Valerie has had the same nightmare about our house being on fire and us having to escape it two nights in a row, with no apparent provocation or prior similar nightmares. She seemed a little feverish this AM, so maybe that didn’t help. If nothing else, may be time for me to go over fire safety/evacuation as I did with Sadie around the same age.
I just hope these aren’t predictive dreams or the sort I sometimes have.
To Venemous Kate, who started out at almost the same time I did. A lot of us did, from mid-2002 through mid-2003 or so. Mine was February 25th.
When Kate exploded onto the scene, I assumed she’d been long established, she was that polished, prolific, and savvy at generating an audience.
Hardly seems like eight years.
Recently I got an ear infection. Not shocking, given my childhood propensity for them and the fact that I’ve been almost continuously sick since Sadie started kindergarten in September, culminating with and resuming after a quick bout of flu and about two days of feeling better than I can remember feeling since… I don’t know. Possibly as far back as 1977. Yet shocking in that I’ve tended not to have ear infections as an adult, or even as an older child. I used to have respiratory infections every couple winters, but my ears have never behaved like this.
I’d had the normal sniffles and stuffiness. In a meeting before work in the wee hours, I was especially stuffy. Near the end of it, fluid started dribbling out of one of my ears. Freaky! It kept doing so during the shift, then I went home and searched online for the symptom and what the properties of the fluid meant. Clearly it was not cerebrospinal fluid and I didn’t have meningitis. I didn’t even have a fever.
That was Saturday. I ended up going to emergency care at my doctor’s practice on Sunday, seeing an excellent doctor and getting diagnosed officially with a middle ear infection. That meant antibiotics, which were a bit slow but did clear it up. It stopped briefly right after I started those, but then the leaking ear went on leaking for a few days.
More importantly, this was the first time I had been to a doctor since last May. I’d been shirking, since they like to monitor my blood pressure regularly. Because I simply couldn’t afford to go! We got kicked off of MassHealth as of the end of 2009 for having the audacity to have low enough income to qualify, but an employer who offered insurance we couldn’t afford to buy or use. That’s just the two of us, not the kids, who remained fully covered, because we had low enough income to qualify, but…. what? Insurance from the employer that would have cost too much wasn’t good enough for them, just for the adults? In reality, looking at the rejection, there was some level of care they covered even for us, but it was unclear how to use it. Apparently it was a safety net thing where the doctors and hospitals were supposed to figure out what not to charge us for or something. Also, other people who were required to buy insurance got part of their insurance cost reimbursed at borderline levels of income, but if we were supposed to once we obtained it, I was never aware of that. Perhaps this year, if they ever get back to me, they’ll be clearer. That’s a whole other story, the kids being thrown off and our having to reapply from scratch. They’re seriously taking their time, and we’re overdue for checkups for two kids. Ugh.
Anyway, our insurance meant the first 12 visits to the doctor, or a lower number and some testing, since that’s not unusual, would have cost me entirely out of pocket. I can totally afford 10% of my income before insurance starts to pay 80% of the cost. Yup.
Plus I’d been off and on, mostly off, the three blood pressure meds since early 2009. When I saw the doctor the last time in 2009, I took the drugs for a couple weeks ahead of time, enough to have a passable blood pressure but have him mildly concerned about edema. See, the meds made me feel like crap, and left me almost unable to work. I’d take them, and after a fairly short time the managers would wonder why I was so darn slow. I’d wonder why I was so darn slow, and my brain didn’t work right. Not that this should have surprised me, since one of the meds was a beta blocker. The second doctor to treat me for hypertension avoided giving me beta blockers because they affected me so badly the first time. Arguably I lost my very first tech support job because I was on one. I couldn’t remember anything, couldn’t think as clearly as I ought to be able to, and had a total lack of ambition that went beyond ordinary levels of lazy or disinterested. Took me a long time to blame it on the pills, and I seem to recall that was only when I stopped taking them and transformed back. The second doctor to treat me was happy if he could keep me from going much about 150/95. The next time I went to that practice , seeing a different doctor because mine had left, after being off meds a while my pressure was 185 or something and they flipped. I sat in the waiting room for hours, waiting for meds they gave me on the spot to kick in and lower my BP enough that they’d let me leave. I don’t remember what that doctor gave me, but he specialized in hypertension and set out to determine a root cause.
