A Look At the Past Week

This was supposed to be written and published yesterday, so once again I'm in catch up mode. I don't know that I accomplished a great deal more than putting up Bubblews posts. I'm debating whether putting extra effort there is really worthwhile. While I accomplish that my other writing which I consider more important for the most part isn't happening. I did get a very important post written here on my blog about the family's current status. Knowing that had to be written, I feel blocked me from writing other important things. It's done now.

I have more to say about the immediate future but first I'll get the week of Bubblews out of the way. I did write quite a few posts. All titles are links, so click if you wish to read more.

A New Week Dawns

A short post laying out the week ahead.

Chopping Firewood

An important chore this fall. I got a good start at it last week. The pile is gone now though. Need to get the chainsaw repaired and go into the bush to fetch more.

Rainy Day

Overall the weather was good all week, it just wasn't on this particular day.

Haircut In a Windtunnel

Getting your haircut outside on a gusty windy day doesn't work very well.

Hard Drive Swap

My computer has gotten very glitchy and I finally broke down and switch hard drives. Had to save a lot of material before that could be done and it didn't go without a hitch.

Back In Business

Took a long time for certain needed elements to download to the new hard drive. I was out of action for nearly 24 hours. Frustrating when you are trying to get something done.

Old Shows On Youtube

The family has discovered some old TV shows that we can watch on our current TV equipment.

Gone For a Day

No writing on Bubblews for a day because of the Feast of Trumpets. We spent the better part of the day with a friend.

Home Late

As usual visiting a friend means a long dragged out good bye because we don't actually want to leave that early. Meant a longer time between posts.

Planning

Brief discussion on my wood turning business progress.

Profits From Gambling

How I made money from gambling without gambling.

I do have one excuse for not being as productive over the past week as I'd hoped. Changing the hard drive on my computer was not without problems. As one of my posts points out, I spent a lot of time downloading necessary programs and all I could do was wait for that to be done.

A second issue cropped up as well. I'm not always happy with Google Chrome and I tried to switch to Firefox. It works really well for a couple of the kids with similar computer equipment. Unfortunately it doesn't work well for me. I'm a little hard headed so I kept trying to make it work for awhile. I did give up and go back to Chrome. It isn't interfering with my productivity at the keyboard.

If in the coming week, I can't get after my other writing, I will scale back my Bubblews writing. Quick money isn't so quick any more and I have to focus more on the future. One thing that is bothering me is that many of my friends there are complaining about missed or missing payments more frequently. Seems to be a problem on other sites as well. A lot of discussion on Hubpages is quite negative about the merger with Squidoo. Some think it spells the eventual end of the that site too. I shouldn't let it bug me but it does. On the bright side I can pull my material off Hubpages and keep it for another site in the future.

In the next couple days I do have to get my latest issue of Pico's Cycling - Tales of the Road out. Unless I encounter more computer/Internet problems, I should have that out by the end of tomorrow. I wanted to do a site review but already have a book review from Jack. I think people want to read more about cycling stories. I have a replacement so were all good.

Final note for this post. My daughter is a little frustrated with a new novel review group on WDC. It's set up so that you either pay an exorbitant number of gift points to be a participant or instead you do five times the number of reviews than you'll get back. We are considering starting our own novel review group. I have an idea how it can be organized but we have to figure out how to make it simple to administer. None of us really want to get bogged down running something like that.

Family Trauma

I’ve kept putting off writing this for some time, but know that at some point something has to be said. The gossip/rumour mill hasn’t been kind to us in the past. I imagine it’ll have fun with this anyway but at least I have a chance to tell things from our perspective.

About two months ago, life for our family changed pretty dramatically. My oldest son Sheldon’s behaviour has at times been a concern, mostly little things that just seemed odd. This escalated rapidly this summer to a crisis. Out of respect for Sheldon I’m going to be very lean on details. We brought him to the hospital at 2:00 AM one night after most of the family got no sleep whatsoever. Very painful to look into the face of a young man who looks so much like me, eyes just like his mom’s and have no idea what I am seeing.

