Back on Track

Well, a lot has happened since I posted “Head Cold” on February 21.  Evidently WordPress changed their programming and, for some reason, along with the old programming went access to my blog.  For almost two months I lost control of A Different Drummer.  I couldn’t post anything.  I couldn’t change anything.  I couldn’t do anything except gripe about it…and try to fix it.

I tried to fix it myself.  I tried to get help online.  Rich, my computer guy, tried to fix it and get help too.  We worked together to try to find some solution, any solution to get A Different Drummer back up and running, uh…marching.

But nothing worked.  Nobody knew what to do.  Even my blog host’s “help” people didn’t help…and then one did…but not until A Different Drummer had been offline for two months.

So now I’m back.

Finally.

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When I say a lot has happened, I do mean a lot, and much of it was bad…too much and too bad.

But some was good.

Besides losing control of A Different Drummer, I finally got the promotion I’ve wanted at work for so many years.  I now work in the classroom helping our teachers educate the boys in our youth facility.

Maybe I could have had the job before but, among other things, there were several years when I declined to try for it.  During the ten years I worked as the sports editor for the Delta News-Citizen the scheduling would have made it difficult for me to get off work at 4 p.m. and still make it to some of the many sporting events I had to cover for the paper.

Also, during the midnight shift I was allowed to take my laptop computer to work with me and work on it while the boys were getting their nights’ sleep.  So I was able to do much of my photo-processing and writing at my fulltime job.  It saved a lot of time that might have otherwise been too burdensome.

Besides that, I could use some of that time to write for A Different Drummer and process the photos and videos to accompany the posts.

I know, some of you might see that as “skimming the cream” or “double-dipping” but it worked and was allowed so give me a little break, okay?

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Most of you know that I left the Delta News in the last year of its life.  It has since combined with the Daily Dunklin Democrat and moved all operations to Kennett, Missouri.

When I saw signs that the end was near, I chose to retire from the newspaper business.  I don’t call it being a rat leaving a sinking ship.  She might have been listing a bit to port, but she definitely wasn’t sinking.  So I just call it getting some time to do other things.

During roughly the last three years I was with the newspaper I took advantage of the opportunity I had and started a column, which I had long wanted to do, and named it, A Different Drummer.

Yeah.

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A Different Drummer was met with enthusiasm from the readers.  After I left the paper several of them contacted me to say how much they missed the column.  My daughter-in-law, Madison, suggested I consider doing a blog…so I considered it too.

Voila.

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Over the years I had noticed that many of my growing health problems were due directly or indirectly to working nights and the poor sleeping habits that entailed.  I began to think about trying to get off midnights for the last few years before retirement.

Then Payden got sick.

Payden is my eighteen-month-old grandson, who I’ve referred to on this blog as “Mini Me” because of how much he resembles a toddler-aged me.  I know, I know, he’s a lot cuter than I ever was but…

Again, I ask for a break.

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Just a few weeks ago, Payden was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).  I will go into more detail about Payden’s battle in a future post (or maybe more future posts), but, suffice it to say the fight against this horrible disease will require a lot of time, effort, and money on the part of those who love Payden.

You’d better believe that includes me.

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Despite the many bad things that have occurred recently, some good ones did too.  One of those fortuitous circumstances was that a friend and coworker of mine retired.  He had been the classroom staff for several years, so that opened the position up.  When my boss kindly offered the spot to me, I didn’t have to think about it for long before accepting happily.

Very happily.

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Sometimes even good things can have some negative aspects.

As much as I love doing the blog and inflicting my opinions on you all, time available for writing will now be at a premium.  In other words, I just don’t see how I will have the time to write two posts every week and process the photos and videos to accompany them.  So, for the time being at least, I will drop down to posting only once a week.

Who knows, maybe things will change and I’ll be able to write more, but we’ll just have to see.

In about three years, if all goes the way we hope and pray, little Payden will be cured and able to do lots of fun things with Pa (that’s what the grandbabies call me) and that’s also about the time I will retire.

At the very least I should have more time to catch up on some of the many things I haven’t been able to do during these busy, working years.  Maybe Payden and his cousins will help Pa build that cabin I’ve been planning for the last year or so.  You know, the one that is heated and air conditioned by wind and solar power.  The one that sits at the edge of a pond or overlooking a wild stream and has a deck where I can sit and fish or just watch the wildlife.  The one with plenty of room for shelves to house all the thousands of books I’ve collected over the years.

I plan to spend some of that time writing more and improving my skills with that craft.

And you know, as always, I’ll be spending my time marching to the beat of A Different Drummer.

Won’t you join me?

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