I don’t generally consume inordinate salt, don’t seem to be affected by it, and am aware that they’ve found minimal correlation, even though doctors still ask. I believe they have figured out 1/3 of people can go higher on account of salt, 1/3 are not affected, and… 1/3 go down! I did 24 hour urine samples for levels of catecholamines. I got an MRI of my kidneys, looking for pheochromocytoma. Nothing. My current doctor, technically the fourth to treat this, also found nothing, in part taking my word for the prior guy’s findings, since the other practice never passed along my records when asked.
Nor did anyone find damage as a result of the high blood pressure, in the past anyway. I was already about to the point of going back to treatment, sure I was being affected by it. I started losing my eyesight when we switched to compact fluorescent bulbs, but I’m not convinced BP hasn’t been a factor. On the emergency visit for the ear infection, my blood pressure was 210 over… now I forget, but not as high as my record 220/140. 120 or 110, this time. Naturally this got me an EKG, and skepticism about my chest congestion pain when taking deep breaths being normal congestion. Heck, that’s an old familiar pain to me, the breathing pain. Without being congested at all I’d get it when I was a kid, if I tried to run any distance in elementary school. Singing, bike riding (I miss my bike!) and expanding my lung capacity mitigated it, but it come back now and then.
I was lucky that the doctor I went to on the Sunday let me go with instructions to resume taking lisinopril, the least likely to cause a problem, in an effort to start controlling it some, and to go to my regular doctor in a week to followup on that and the ear. The EKG showed very minimal signs of uncontrolled blood pressure but was basically fine.
On another note, nobody ever finds I have high blood sugar or cholesterol, despite my mother being convinced from the time I was young that I was fat and was going to get diabetes, have a heart attack and die. Knock on wood.
Backing up a little, the very last time I took the combo of lisinopril, atenolol and hydrochlorothiazide was in the fall for a week. After a week it turned my brain to mush and provoked depression like flicking a switch. It was remarkable to observe! Since it had been months since I’d touched the stuff, and it was completely out of my system, it was a clear test. I’d previously observed that, at least at times I tended to get dehydrated from work and weather, hydrochlorothiazide may have been provoking gout attacks. The emergency doctor thought that made sense, and that the actions I ascribed to the beta blocker made even more sense.
About nine days later I saw my own doctor, getting an extremely prompt appointment once I finally called. You’d think they were concerned or something.
My blood pressure was dramatically lower, like 165/100. My doctor was ready to give me an EKG until I noted I’d had one several days before.
I kept me on lisinopril and added back hydrochlorothiazide, but switched me to amlodipine instead of atenolol. To be honest, I thought I’d made my feelings about beta blockers clear when I first saw him and already thought they messed me up, and I thought – and maybe it was true initially – he was not giving me one of them. Eventually I learned that one of them was, and perhaps that was true all along.
Looking up amlodipine after I got home, I was amused to see it is prescribed for angina as well.
A week went by and…. No wait! Two days went by and it was as if I’d become a new person. It improved more from there. The combo, presumably to be pinned on the amlodipine, almost seems the opposite of a depressant. Since it worked that fast and with no side-effects, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that the one day I forgot to take the pills caused a bit of a mood crash. There’s incentive! Skip a day, go all gloomy for two days before returning to normal? Naw, I think I’ll just keep to the regimen, thank you. My vision hasn’t improved. If anything, it’s worse. However, something else I suspected was affected by blood pressure went away, and the ear problem stopped dragging on, as it seemed to be. Google seemed to suggest that the ear symptoms could be tied in with blood pressure, apart from the fact of a very real infection.
It’s hardly perfect, since how glowingly happy can you be when you’ve gotten in a life hole with canyonesque sides, but I’m optimistic and energetic and alert and awake in a way I haven’t been for the most part in years. Not sure it was this good in the parts of 2003 and 2004 when I wrote about being on Lexapro. Who knew I needed it to counter the blood pressure drugs! Could have avoided the whole thing. I’ve also had some insight that goes deep and may help explain the blood pressure problem’s roots, while also helping me move on, but that’s another story. Time to make supper!
Just checked. Didn’t win Megamillions. Don’t often do it, but bought one a few days ago on a whim when I saw the jackpot sign in Hannaford. $127 million would solve everything! And yes, I know, but even after taxes, and even being careful and all that. I guess now I ought to buy another, since $151 million would solve everything with a big fat “and I mean it” thrown on top for good measure.