Sackville hospital wasn’t very busy at that time of the morning so we were able to have him looked at quickly. We did our best to try to keep him calm. The doctor on duty was pleased to see that he responded positively to both Francine and myself. He did recommend transferring him to Moncton General via ambulance with a police officer escorting him in case things escalated.

Francine and I followed and then spent most of the morning sleeping in our chairs in the hospital waiting room. After taking to the doctors and psychiatrist, Sheldon was transferred to the psychiatric care unit and we were told to go home and get some sleep.

Sheldon spent the better part of two weeks there. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia. We answered a lot of questions from the psychiatrist and still this doesn’t make a lot of sense as to the question why? It’s often hereditary yet neither Francine nor myself can think of any family members on either side who’ve suffered schizophrenia. It can be caused by head trauma. We don’t remember him ever having a head injury of any kind.

No use worrying about how this came to be. We’ll probably never know. The good news is that Sheldon has responded well to the medication. There are many people who have suffered from schizophrenia and have led “normal” and successful lives.

Sheldon does worry about being accepted especially after befriending a fellow sufferer in the hospital who was abandoned by his family over it. He knows he has our support and I’m confident my extended family won’t make him feel like an alien. There are programs available to help him and we are doing our level best to take advantage of them. Government agencies here have been surprisingly receptive to making it all possible even thought bureaucracy moves slowly at the best of times.

Sheldon is not sure what he wants to do with himself. He has written several manuscripts for books. At a glance he has talent (psychiatrist advised us that he was highly intelligent) but his work needs some first class editing work done. We are thinking to have him put together an author’s blog with our help. Currently he can’t sit for very long in front of a computer. I’ve told him that he needs to take it at his own pace. The people running the local mental health programs are excited to help in that regard. We’ll see what happens.

There are collateral issues going on for us as a family. With the unending increase in the cost of food and gasoline, I can no longer afford to drive to Moncton to work. Gas and repairs for the family van is just killing us. I am not saying this to ask financial help from anyone. I qualify for unemployment insurance benefits. We may also be eligible for an additional supplement from the government. We just have to survive until all the paperwork gets done on that.

I have no doubt that I’ll find local employment soon enough. I may even get enough help from government programs to get my own business off the ground. That’s what we moved out here for in the first place. This whole ordeal might end up being a huge blessing. It just doesn’t feel like it right now.

Doubled Up On Bubblews

My most notable achievement in the area of writing this week was to write roughly double the number of posts in Bubblews. Been doing two per day on average with the exception of Saturday when I only do one in the evening.

At the beginning of the week it looked like I wasn’t far off wasting my time with that because my likes were considerably reduced. It actually had nothing to do with my increased activity. Things bounced back at the end of the week.

I plan to the same this week.

One of the big themes this week is the fact that three of my children have taken advantage of the change in rules to open accounts of their own. I’ve heard a rumour that the oldest followed suit while I wasn’t looking today. I will do a post announcing his arrival on the site as well but there is a post I have to write first.

Clicking the titles below will link you to the respective stories. This week’s post are as follows:

Welcoming a New Bubbler

It gave me a lot of pleasure to be able to write a post welcoming Brandon to Bubblews. I do this because it makes it easier for them to be discovered by the community. I do that for other friends who choose to join and let me know about it. His user name over there is JollyGoodWot. Incidentally clicking a username here will bring you to that persons profile page.

I'm Blind Or...

I chose to bellyache about an apparent glitch in Bubblews notifications system. It has been bothering me because I often loose track of people I'm trying to follow because of it.

That One Hurt

In this one I'm moaning about a come from ahead loss by my favourite NFL team. I'm hoping the 49ers have this schtuff out of their system now.

The Other Twin

Andrew decided to join his twin brother on Bubblews. This is another introductory post. Andrew's username is Eukenoru.

