Some Other Place Already

I moved my blog from Blogger to WordPress two days ago. It's been a little complicated and there's still a few things I need to figure out (like how to redirect followers from this blog over to the new one) but it seemed like everything was going okay. Then around midnight - I don't know what I did wrong, but all these black bars started appearing over everything.

Then Wikipedia stopped working.

"Oh my God, what have I done wrong?" I wondered. "I've broken the Internet."

But today everything was pretty much back to normal.

http://diaryofamyrigby.wordpress.com

Help

I didn't mean to open this design can of worms! Went over to WordPress, started working on a blog there, then realized I'd have to have the concentration to learn a new dashboard etc. Which I sadly don't right now. Then started looking at the (limited) blogger templates and next thing I knew I'd lost my old one. So...under construction. But here's a photo from yesterday in Catskill.

When The Tree Comes Down

I searched our old address in France on Google and looked at the satellite image - it was like a trip back in time to just over a year ago when we came back from touring determined to fix the place up and sell it so we could move to the US. In the photo the shutters are off and yet to be painted, the front door is the dark green we decided against eventually, the massive barn door is scraped and only partially undercoated.

The satellite photo is dated December 2010. A year later, we're living on another continent. Maybe that explains why I feel tired and disoriented a lot of the time. When I'm not ecstatic.

Had some of my family here for Christmas. Managed to cook dinner for everyone even though we ran out of propane in the middle of the preparations, and Eric and my brother Riley had to drive all over Greene County trying to refill the tank (the 24-hour Home Depot kiosk chose Christmas Eve to break down). Riley's girlfriend Natalie used her iphone to locate a propane dealer, Nick's Gas.

"Nick, do you have gas?"
"Excuse me, what do you want?"
"We need gas Nick, we need gas! To cook with, for our Christmas dinner!"
"I am closing in three minutes. Also, I am not Nick."
"Please, uh - sir. They are coming now! Please stay open, please stay open."

How many times did we run out of cooking gas in the French countryside just as the juices started to flow from a high-priced chicken? Maybe the problem wasn't France after all.

But the festivities were festive and everybody loved the new house. Then we made it to the city and figured out how to make money down there: if you avoid getting a parking ticket, look at that $75 you don't end up owing as income! Better yet, go to Hoboken for the last Yo La Tengo Hanukkah show, don't get booted by the Hoboken parking police, and bam - that $150 we didn't end up having to pay (as some of the audience members and even one of the performers did) is now surplus lining our pockets.

That way of thinking made me feel good for a day or two, now it's back to reality and lining up/looking for work.

And trying to update my website/blog etc. I've started to find the white type on black harder and harder to read. Anyone else? I wish I could integrate my music site with the blog - it's all looking a bit disjointed to me.Out of date. But just like everything else after a major relocation, it seems like you can't do one thing without first doing three other things. Aesthetics, technology, culture...yes it's all accessible from everywhere but I feel a little left behind. So I just have to watch every episode of Breaking Bad - then I'll know what to do, right?

In the meanwhile, these ornaments have to go back in the box and the tree has to go...where? Do they pick it up here? Or can I take it to the dump. At least I know where that is - just out past Nick's Gas...