I remember playing Scrabble for Juniors with my mother at a fairly young age, and regular Scrabble sometime not much later. I could read before I even started school, so young I don’t remember ever not knowing how. I have to wonder what it might have been like with computers and the Xbox…
Last night Sadie was trying to play Scrabble on the Xbox, locally against Valerie, of all things, but since Val needed 100% guidance and passed in frustration her first turn, Deb took over for a turn, then I played the rest.
Sadie quickly learned the ropes, if not a fine appreciation for all the strategy, and could read almost any word played. We helped her out a lot, but in the end she won by a nose, after being way ahead for a good part of the game.
We’re pretty impressed! Six years old.
Except it still seems a little weird having Atlas Shrugged updated to be set in modern times, and the characters don’t look much like my mental images. Reardon, to whom I most relate, comes closest.
I’m overdue for a reread, but with the film pending, I considered it recently and decided to put it off.
Continued from and explained in Link Dump 1.
Eggless batter for deep fried shrimp (works nicely for chicken, came out just like Chinese chicken fingers but that Henry can eat, moved from this to lighter tempura style)
Efficient markets after the financial crisis
Controversial propositions (some good ones! including Bobby Orr)
The shocking ages of rock stars
Ethiopian Injera recipe and another and another and a detailed post about making it
Nerd, Dork and Geek explained in Venn Diagram
The parable of the satellite dish
What if the jobs are never coming back?
Shy and introverted process the world differently
Quasars don’t show time dilation – what’s up with that?
Fighting allergies by mimicking parasitic worms
Truth in accounting (Madoff vs Social Security)
Massive tax change hidden in healthcare law
11 Music superstars who are technically one hit wonders
Most people carry neanderthal genes (big surprise!)
Creating a more private Facebook alternative
I have spents months and months accumulating bookmarks under a “blog this” folder, meaning to post the links and most likely some amount of text on some blog or another. Probably not this one, but for this purpose it’s handy and, hey, content here can’t hurt. Plus I can yet write something about these elsewhere, as opposed to links only. I was going to do a single post, but I suspect I have so many that it ought to be divided.
Presented with minimal description and no extraneous comment, then, here are the first of those accumulated links, oldest to newest.
Women and verbal violence against men
Loophole in registration of paid tax preparers (which is a huge change and one I object to, as a former paid preparer.)
Autism: Life Among the ‘Yakkity Yaks’
The next three are connected to each other and make more sense that way. We love this book.
A Wish to Be a Christmas Tree (video reading of book)
A Wish to Be a Christmas Tree (Amazon)
Regular painkiller use and hearing loss
Did discovery of cooking make us human?
“I need eight hours to get maybe 20 minutes of work done.” Not a quote from me, but could be…
Roots (excellent, on complex numbers)
A couple weeks ago I had my first ever parent-teacher conference. Felt weird, being the parent rather than the kid, but I’d also looked forward to it, since I didn’t have a definitive idea how Sadie was doing. She loves loves loves school, and has made big strides in reading and writing since she started kindergarten, but the feedback was indirect.
Turns out the teacher just loves her, and Sadie is the class star. It was like me in first grade all over again. That and the “she’s very quiet” was what my mother heard from every teacher about me. They’d always tell her “he should talk more.” Other kids strive to be better, seeing what she can do.
She started out socially awkward and has improved dramatically. We talked about the names I hear, and don’t, at home, and who her buddies are. The teacher got some insight as to how quiet she isn’t at home, and the leadership/oldest child role she plays.
I mentioned how she can sit and draw for hours and that being her favorite thing, and the teacher was aware of that, and how meticulous Sadie is. Currently Sadie wants to be something like a comic book/strip artist/writer when she grows up. She’s intrigued by books written and illustrated by the same person.
We talked again about the speech issue. Sadie was supposed to have had an evaluation. I never finished the lengthy paperwork and arranged it this summer, and by fall her speech had improved dramatically. The special education speech people had the speech person at the kindergarten evaluate her and the verdict was I’m right, she’s way better, just borderline now, so let’s check again in January before doing anything. Or definitely doing nothing.
