Pennywise... you're absolutely right. This should not have become a thread to bash Chuck. I didn't participate in it for that reason at all. I simply wanted to know if something had happened to him, since he was always very good about sending progress emails. There had been a blackout with that regard for about a month, though.
I heard from him today and he has had some medical issues which have prevented him from being as productive as he would like to be. But he assured me that he works on our backorders as much as physically possible right now, and I got the impression that he has a lot of our stuff done and ready to ship within the week.
In my contact with him today, I simply urged him to keep in contact... even if it's just to inform us of more delays.