I’ve been playing with doing sidebars at the bottom of the page, even an area that has two sidebars, so it’s like a two-column sidebar - only they’re widgetized, so the user can customize it. The possibilities for Wordpress are far-reaching,  proven by loads of WP enthusiasts out there. Darren Hoyt, Justin Tadlock, and others have proven that WP can be a handy little CMS, with magazine style themes.

But even on a simple level, being able to have multiple sidebars in different page placements makes it nice. I tried using Joomla last year and spent a month learning it from a user and designer approach. I kept wondering how many users would have the time or patience to learn it (remember most users are still novice when it comes to this stuff.)  With Wordpress, the functionality can be built into the theme while the user end remains fairly simple. I like that.

My main complaint is the problem with Permalinks. There’s been an issue with permalinks: when you activate them and want to “pretty” up your urls to something like www.yoursite.com/page, you use a custom permalink code like this:  %postname%  which WP apparently doesn’t like all the time. It has something to do with the chronological nature of postings. Even though Pages are not chronological, they still use the same database and permalink system has a little trouble with that. One GOOD thing about the 2.6 is the ability to edit the Permalink once you’ve turned it on. There’s a permalink edit line right under the title box. You just have to remember to save the edit, and save the page, too. The folks who work on the WP code have said they’re going to address this issue in an upcoming update. Fingers crossed.

So, now the question is whether I’m going to update this blog. As you can see, it doesn’t get used very much and it’s a useful playground for working with this version - still used by many. I could upgrade to 2.3 at least, I suppose.

But even though summer is here, I’m not out in it. My sciatica turned into a full blown disk episode that’s put me on my back for the past month. After the initial week of intense pain, some steroids finally took the inflammation down and allowed the ice packs and chiropractic treatments to take effect. But, I’m on orders to avoid sitting - too much pressure on the disk. Since I want to avoid surgery, I’ll do what I’m told. Some things I’ve re-learned and will share:

• TV is definitely a wasteland, with very few exceptions
• eating while lying down is an art: eat small portions and drink water
• a laptop/notebook computer is a sanity-saver. I found the lapdawg stand and it allows me to work while lying down.
• Pain meds don’t kill pain

Logan, age 15, started out in life with some tough times. But fate allowed that he find his true family. The rest of his life was filled with love, fun and all the things that make a dog’s life the best possible. He was smart, funny, and always ready to be a friend. He will be deeply missed.

Logan is survived by his family, Linda, Verna, Claudette, Phyllis, Robyn, Betty, Roberta; his longtime friends, Midnight, Bandy, Kota John, Vincent, Theo and Madeline.

His family would like to thank the caring staff at the North Country Animal Hospital in Caribou, Maine.

Folks will be shoveling out there for quite awhile yet.

To the left, is the view out the west side door, onto our backyard. The drifting from the north whips around the house and we’ve got a nice wall of snow on the north and west sides of the house. We’ve tried to keep up with it, but after the last storm, the drifting has caused some hard packing around doors and windows.

The snow has drifted high this year. The drier, lighter snow will easily be carried by the 25 mph winds.

You can click on the pictures and see an enlarged view. Then back your browser to return to this page. On the left again is a view of the north side of the house, you can see the height of the drift.

The side streets have become narrower because of drifting and the city hasn’t been able to keep up with keeping them widened - no place to put the snow. The banks are high. They come around and haul snow away in trucks.

The high winds and tall banks of packed snow do not deter my dog from venturing out. The hardpack allows him to climb to the peak so he can see out across his domain and communicate with the other neighborhood dogs. On the right is his snow wall.

Left is a view from the dining room, a north-side window. The high winds during the last blast caused the drifting up against the windows. Other people living in more open areas report higher drifting than this.

From beginning of the 2007-2008 snowfall season through midnight March 20, 2008, the National Weather Service in Caribou, ME has recorded 182.5 inches of snowfall. This morning’s measurement (21 March) puts the total at 184.5 inches. This seasonal snowfall total is the greatest amount ever, since records began in 1939. The previous record of 181.1 inches was set in the 1954-1955 snowfall season. … 184.5 inches equals 15 feet, four and one-half inches.

Now the wind is howling and we’re trying to keep up with the drifting. I’ll take a photo of what I see out my window and post soon.