Tap, Tap

Okay, maybe this time we are on. 🙂

First up, thank you all! Your kind gifts have just made some really great things happen.

Yes, the monthly bills are covered. Even better, we now have a new host, Nexcess (part of Liquid Web), and so far I am extremely pleased with them. I had actually been looking at a different hosting provider who talked themselves out of the gig. I had used them once before, and was reminded why I left them (snotty responses and slow service). So far, I’ve had extremely good and fast customer service, issues are resolved while I am on with them, and I think the most we have spent working any issue was less than ten minutes. If they can handle the traffic, all is good.

While it ended up costing more, it’s been worth it for the service and the huge increase in speed I’m seeing. I did go over the budget I set, but again appears to be worth it, and I’m paid up for a full year. They have a 30-day guarantee, so let me know of any issues you see, and hopefully we will get an Instalanche in that time to truly test the system.

I’ve put the focus on the blog, and dropped hosting for my photography/professional site. Which has also dropped an e-mail addy, possibly two. Not too worried about that for now, site needed to be re-done anyway. 🙂

I also, thanks to your help, do have the new shoes I so desperately needed. I am walking for exercise and more, and while I hit a personal best of 7.48 miles the other day (best since being hit by lightning), I also had problems of which blisters were the least. So, I went shopping for new shoes. I hit the running store, the zebra store, and more. The running store used the super-scanner and every effort to get e-mail, upgrade, upsell, etc. The zebra store ignored me, and when queried said they didn’t have my brand in stock despite their own site saying they did. The other stores, well, they had limited stock and proud-of-this prices.

Something told me to check out Stout’s southside location (oldest shoe store in America according to them). Walked in, Ally (sp?) looked at my shoes, recognized the model, recognized that there have apparently been some significant upgrades in the four years (I think) since I bought them, asked me about use and other factors, discussed budget, and then measured both feet mechanically. A few moments later, two sets of shoes (one my brand one another) were out, we tried, I stayed with my brand, and stayed within the budget I had set. The difference in the skill level, customer service, and product knowledge was amazing. Highly recommend them. Oh, and if we do need to do extra orthotics to handle where the lightning exited my body through the ball of my foot, they can handle that in several ways, including 3-D printing. Nice. Feels weird having all the support…

And, that is true here too. Thank you so much! You have kept me going in this crazy year plus since getting hit by lightning. Your gifts have kept me afloat financially and are letting me work on trying to get moved. Your prayers have sustained me. Your kind comments and interesting responses have added to the food for thought here nicely. I can’t say thank you enough, and right now pushing to get some cushion to put towards moving. The problem is just getting enough at one time and in one place to get me out there. Working on it, and looking at ways to get creative so as to sidestep some issues and get on with it.

Thank you so much! Sound off if you see any hosting issues, and do sound off if you see speed and other improvements. Good with the bad. Now, to write something worthy of a link at Instapundit and see how they handle that. 🙂

Onwards!

*****

If you would like to help me in my recovery efforts, feel free to hit the tip jar in the upper right or the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo. Getting hit by lightning is not fun, and it is thanks to your gifts and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.