Blogging A – Z Challenge 2021: C Is For Cheat Day & Codger

Herb’s Blog, Herbdate 22338 – 805:

Here’s the haps:

Most Dear and Beloved Fans, Friends, Fiends, Foes, Foundlings, Family, Freaks, and Fun Folks (And everyone else who doesn’t fall under any of those descriptions), Greetings,

I actually have another post started that is “C is for Colorado” which is about when Art Vegan lands at Colorado Springs Airport but I have run out of steam and time.

Okay. I confess. The truth of the matter is that I really had a pretty good day and never really got on the computer much at all today except to respond to some comments and emails. A couple of these items took some time. one of the things I did wind up working on was the animated letters. I really like them. Really. I worked really hard to get them and they are a sort of ongoing project. But a couple of readers found them distracting, and I get that too. Animated GIFs running ad infinitum can annoy me, too, so I think I may have a compromise solution. I made them quit looping after four times and shrunk their size. I used a website that I have used before called EZGIF.COM which made the whole thing incredibly easy. If you are looking to do anything with animated GIFs, I suggest checking them out.

Today both Mrs. Herb and Daughter were doing fairly well. Daughter has been a childcare provider and has a number of certificates and working toward her degree. She is really good at it because she builds relationships with kids and they love her. It was no surprise that a four-year-old invited her to her birthday party. It was actually a family get-together but Tab is family to her kids. She took care of this baby since she was 6 weeks old. One of the little girl’s best friends is the five-year-old grandson who lives here a week on and a week off. By a fortunate circumstance, he happened to be here to go to the party as well. Tab immediately becomes family to anyone who gets to know her and her presence was requested at another family gathering later in the afternoon by a ninety-something-year-old lady. She is part of that family as well and went to a BBQ directly from the birthday party. She came home thoroughly exhausted and physically drained, but happy and full of stories. She took time to watch the five-year-old dye eggs as well.

With her being away all afternoon and going to get a ride home, that gave Mrs. Herb and I pretty much a whole afternoon to go on a date. My wife is a crafter of the first order and has a shop she loves to browse with the likely name of “Who Gives A Scrap.” It is full of donated pieces of assorted junk, usually worthless to a normal person, items that are a treasure to an imaginative and creative person. To be fair, they do get some nice things donated as well and the place is eclectic, to say the least. It isn’t all junk, however, and one of the things that they do get a lot of is crafting items that a person thought they might enjoy but then realized they didn’t have a clue about and didn’t want to take the time to learn. They have moved to a new, largely expanded shop which, interestingly to us, was the same place we had gone to for physical therapy from the previous accident in 2014.

Anyway, she never really gets to have the time it takes to browse such a store. Today I took her and she was able to browse everything she wanted. She found some things but the one thing she wanted, a craft supply called “Stickles,” wasn’t available this time around. There were a lot of other things, though. As I said it isn’t all junk. One time I picked up a Schaeffer White Dot Fountain Pen from the late Fifties to early Sixties which I use. We had to shuttle Daughter one time today and wound up on the other side of town when we got hungry. My wife almost never declares what she wants to eat or where she’d like to go so when she said, “I think I’d like some shrimp” I was pleasantly surprised and as it worked out there was a seafood restaurant right around the corner (literally) from where we had just dropped off Tab. We then went to the Goodwill and I found a few shirts. By the end of the day, Mrs. Herb was completely exhausted as well. Our original plan had been to go out for some soft-serve but I still had to go to the store for last-minute Easter Dinner supplies so while I was there I got some cones and some Artisan Vanilla Bean ice cream.

It was late by the time I got on the computer this evening and started working on fixing the animated gifs. When I went to upload them I discovered that my SSL certificate had expired which means the one for Brothers Campfire was going to expire as well. Some hosting services include it with your domain and some charge for it. Godaddy, who has been my host since I got my first website, charges for it but you don’t have to buy theirs and you can install your own if you can find one. Well, I have found a source for them. There is a site called PunchSalad.com where the guy has a very easy-to-use process set up to provide free SSL certification. I try to punch the “Buy Me A Coffee” button when I can (which, sadly, isn’t often) because this is a very valuable service. It takes time, though and by the time I got here to be with you nice people, I was feeling like an old codger.

By the way, why do people say that? Old Codger. It’s like saying I’m going to use my PIN number at the ATM machine. Uh-oh. I’m starting to feel curmudgeonly, so, good night.