|
|
I recently updated my blogging software, WordPress MU, to version 2.8.1. I have to admit, I’ve been lax about keeping the software updated (not to mention posting new blogs). I’ve considered going to one of the popular blog-hosting sites, but I like the flexibility of being able to manage and alter the site and software as I desire.
I like the admin layout in 2.8.1 a lot better than the previous version I was using (2.6). The new layout puts all the key menus and navigation in a menu bar in the left column rather than the cumbersome tabs at the top.
I plan to try a couple of new plugins and themes, too. Specifically I plan to add a Twitter widget and a Facebook widget (probably one that does both, like Lifestream).
As far as themes go, I’ve never been very satisfied with any that I’ve tried, and I’ve never had much time to try to customize one. I did run across the Atahualpa theme on Paul Steinbrueck’s site. I like the design he achieved in just a few hours of work, and the theme sounds like it is pretty easy to work with, so I’ll give it a try soon.
As I wrote last August, we have been planning to make a move to Virginia this summer, and so the time has come to attempt to sell our house in Carlisle. Preparing for this has been no easy feat. We ended up about 2 months behind schedule and investing about $20K in updates and repairs before we could be in a good position to sell.
So the house has been on the market now for about a month and through-traffic has been slow. We have had one party ready to make an offer, but they need to sell their current property, first. This is exactly the position that Stacey and I ware in.
We have been looking at houses and neighborhoods in Fairfax and Loudon counties Virginia, but we don’t have the cash on hand to make a move on anything until we have our house in Carlisle sold. This is very frustrating because we are ready to get things rolling.
In my frustration, though, I started looking at the market statistics for Cumberland Conty, Pa.
It turns out that, on average, houses in our price range take 70 days to sell. Needless to say, finding this was a little discouraging because the average would put us at the end of June before we would close a deal (on average). On the other hand, we are taking this as a blessing, knowing that taking one step at a time, the Lord will bring a buyer at the right time for us, and will put us in a position to purchase the perfect home for us in Virginia.
There’ll be much more to come, but it’s time to sign out for now. In the meantime, if you think you might know someone looking for a house in Carlisle, PA, send them to this link, please…
http://www.visualtour.com/show.asp?T=1865592&prt=10003
Either I am too old to remember, or the college entrance experience has become much more complicated since the early 1990’s.
We have been working over the past months to get Cindy into college this coming fall (‘09). We took a big step in the right direction this past weekend when we went to Liberty University and got her registered for classes, financial aid, etc. A main difference between my experience and Cindy’s is that virtually all of the necessary activities are now online activities versus paper-based. For example, the FAFSA is entirely online, but when I was in school, the equivalent form was a paper form that was processed through the financial aid department at school.
We also ended up applying for loans which became a bit of a fiasco due to our lender choice. That’s not to say that the lender made it difficult, but I just hadn’t thought about the pre-requisites that we needed to have done before Cindy could apply for student loans. So we were sitting there on the phone with the bank for about an hour and then had to complete the online loan application.
All-in-all, we had a successful weekend. Cindy registered for classes, was able to get additional grants from the university that we weren’t expecting, get the loans set up, and she now is generally ready to start university in the fall. There are still a few loose ends, but I expect that The Lord will guide us through these over the next few days and weeks.
So, back to the original question… The reality is that things have changed a lot since I was in college. I have also learned that my high-school and college experiences were very different than the experience Cindy has had and will have. This has made it difficult for me to see things through Cindy’s eyes and give her the best advice based on her perspective.
Anyway, this is part of the challenge of being a dad, and I know The Lord will guide us as a family through the trials.
Last Friday night when I got home from work there was no one home. This isn’t all that unusual, since Stacey often goes shopping or takes the kids places, etc.
Friday, though, the house held a different silence. There was something else missing – more than just the presence of people in the house. Friday I missed the presence of Patrick, our Miniature Schnauzer.
Normally when I come home, Patrick is either in his kennel (if everyone else has gone somewhere) or running around the house, in which case I would hear the familiar jingle of the tags on his collar. More often than not, he would be running down the steps to meet me at the door, sometimes yelping and “singing”, I assume (since he didn’t bite me) meaning that he was happy to see me. A good scratch under his ears and maybe a quick round of fetch in the yard was usually the follow-up to this greeting.
Friday was different, though. There were no sounds of people, no television… or the familiar jingle of dog-tags. The silence I heard was not the lack of audible sounds, but the silence of a missing spirit. The feeling of the loss of someone close. You see, it wasn’t just that Patrick wasn’t in the house, but he was gone, never to grace the halls of our home, again.
We had to make the very difficult choice the previous morning (Thursday) to euthanize Patrick. We had been nursing Patrick through several liver-related health problems for several months. Last week we witnessed Patrick swing from okay to total delusion (neurological failure caused by liver dysfunction), and left him with the vet for a couple of days to see if we could get him back to “normal”. We did for a few hours… long enough to have hope that we could nurse him to health, and long enough to realize that he was caught between two systemic dysfunctions for which the cure of one dictated the exacerbation of the other.
Wednesday night we went to bed with Patrick sleeping next to me, but in the wee hours of Thursday morning he woke up with little control over his movements. We tried to settle him with the beloved ear scratching, but it was only a momentary fix and after another two hours of debate between Stacey and me, we woke everyone up and let them say their goodbyes.
By the time we were able to get dressed and drive to the all-night animal clinic, Patrick had regressed to a wimpering puppy with no obvious signs that he knew who we were. We knew we were making the right choice for him, but it has been no less difficult for us since.
On Thursday morning, in 10-degree (F) weather, we buried Patrick on Stacey’s parent’s farm. We thought that it was a suitable place since he loved the open space where he could run and roam without limits.
As I sit typing this, I can say that I feel guilty for not being able to do more to help Patrick and not having spent more time with him over the past months. As we find the doggy toys strewn about the house, put away the water and food bowls, and find a new home for all the other “Patrick” paraphernalia, I feel the pain of the loss of a loyal friend and family member. More than anything, I still hear the silence that reminds me of Patrick.
For you who read this, I apologize for disclosing all of the details of Patrick’s last hours. This post is not for you, though. It is for me. Patrick was the first dog that I loved and cared for as a member of my family – much more than just an animal that we had around the house. This post is for me to remember and release the pain and guilt, and to remember Patrick and the love we showed him in life and in death.
Patrick, we love you and will always miss you.
 Patrick
This past weekend Stacey and I went to see the movie “Taken” starring Liam Neeson. We like Liam Neeson as an actor, and this movie was high-paced and generally pretty good.
I was traveling last week, so I missed my regular Thursday evening viewing of CSI. Through the wonders of the Internet I was able to watch it over the weekend, though. The loss of Grissom has made things a little weird on the show, but this episode, “Disarmed & Dangerous”, was okay.
So you wonder, what in the world do these two things have to do with each other, and where do traffic jams come into this whole thing?
Well, Stacey and I found these two shows interesting because they both featured one of the most atrocious crimes mankind has ever thought up… Human trafficking.
This is a topic that has become near to our hearts over the past few years because we have seen, first-hand, some of the damage that is inflicted upon the (mostly) young women and children that are trafficked. Luckily, we have also seen some of the success stories that have been brought about through the tireless and sometimes dangerous work of rescue organizations around the world.
We pray over the next few years to join the work of an organization called “Women at Risk” that seeks to support the work of various rescue organizations.
I’ll be posting more about this topic over the coming weeks and months. In the mean time, take a look at the WAR website http://www.warinternational.org/.
|
|