Future Famous Author

The most introductory posts I've ever done in a single week. Mieke decided to get in on the fun at the same time as Andrew. Her username and line is TakingAfterMe.

Out With the Old

Back breaking chore out of the way. Dismantled the old wood stove and brought in the smaller one with the big firebox. It makes a big difference.

A Little Disappointed

My second tolast moan of the past week. I was discouraged at the response to my increased activity on the site. It turned around on the very next post.

NWO Conspiracy Alert

Done with my moaning for now, I decided to have a little fun. Poked some fun at a style of dress and conspiracy theorists in one go.

When Writers Dream

My memorable dreams are more often hysterically funny rather than scary. This dream had me winning one of the most distinguished civilian awards in Canada. Highest scoring post I've written in sometime. I'm sure the gang from the Hill O' Beans helped me a lot on that one.

Frustrating Glitch

Bubblews doesn't always work perfectly. Sometimes it does something really weird. No one else that I encountered on the site has run into this one.

Testing New Headset

New headset tested with a listening session. I share my Pico's Two Steps Mix playlist from Youtube. In fact I'm listening to the same thing as I make this post. Makes me type and compose faster.

Legendary Blues

Since I was discussing music taste in the previous post, I decided to show something completely different. I clip of Sonny Boy Williamson II singing and playing.

That's it for Bubblews for another week. I won't have as many introductions next week I probably will have one though. Way to go Sheldon.

A New Week

Didn't get anything done at Hubpages this week. I am planning to do better in the coming week. Bubblews though ticked right along. I made six posts and was able to submit another redemption. Just short of sixty dollars American. That will come in handy once it has posted to my Paypal account.

My younger sister advised me that there has been a change in the Bubblews rules that will allow my children to participate as well. I will be doing posts introducing them to the community as they get accounts signed up. I think it will be a blessing for us all.

Rule of Tongue

I started last week with a tongue in cheek look at suspicious clean dishes setting on our dining room table.

The End of Poopermint

The kids coined a new word this past summer. Thankfully the issue is resolved and we don't have to tolerate the odour anymore.

Cold Morning

Looks like summer is over whether the weatherman or the calender agree or not. Have had chilly nights most of the week.

Yesterday Was No Fun

Just one of those days when everything seemed to be going awry. I got through it.

Market Genius

Started the week talking about our home rule of tongue and ended it with my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth deep in thought.

Double Bubble

More or less a Bubblews announcement advising that I will be writing more there in the next couple weeks. The hope is to increase my presence and my rewards.

Weekly Update

We had a visitor today. He initially was hiding under the sawhorse right by the front door. He wasn't eager to move on.

I had a decent week on Bubblews and am past the redemption point again. I will wait till close to the end of the week to claim that. I have reasons for that. I might say why I'm waiting in a future post. Here's the list for the past week.

Like Comment Share

I was admittedly a little annoyed about someone's misinterpretation of how things work on Bubblews. The object of my displeasure was written on another forum.

Power Failure

When the power goes out, I can't go online or use the phone or post on Bubblews. It does give me something to write about though.

Bubblews Serials

One of my pet peeves on Bubblews.

Moncton's Eco-disaster

The causeway - need I say more.

Why Connect?

So many unknown people connect to me on Bubblews and I never know anything else about them. Boy was I ever in a crusty mood this past week.

I had some success on Hubpages as well. I am disappointed in the number of page views I'm getting there. It is a long term project but I'm hoping it all perks up shortly. The activity is more dead than I like. I have two articles on tap this time.

Homeschooling-Lessons of Opportunity: The Tidal Bore

Another in my homeschooling series. One of the few things in Moncton to really get excited about. One of the biggest tidal bores in the world and we were busy destroying it.

Conversations With Customer Service

This is a comedy piece I worked on all week. It is a collections of five funny stories from my experiences working in a call centre.