Blackberry Blossom

Tonight, while listening to Doc Watson’s flying bluegrass fingers play “Blackberry Blossom,” I thought of an old friend, a musician.  He plays a mean version of that tune.

About a month ago, he contacted me, out of the blue.  He had escaped a bad marriage and worse divorce with nothing but his instrument and clothing.  We traded a few e-mails, but I was busy and said I would get back with him.  Tonight, I found his address and sent him an e-mail.  I got an immediate reply.

“Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently.”

Oh God.  I hope he’s okay.

Two More Bits

Three days ago, I wrote about my state quarter obsession, and how it helps me fend off the gathering gloom.

Since finding the Oklahoma quarter mentioned in that post, I have found two more Philadelphia Mint state quarters: Colorado and Montana.  In the preceding year, I only found three that I could add to the collection.

Part of me wants to attribute this to a mystical form of karmic fulfillment; my inner skeptic insists that it’s mere coincidence.

Don’t get me wrong; I appreciate my inner skeptic.  But when it comes to my emotional outlook, I gotta follow the karma.

Two Bits to Happiness

I received an Oklahoma state quarter as change the other day.  I got excited; it was a Philadelphia Mint, one of the ones I was missing.  Living in Denver, it’s easy to find Denver mint state quarters, but to complete the collection, I need both Denver and Philadelphia mint.

Some of you are probably saying, “This dude gets excited about finding quarters?  He needs to get a life.”  A fair conclusion, I suppose.

But I say that I must find joy in the little things.  It’s the only way to fight off the overwhelming, dark, rumbling things on the horizon.

It’s Not My SQL Error

MySQL error:
Table ‘not_really_named_this’ doesn’t exist (Errno=1146) 

This is the last straw. Over the last year, I’ve had repeated downtime problems with my web hosting company, and this morning, one of my clients sent me a note, saying that his site was down. Sure enough, his blog database is down, as are all the other blogs I host.

Not just down, though. Gone. All of the MySQL tables in all of my hosted databases, just gone. I’m posting this while I wait for them to restore from backup, assuming they have one.

Anybody know a reliable, inexpensive web hosting company?