On the other hand, the teacher let me know at the conference that she had noticed Sadie’s gait issue and it was enough to mention. I gave permission to have it looked at and possibly treated with occupational therapy at school. I explained the entire history, having it looked at a few years ago by the orthopedic doctor who ended up handling her broken leg. This was the first her teacher heard of the broken leg! Which is funny, because Sadie’s teacher broke her leg (sprained and chipped – not as serious) early in the school year, and it was extra fascinating to Sadie for reason of her own experience. Anyway, the doctor who evaluated it said she’d outgrow it. And it did improve. I barely notice it now.
Deb was amused that the teacher said Sadie had arrived “with a good foundation,” since we didn’t do much toward that. Not in any planned way. Baby Einstein, plenty of reading to her, learning the alphabet and anything she could absorb. Probably that last is a big part of it. I treat everything as a teaching opportunity, in an eclectic way. The day she was worried about working the zipper in a pair of jeans, going to the bus stop and waiting for the bus was a discussion of the history of the zipper, then the timing and implications of other inventions. I’ve been teaching her multiplication here and there, especially the part where it’s a form of addition. If someone had made clear the additive and subtractive natures of multiplication and division right up front for me, I might have been less intimidated.
Anyway, that’s my girl… quiet yet popular and an excellent student.
Happy birthday to Sadie! She turned six today. Time flies!
We actually celebrated yesterday. Deb had the day off, and doesn’t see Sadie on days she works and Sadie has school. Her class celebrated her birthday today, so she came home with a crown, a card signed by everyone, and a book she received as a gift.
Between grandparents, geat-grandparents and us she got some clothes, the backpack she uses for school (that was an early present), a big set of pens of different colors, a blue clipboard, construction paper, folders, a giant box of Junior Mints, Play-Doh, and a movie. The other two got single cans of Play-Doh and shirts. Henry loves his big green T-shirt and wore it today even though it hadn’t had the new washed out of it yet. I got a pair of safe scissors for them to share, and a ream of paper to keep supplies up for Sadie, without officially giving it to Sadie.
I made her a vanilla cake with apple flavored frosting, per her request, and which was an adventure. She wanted the frosting red, but supervised the coloring and stopped me at bright pink. She wanted green writing on it. Ended up with green highlights and a set of sugar letters, colored green on blue, for the writing. The kids helped Deb put them on, and they put on the candles.
I am an hour or so past bedtime already, so no pictures right now, and I didn’t get much from the birthday festivities anyway. Just that it’s traditional to be like “aw, look how little she was” with a retrospective. Or at least a link to her arrival.
A sad announcement. Paul, was lost to cancer in July.
Monday Sadie got her walking cast off, got still more X-rays, and was allowed to leave cast-free. Yay!
She faces 10 days of taking it easier than normal – walking on even surfaces, no roughhousing, nothing athletic, going in a pool if she wants – and then we’re really done. Unless she remains sore and stiff, in which case the doctor wants her back to see him.
It took her over a week in the walking cast before she started being comfortable getting around by herself, and by the end she was just walking away, just with an odd gait due to the cast. Now it’s her ankle and lower leg, but she is already making an effort, and now understands it needs to be exercised to be back to normal.
What a relief! It’ll be just a month from start of school when she is all the way to normal.
The weird thing is the hair.
Apparently it’s normal if not universal to experience heavy hair growth under and around a cast. From above where the original cast ended down to her shin is a mat of fur that would do my leg proud. I’d thought her knee was inexplicably dirty , then it became clear with the worst of it visible after the cast was gone.
She got the genes for hair to begin with, and of course the cast covers it and it does tend to be darker. But it’s actually thicker, dramatically. From what I found online, the cast irritates the skin under it, which stimulates blood flow, which stimulates hair growth. Never heard of that!
Buying almost a loaf of bread per day! It’s just crazy. The actual usage is probably about 3 large sandwich loaves per 4 days, 5 days if we’re on a slower streak or eating outside the house a lot or whatever derails the sandwich singularity.
[I originally started this post a week ago last Monday, July 12, got interrupted, never finished and posted it, and so here it is. Not bothering to edit the timeframe up to the point I’ll indicate I am adding to it.]
Took Sadie to get her three week cast off today. She was freaked out by the saw, so much she took most of the way through subsequent X-rays to get over it.
The X-rays showed it healed well, as expected.
What I didn’t know to expect of the followup was a “walking cast.” For 2 weeks she has another cast, but this time starting below the knee, going well onto the foot, so her knee can bend and she can walk. She also has a “boot” to strap on, rather than walking on cast and toes.
