Monday: The Day the Circus Came to Town

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Judging by how things are going here at Blogger, it Looks as if the circus may not have pulled out, after all. Maybe today will be interesting, too.

The last week actually didn't have a midway kind of feeling at all. Instead, it was quite somber. recently, life has been all about losing friends. Death, a couple dealing with terminal illnesses, and one the victim of self-destruction. Losing friends and loved ones is a natural part of life, but every so often there is pile-up in the schedule and one's coping skills get a bit frayed with overuse.

Sunday, I attended a memorial service and got through that reasonably well. I even went to bed that night thinking I had a fifty-fifty chance of getting some sleep in spite of the lingering hacking cough. And then, in the wee-est hours of the morning, the coughing was abruptly interrupted by the thought that the trial period offered by my web host had likely expired. I crawled from beneath the covers to check on the iPad and verified my suspicions. After getting the credit card and switching to the PC, I paid to secure the site and thought, "Now, now some rest, surely". Boy, was I wrong about that.

At this point, I have to skip to summing up the feel of the day, because the list of things that went whacko is far too long to enumerate and each is so trivial as to be of no interest to anyone—including me, at this point. For a general feel of the chaos, it ranged from a power outage, to news that underneath its covers my website was a wreck, to news that my daily prescription could not be refilled, then a lively wriggling dog covered in mud faced by a lady who can't get get up and down off the floor without major assistance. And not a husband in sight. He (the Husband) was gone for the day and I was fielding calls from him all day about things he had lost and how exhausting his trip was.

I knew I could give in to rage, sit down and cry, or find the humor in it all.  I elected to see the day as a Keystone Kops sort of affair. Or, an episode of I Love Lucy, only picture a crippled-up, decrepit Lucy trying to deal with those chocolates on the conveyor belt. Every time I thought I was getting on top of things another "pipe would burst".

It definitely was a circus of sorts. No cheerful calliope music; but, it took my mind off my mourning.

Today, we only have frozen water pipes. Yawn. Looking good, so far.

An Invitation and a Link

Whew! Do my eyes look puffy? Can you tell I haven't been getting much rest? What a few days this has been.

Since I had almost nothing on my plate and for most of the second half of last year I sat around munching bonbons with my feet up, just dozing off now and then. What? No, I think that I thought about doing that one day, but just never got around to it. Anyway, I decided that I really needed a big project to begin the new year with a bang. Right now it feels too much like a schplat, but that may be mostly because my head is throbbing and I am having trouble remembering exactly why this was so critical. More about that in an upcoming post.

What have I gotten into now? Well, last year I got it in my head that I desperately needed a separate website that was current and featured exclusively the prints that I display in these small local shows. A separate website strongly implied the need for a new blog to accompany said site, right? Of course, the smart thing would be to say "Leave well enough alone. Make the sites you have work for you."

You are getting ahead of me. Stop that snickering. You know, by now, exactly what I have been doing. Yes, non-techie-Anita, took on building two new sites. Before you say, "No big deal. Last week, I built one for a friend in a couple of evenings after work. Just used templates." Remember who you are talking to here. I struggle posting on the sites I already have. Building these two cost me heaven only knows how many hours off my life-span, since I am seriously handicapped in all things web-related. Okay, computer-related. But, since when has logic and self-preservation led me to make sensible decisions?

Plunge in I did. Finally, after you couldn't believe how many hours—no, really, it is humiliating to admit how long it took to get to this point of showing these sites to anyone without hanging my head in total shame—I am willing to send out the invitations.

Be kind to a poor beaten up non-computer geek in way over her head. But, please, please pass on information about obvious errors such as links that don't work or take you to weird unexpected destinations. No porn sites I hope. Heck, I don't know. Mostly guys stop in here and you might not care. I trust that Roberta would forgive my ignorance. I hope that no backstage clutter is visible and that both sites are somewhat presentable.

When I have recovered a wee bit, I can begin the second stage of tidying up the premises and adding niceties. Right now, I need to see if there are any bonbons in the house. Brownies would do.

Why Not an E-book Experiment

Open publication - Free publishing - More test

I am experimenting with e-books and I thought I would see what I can do with just Blogger and Issuu. The current sample is a mess, frankly. I rushed through this today with some photos I have posted here earlier, and I didn't bother to change some things from my SoFoBoMo project. There are typos, in abundance; the page footers are incorrect; and, you many find any number of gremlins that I haven't even noticed yet. But, it's the beginning of something that has been on my mind for a while. We'll see where this leads.