To all the loyal Patch readers, this is to inform you that your editor (Jim Baer) will be off the clock, at least for the next several weeks.

Jim is in the capable hands of an excellent surgeon who is doing reconstructive foot surgery. That means, he cannot bear weight on his left foot for the next 12 weeks. Now that's quite an order for a guy who makes his living hiking up hills to football games and dashing around city hall and lots of other local places. Jim will be confined to quarters the next couple of weeks.

Patch will be in excellent hands. Carlos Restrepo (carlos.restrepo@patch.com) will be editing the site while highly skilled sports writer Cedric Williams (cedricwilliams510@gmail.com) will be covering all the prep playoffs. You won't miss a beat.

As the doctor says, this is not heart or cancer surgery. Jim will be back on the beat just as soon as he begins to recover.