Sunday, May 08, 2011

This is a roller coaster time. I don’t even know where March and April went—like I was riding in the tunnel and emerged in May. Things are a blur, and some days and weeks my mind spins. I’ve had two colds and the flu in the past six weeks (one wicked cold now.) I’ve also been having issues with this blog site from GoDaddy. In one three-day period I had 327 SPAM emails/comments linked to this site, so I’ve been a bit hesitant to post another entry for the phishers. I am considering relocating my blog to another company, but am pondering the monumental task of moving all six years of posts over. I’ve contacted GoDaddy several times, and they want me to purchase a filter when other companies provide the service for free.

My father has been “out of it” lately, and I know age is frustrating him. My mother spent a few days at the Cleveland Clinic, and we are waiting to hear whether the doctors feel she is strong enough for more heart surgery.

Still at the newspaper but connecting with people through various threads for full-time or additional part-time work. I do get very good feedback from my news and feature articles, though, from the public and from the paper’s staff, for which I’m very grateful.

This last week was busy—of course I have this head cold/sinus thing. I had an interesting lunch meeting with someone about becoming more involved in local community development. Just down the street, where I parked, a company was tearing down a building that I had photographed last summer (see below) So much for preservation. Later I attended an arts-in-education workshop that brought back a lot of fond memories of NEAD and working with youth.  I felt a little better.

Friday I covered a naturalization ceremony where 69 immigrants from 31 countries became American citizens (the story is titled “Welcome to America” and is at www.timesleaderonline.com.) There are photos and faces from the event below.

 The next day I interviewed a father who lost his son in Iraq two years ago. I tried not to think about the irony of, one day, talking with people who left their homelands to be part of the American Dream and were excited and celebrating and hopeful, who came here for a better life, and, the next, day sitting down with a father and brother-in-law of a young man who joined the army to help his family pay for his college tuition, who met his wife in the military and took her deployment orders for Iraq and who, after calling his father to wish him happy birthday, died when his vehicle was hit with an explosive—died fighting on foreign soil for the freedoms we have in our homeland. His brother-in-law still has his photo with the family dog on his phone. 

I also had a phone meeting with someone about some possible freelance work for now that could lead to a more “established” position. It could mean another move to a whole new place, but nothing is for sure. Cannot say anymore about it. 

After a rainy, rainy March and April (and May,) the flowers are blooming. Here in east central Ohio the temps are in the 60’s and 70’s and should reach 80 this week.  Happy May, everyone.