the Brown University Learning Community, so I could pay the rent. But Brown wasn't going to run one of my courses in April--not enough applicants. And I couldn't handle the rent with just my retail job, so I had to clear out by May 1. I stayed online until April 15th. The following day I moved the furniture out of my apartment, diconnected my computer and left for good on Monday, April 19. With my car loaded with essentials, I set out from Pawtucket at 8:30 AM on April 20. (What a day to leave! I knew it was the anniversary of Mohammed's flight to Medina- -Al Hajira in Arabic. But it was also Hitler's birthday and the day of the Columbine Massacre--I can sure pick 'em!) Anyway, here's the itinerary of my "Millennium Bugout." APRIL 20--from Pawtucket, RI to Buffalo, NY with a stop for lunch in Pottersville, NY. APRIL 21--from Buffalo, NY to Erie, PA to Cleveland, Ohio to Toledo, Ohio to Bay City, Mich. I stayed at the Euclid Motel in Bay City, where I stayed in June, 1982. APRIL 22--from Bay City, Mich. to Mackinac City, Mich. to St. Ignace, Mich. to Seney, Mich., to Ironwood, Mich. where I spent the night. At long last, I was in the Northland. APRIL 23--from Ironwood, Mich. to Bayfield, Wis. to Ashland, Wis. to Superior, Wis. then over the Platnick Bridge to my destination, Duluth, Minn. I arrived in Duluth at 11:15 AM. I didn't bring my computer with me, though. Instead I worked out a deal with my sister Carolyn. We had some needed upgrade work done--addition of a CD drive for one--and as soon as I found an apartment, she was going to ship it to me. Well, I moved in her on May 1. However, the installation took longer than I expected, and Ca wasn't able to ship my computer via UPS until May 17. I had my telephone server, US West, by then of course, so I plugged in and attempted to access AOL. Then came the nasty shock. AOL has no local access number in the Duluth area code--218. Instead, you have to use AOL.net and they have a surcharge of 10 cents a minute--$6 per hour!--on that, even though I'm working again at a full time job, that's a little too pricey for me. Remember, I used to spend 10 to 12 hours a week on-line looking for news for UFO Roundup. No way I can afford $6 for access. Right now I'm hunting around for a local Internet server in the 218 area code. I will probably end up dropping my AOL subscription. When I get my new server, I'll be back on-line. I still have a few moving-related tasks to complete, so getting back on-line isn't a priority right this minute. But I do hope to resume UFO Roundup or start a new volume as soon as I'm able. Again, Maurice, thanks for getting in touch. Best wishes, Joe Trainor P.S. Would you contact my UFO Roundup partner John Hayes and pass on this info? You can reach him at jhayes@cableinet.co.uk _____________________ UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1999 by Masinaigan Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post news items from UFO Roundup on their websites or in newsgroups provided that they credit the newsletter and its editor by name and list the date of issue in which the item first appeared. |