change

Did you notice? I made some changes around here. I'm not one of those guys that has to rearrange the furniture once a week to satisfy my uncontrollable urge for new scenery, but I do believe change is good for the soul once in a while. Especially after you've carefully considered all of the options, which I've been doing for about eight and a half months. For you observant folks that know I've only been blogging for nine months, you're right . . . what took me so long? It's a combination of technological handicap and pure, unadulterated indecision. Be that as it may, change is here. If you don't like it, you have three options:

1. complain (it might not do any good, but if you really hate the new layout, it's worth a try)
2. get used to it (hey, people adapt to new blog templates all the time)
3. offer some artistic advice to my creative director (he's pretty busy fire chiefing and instructing and freelance writing and blogging, but I'll definitely pass the message along)

In case you are wondering why the new 'Categorically Speaking' section is such a disastrously confused mess, it's because I had no clue that the labels I attached to each post actually served a useful purpose. I figured out yesterday that a list of categories is not reserved for clever bloggers . . . I can have one too, in spite the evil computer barons' best efforts to keep me in the dark. So I triumphantly created my very own, and named it 'Categorically Speaking' (just to spite the evil barons who want everyone to call it something boring like 'Labels'). Then I realized that all of those heretofore useless labels each became its own category . . . and if I had condensed them, there wouldn't be so many categories (like firefighter, firefighting and fire service). I'll speak to my layout manager and he'll streamline it as soon as possible . . . but he's also very busy fire chiefing and instructing and freelance writing and . . . you get the idea.

The long and unseasonable mild spell is over, and winter is back. The good news is that the hockey rink will be in service again, which will keep the boys busy, and reduce the chances of them wanting to build a bigger, crazier sled jump. And I can postpone my search for the tropical paradise called "Healthy Balance" (see my last posting, or click the tag "healthy balance" in Categorically Speaking).

Rescuers pulled out a 35 year old Haitian that had been trapped for two weeks. Call it luck, call it a miracle, call it a fluke . . . I'm sure he's calling it salvation.