Today I had to continue carrying her. She can try walking tomorrow.
After the two weeks, it comes off and she really should be done. In the meantime, it’ll be tough
[Continuing from where I left off, and updating to what’s current.]
I think I was going to say it would be tough because we had a pool party to go to, and she would be unable to swim, or maybe it would be tough because we were going to dental appointments in Boston on the 14th, which had I realized she would get the additional cast I might have postponed.
The pool actually helped derail her funk, in which Sadie wouldn’t even try to walk, and was happy to sit and do passive things. She ended up on the side of the pool, cast covered in a towel, other leg dangling or a hand reaching in water to play with it, and playing with cousins. She got so happily soaked, she might as well have been in the pool. But the cast stayed safe!
It still took until yesterday for Sadie to get up and walk around the apartment by herself. She found it painful, stiff and – it still is – awkward. At least this means I am freed up extensively, and the transition won’t be so tough Monday.
As for the dental appointment, because she couldn’t get around readily, and there was some distance involved, I used the umbrella stroller, which works well as a wheelchair of sorts. We were very late getting into the place in Boston, but they squeezed us in before breaking for lunch. It’s very efficient and the people there are awesome. All three kids got a clean bill of tooth, and we don’t have to do this again for six months, assuming nobody develops a problem. Valerie is the best one at dealing with the dentistry, amazingly, because they are her heroes. When I took her there with a lost filling and some pain, they patched it up and it demonstrably didn’t hurt anymore. She raved to her mother that the dentist made it better. Sadie had to be big but wasn’t happy, since Henry had to be held and freaked a bit. Though even he is used to opening wide for having me brush his teeth, so he did pretty well. That and he’s so darn bright and good at following instructions, when he’s not being intentionally stubborn.
But back to the leg… We go Monday, July 26, get the cast off, and from what they said, that is that, not even yet another set of X-rays. As I was saying with the title, the walking cast seemed like kind of an “and we mean it” thing to be sure all was healed and well, and protected with an exoskeleton for a bit as it got used to being in use again.
Or so I hope!
Tomorrow morning I take Sadie to get her cast off and get X-rays.
Presumably that will be it, and we will return home triumphantly cast-free after three weeks. Via some errands. And a trip by my mother’s house, if I leave the other kids there. Among whatever else, I plan to use it as the day Sadie gets to shop for new shoes. Hers are beat, to the point of getting holes in the toes, and I hadn’t been able to find her presumed size (next one up) in that model on a couple casual looks. This way she can participate and try them on, so if they don’t have size 13, maybe we can try the next size up, which is apparently size 1. Sizing is weird.
She may not care that much, but I think it’ll be nice for her to be able to bathe normally, and not just because it’s a pain for me. At least that is infrequent, compared to carrying her to the bathroom or between locations in the house. It’s been helpful that she entertains herself in place easily.
It’ll also be nice for her to be able to swim, or at least go in the wading pool at Grandma’s. We have a couple pending possible pool visits. Yay!
Anyway, I’ll update here with the outcome after we are home tomorrow…
Just a followup, since I didn’t post what happened subsequently yesterday.
We saw the same orthopedic guy Sadie once saw to have her walk/gait evaluated on doctor’s concern. He looked at the X-rays and pointed out the spot, which is both clearly visible and not large. It’s near the top of the large lower leg bone, and is something like a tiny hairline that doesn’t appear to go far into the bone combined with a buckle into a bit of a point.
To our surprise, she did not get a cast yesterday. The ER people did a superlative job on her splint, so nothing needed to be changed in the meantime, and Monday we go back for a fiberglass cast, which allows enough time for any swelling there may be to have happened first. Good thing we no longer have the original dental appointments in Boston on Monday!
Speaking of which, the cast will be on for a minimum of three weeks (or, as Sadie said, “three weeks!!??”), which puts us close to the time of the rescheduled and expanded dental appointment in Boston for all three kids, on Bastille Day. I may have to reschedule that now.
Work missed me badly, yesterday, more so because another guy was also out, though that didn’t directly affect the worst problem. Ripple effects: Someone I work with was unable to go to her day job as a result of Sadie’s injury, and some packages did not get onto their delivery trucks.
