By now most of you know that the blog crashed sometime Thursday, and I have spent more hours than I care to remember on the phone with Go Daddy’s technical support since then. First I had to work my way through the layers of lower-level geeks who assured me the problem was my local internet connection, even though blog readers across the country could not connect.
Eventually I got high enough up the food chain to talk to three different “experts” who had three different reasons why it has crashed and promised to fix it immediately and have me back online in minutes. Of course they did not, so each time I had to start at level A and work my way up again. The last estimate I received was that after doing a complete backup, which I pay Go Daddy extra to do on a regular basis but has not been done in months, they would have me back online by Monday. Maybe. This has happened several times before with Go Daddy, and in the past I have been offline for anywhere from one day to several days.
Finally, yesterday afternoon my friend Barbara House, who produces and donates the excellent RV camping journals I give away in our weekly drawing, offered to log onto the dashboard and see if she could figure out what was going on. And in a matter of minutes she had the blog accessible again. I did lose Thursday’s blog and all of the entries in this week’s free drawing, but at least I can post again, for now anyway. While Barbara was doing that, I got an email from Go Daddy saying whatever she was doing was conflicting with their efforts. So she left it at that and this may or may not post, and if it does it may or may not crash again.
I was ready to say the hell with it and just cancel the blog completely, but I’ve done it daily since 2006 and have many loyal readers. Somebody suggested reducing the blog schedule to maybe three days a week, but if I can’t get online or get it to stay up, how many I do is not the problem. What I AM going to do is leave Go Daddy, after over ten years. I will be talking to a new hosting company on Monday to get the ball rolling. Between now and then, I don’t know if I will be able to post again or not, since it has crashed twice while I was writing this. I appreciate everybody’s patience.
As for this week’s drawing, I will scrap it and start over again when we are up and running on a reliable basis.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
We all appreciate your perseverance! Hang in there.
Please keep the blog going. i am a regular reader every morning. We have known you both since we met years ago in the infield of an arena at an Escapade. Think of the blog as PR for your books and keeping in touch with your friends.
I appreciate all your efforts Nick! Have a great day! ?
Take your time and get things straightened out. I know with my vey limited knowledge of this computer business that it is so exasperating when I write an e-mail or something, and not knowing if I have clicked on something wrong or what but the message just disappears, somewhere up in that cloud I guess. We’ll be here when you get things done with the “powers that be……”
I didn’t get to wish you a Happy Birthday. Hope you had a great day.
Well … I am sorry for your troubles and frustrations! I have to say that I would be sorry to have you end this blog and lose it as part of my morning routine. Yours is one of the voices I allow into my head as I adjust to each new day and begin the process of waking my brain and getting ready to mingle with the rest of the world. It is a very selective process! I have to begin with the gentler, more soothing scenarios before I can stand moving on to the major news networks and the insanity that I am bombarded with from all sides. I would very much miss the brief visit with you and Miss Terry pottering around your home and kitchen … looking for manatees and threading the loom. So … please take a deep breath and gird your loins and find a new host for your daily slices of life. I’d appreciate that!
You are not the first that I have read that was having problems with Go-Daddy.
Good luck changing over.
Be Safe and Enjoy!
It’s about time.
These types of hassles make life less than fun, good luck! I for one appreciate you taking the time to fix this, I do enjoy your blog!
I read it everyday, and I am glad you only lost one day, so far.
We hope you don’t stop, have been reading it for many years, read all your books and used to get the paper. When we are on the road I always read it out loud to my husband. Hang in there.
John G Burton, Good Luck…