Second entry in the red journal

"2007. Tues. Somewhat rejuvenated after Bend although one day seems like the next working hard on the site. Postal holiday declared due to death of Gerald Ford, in his 90s. Lee helps w/ work of shipping."

A new year, a journal, and cloud waves over Oregon

Happy New Year! I'd told Kate that I was looking for one of those five-year diaries like I had when I was young. I always seem to find some way to journal (even if it's taking photos rather than writing), and I thought that during these busy years, the limited, organized work spaces would be a good way to go. My gosh, she remembered! I was surprised when I opened the beautiful red five-year diary. Due to my love of writing, we both wondered if it would really satisfy, but she got it for me anyway, and it was gorgeous.

On January 1, I wrote:

"2007. Monday. I woke up in Bend this morning. Lee and I have been here for the week. I did almost nothing but check code on the web site after our demise in Google. We drove home after noon. No celebration of N Year."

That's all there was space for, but it served to mark the dates. My Web site disappeared from Google around December 5th. I won't go into it now. It was a financial disaster. I spent the next month day and night doing anything I had to to fix it.

The drive from Bend to Astoria was mud, mud, mud. Mud over snow.

And then look at this! The sky is leaden, but the clouds are almost singing. I took this one somewhere en route to Astoria, but I don't remember where. I love the waves. There were some even softer waves to the left, but they're buried behind power lines.

Christmas Day, 2006

Lee and I spent part of Christmas day driving to Bend. Here we are at the Ski Bowl turnoff on the road over Mount Hood.

Snowman in lights

I love this picture of the snowman in lights at Stephanie's Cabin Restaurant on Marine Drive in Astoria. One reason I liked it so much was that it happened to be in focus and exposed so you can see what it is! It's also a cool looking decoration, and I like the moose in the window.

New picture links - yeah!

Was it only last weekend, or the weekend before? I spent a few hours upgrading the picture links on the personal part of my tapirback.com web site. I'd been wanting to turn the text links into picture links, re-think some categories, and reorganize folders. I finally found a format I liked, changed some color backgrounds, and . . . I like it!

That was a big improvement, and it was also groundwork for the hundreds of photos, drawings, and other bits and pieces I'd like to put together on the site, like a travelogue, scrapbook, etc., all in one. I don't know when I'll find the time, but since summer has been just a bit slower in my online store, I thought I'd take the opportunity. It was fun. Usually when I get a break from that, I work on The Tapir Gallery (which by the way, still needs major remodeling). I've been building tapirback's various locales since 1996. It feels like a house that you keep improving - only maybe better. You don't need a dumpster to make the changes.

Hmmm. Next time I'll find out more about blog formatting. I would have liked to have all of the pictures on the left with the text wrapping automatically as it did around the first picture.

I've spent a lot of time coding very basic html. There are a number of formatting types I haven't used at all, some rarely, and some I learned recently and promptly forgot. If you don't use it, you definitely lose it with the new things. But web coding is one of the coolest things I've ever learned. What else combines art, logic, writing, presentation, preservation, and costs almost nothing in and of itself?

Add instant gratification, and it is not only addicting, it's SUCH an amazing technology. . . . Links? So simple! I once wrote an entire book wishing I could use something like LINKS from point to point in the explanations. But that was before links and web pages had been invented. More on the book some other time. That's one more project I'd like to resurrect and re-invent for the web site. Oh well, many thoughts, many projects, and it's later than I meant to stay up.