Anyway, so far I have had to carry Sadie everywhere. Otherwise she sits, leg propped up, making the recliner ideal. It’s been kind of a style-cramper for those who work late and use the living room after work, having Sadie camped there. The bad thing is the doctor passingly remarked that I would continue to carry her once she has the cast, so nothing would really change. While I was unsure if they’d give crutches to a kid so young, Deb says she’s big enough. We’ll see what happens. That would make things easier. Even if not, being in the real cast should allow her to sleep back in the bed. Just that I’ll have to put her there, where she normally puts herself to bed after I have gone, since I need to be early even to get a few hours of sleep. Speaking of which, even without the heat and the roof being worked on here today, with Sadie immobile, it’s going to be hard for me to nap during the day. I could face a lot of days of 3-4 hours total sleep, except the weekends (Sunday and Monday) when I can generally get a full night worth.
The other two kids have been remarkably good so far, not climbing on the recliner or doing anything that might hurt Sadie.
This whole adventure brings to mind the phrase “there’s always something.”
Last night just after 8:00 I was trying to coax Henry to get into a pullup for the night, while Sadie and then he started, per usual, jumping on the bed like maniacs.
All of a sudden I hear a distinct snapping sound and Sadie is writhing on her side in pain on the bed, left leg having spasms it hurt so bad.
Based on sound and all, I assumed it was broken right from the start. Deb headed home from work. I got Sadie comfortable enough to hang in there while I read Henry to bed and got dressed to be able to leave. Deb covered home while I took Sadie, sitting across the back seat of the Buick because no way she’d manage a booster, to the ER.
I’d been up since 2:30 AM, having not managed, and oddly not missed very much, a nap during the day. It’s only 5 hours, but it’s more work in 5 hours than I ever did anywhere else, so 3-4 hours of sleep doesn’t cut it. Speaking of, I called in before I’d even read to Henry, with a probably don’t expect me due to injured kid.
The ER took forever, naturally. They’re good there, though. It’s where we took Henry for allergy attacks, once in the ambulance and once when I drove him.
She got a couple X-rays. It’s so nice she’s old enough to answer questions, showing and saying where it hurt. Everyone felt bad for her, and admired what a trooper she was. She has high pain tolerance, and even when it’s intolerable she tries to be stoic. It’s as if being hurt and showing it is weakness, and she just can’t let that imperfection show.
She has a buckle fracture, which the doctor found odd. Usually that’s something like jumping off furniture to the floor. They put her in a splint and I had to pick up Tylenol with codeine on the way home.
Just now I learned we can’t take her to the guy they referred us to, insurance incompatibility, so I tried to call my doctor. Managed an appointment with orthopedics there at 1:30 and have to pick up X-rays in Taunton on the way, since they are not in the same network. Wasn’t thinking about that when I could have gone to ER in Brockton versus the closer one in Taunton. Considered Brockton because it wasn’t so critical, but the distance still seemed important.
Looked up the type of fracture. Apparently it’s fast to heal, relatively, but that still means 2-3 weeks in a cast and 4 weeks to heal. And that assumes accurate info, that what I read wasn’t specific to arms, etc.
Poor Sadie.
A couple days ago, she lost a lower front tooth. I mean, lost it, when it fell out in an unknown place, time and manner. She had been telling me it was loose, had been excited, and I’d thought nothing of it. Had no idea it might be that close to a done deal, with the successor well underway beneath it.
Deb noticed it missing yesterday, and apparently it had been lost the day before. Sadie was mortified to have lost the tooth, and claimed absolutely no idea when or where, apart from being sure it had happened the day before, or overnight.
We have yet to find it.
Less than an hour ago, we were eating corn on the cob. You know where this is going, don’t you?
Sadie asked me why her ear of corn was getting red stuff on it.
I looked, realized it was her mouth bleeding, looked and saw a two-tooth gap where one had been gone before. Oops! It was bleeding slightly where the tooth had newly self-extracted.
No sign of the tooth, naturally. Sadie is opposed to the possibility that she swallowed it, but hello, logic. So sad!
That’s two for two, out of the blue.
I investigated the Tooth Fairy, and got a consensus of a buck per, maybe a bonus to as much as five for a first or multiples. I also understand there’s precedent for missing teeth, or even the lack of or desire not to use a pillow. Thus I am sure as the budget allows the Tooth Fairy can come along and leave a stipend somewhere.
Meanwhile, Sadie opined that it’d be a good idea to use her side teeth as much as possible next time.
First, I’ve increased my blogging, but most of it you will find elsewhere. Some of that is strategic, building a new set of blogs explicitly around the things I want to cover, purposefully for brand and prospective revenue building. Some of it is staleness. Hey, we were here far longer than at Accidental Verbosity, and Deb wanted a change from that after only that short time. I wasn’t as keen on the change, but loved the idea of this domain name after one of us coined (we thought) the word “blogblivion.” People still like the AV thing, but I don’t see any going back there because that more than this was really our marital blog. The timing of this place was like an unintentional demarcation point.
Because the brand has merit and it’s a revenue generator, if a dying one, I don’t plan to cease posting here altogether. That may yet come to pass. It’s quite possible to generate a few residual ad bucks off of a retired blog and Just Move On. At the same time, I don’t want or plan as yet to tear it down (more than I already did with the half-assed switch from Expression Engine to WordPress, which needs to be reversed or completed but is not up high on my huge agenda) (how is it possible for an underemployed single dad to have this many full plates spinning overhead?) completely and start fresh with a new concept. So…
I may put some of the family stuff here. Obviously I’ve slacked at putting up pictures, and I am not sure what will happen with them, except that they should go somewhere in reasonable quantity and frequency. Hold that thought. The big thing is I’d like to segue into fitting some of the new content to the name. I have a lot of blogging history behind me, and am well aware of blogs and trends having come and gone. I’d like to attempt to post about blogs and bloggers past, perhaps about blogging itself, as the place moves forward. The theme also needs updating. Bored now. Long ago. We’ll see what happens. Google hates this place currently, and I am not sure how readily that can be recovered. It’s not just ads we ran, though some of them probably didn’t help. It’s also probably the change of content when moving from EE to WP, and possibly the lack of posting. Though that has not hurt other sites at all.
Eventually I might port everything to an entirely new domain for safekeeping. At the least, I am liable to port selected posts I’ve written here or there. The pictures of kids may get their own site, for no other purpose. However…
I didn’t mention the other new blog I’ve been developing, alongside Frugal Guy Cook. It’s called Divine Hamster, a name inspired by an employee of my former big client. The content there is about kids, culture – especially with respect to kids, my memories and childhood, and the memories being made now as my kids have their childhood. That is why I am pondering putting some, if not all, pictures of the kids there, or at least posting some of the cool art they (mainly Sadie) create. I’m still working out the parameters and hitting my stride there.
For now, it is my intention to keep blogging, and increase it, at Bizosphere (business, economics, jobs) and Reality Bucket (intended for politics and a touch of stuff like culture and economics, with a snarky edge). I love the names/brands involved, even though they may take some rebuilding and recovery. I’m more focused on the others, though. I’ll blog somewhere on a general and personal level. There are a couple options I not only already have, but that are well respected by That Which Would Not Be Evil. I am ambivalent about both, and both need sprucing up or more. I moved Carnival of the Capitalists, which gets too little attention but does happen periodically from links I accumulate of my own accord.
I don’t have plans to do any tech blogging. Which seems silly, with Geek Practitioners pretty popular for advertising and not in the doghouse. I seldom feel inspired to post along those lines, though more than I had been. I don’t anticipate getting back into that as a field, though I have had doubts given some outbreaks of tech gibberish people have been amused and mystified by lately. The place will sit there bringing in revenue without further intervention for a while. I don’t like the domain, and the historical accident of it being a .net instead of .com bothers me. The .com was supposed to be a business and the .net was supposed to be the affiliated/feeder blog. Then I changed the business name. Then I de facto went out of that business too, for all the site remains in place, awaiting other plans and getting me near daily spam calls from an SEO service. If I decide to tech blog again, I am liable to start something new, with a name I prefer, even if I do import all the old content.
The big thing is to produce content. Write and write and see where it goes. I already know that money can be made from building up the blogging. If that juices the writing, which is something I can do, increasingly so, alone in the house with the kids (and less one kid for part of each weekday, come September), perhaps it leads beyond mere blogs. It’s hard to treat it like a job when so much else vies for my attention, but that’s the trick… for job I love values of “job.” I’m trying to spread the content around logically, without totally abandoning what I’ve already built, but also building some excitingly new aspects that are all my own.