My Mind is Soup

Argh, you guys, I’ve missed blogging on here so much. As promised, I’m going to tell you what’s been going on with the blog.

Ok. As you can see, there is a new theme in progress here. I was slowly working on that. Then, I posted a giveaway at night, and by morning, my blog was gone. With a lovely little ‘account suspended’ page. Bugger. After that, I got an email from Just Host, stating the bleedin’ obvious: ‘we suspended your account. You have gone over the 10% usage of the server, etc. You need to now go from paying $2.95 per month to $150 per month for a dedicated server. Because we’re so happy with you being such a loyal customer and all, that $150 per month is a ‘special’ price just for you!’ Laughably, there was a link at the bottom asking, ‘how did we do?’

Hmm.. doesn’t feel as special as the $2.95 did. Did I add that my account was pulled with no warning whatsoever? Well, it was. Just Host has pulled this stunt on many, many bloggers. I told them to send me my backup files. Of course, I planned to move to another web host. I received an email from Just Host saying ‘ok, we’ll just optimise your account now’. I asked them, ‘do you understand I’m moving to another host?’ To which they replied basically, with an ‘oops!’ Bloody idiots…

Anyway, to cut a long story short, it took much longer than expected to get Just Host to even release my domain over to the new host. They will not hand over the photos I had hosted with them, so rather than beat my head against a brick wall any longer, I’m just going through the tedious process of manually hunting down photos on my computer and elsewhere, and inserting them one by one into each post. The new theme installation is unrelated to this suspension, but of course, that still needs to be completed too.

So yeah, not thrilled to have so much to do. Screw you Just Host, screw you. Oh, and don’t worry, I’ll fill in your tossy little survey and tell you how you did, don’t worry!

The most mortifying part was that some readers tried to enter the giveaway, and it disappeared. Equally mortifying, was working with so many great PR reps, and sponsors and having to explain this situation over and over again. I had just set up an email account via the Hear Mum Roar domain and redirected it through gmail, so my emails became glitchy and impossible to communicate that way. To all who’ve been inconvenienced, I’m sincerely sorry.

I’m trying to catch up on the pile of emails that have built up, and am just about there. Ditto for comments on this blog. I always like to answer all comments, and have been frustratingly overwhelmed by everything.

In other news, my partner didn’t end up needing to go to hospital after all, which, to be honest, was a gigantic relief. He has a brilliant new worker who’s really stepped up to the plate and started demanding he actually get treated. So, basically, because his other worker did such a lousy job, that’s why my man ended up in such a bad place with his illness. It wasn’t really being treated, which led to total and utter deterioration of his mental well being. He should never have gotten so bad to have needed to be admitted, had the previous worker done his job. So, although I”m probably not making it sound like it, things are going well for him now. It has been a little hard because his medication has seen him asleep (or more accurately, comatose) all day everyday, but we’re assured he’ll be trying something new this week that won’t have that impact.

My son is so  much happier now that he gets to keep his dad at home, and that has been marvelous. I’ll still write the rest of the anger series though, promise! For the most part, we’re all doing really well, just fighting off a flu.

Lastly, but definitely not least, is that my mother had a stroke last week in the afternoon, and another one in hospital later that night. It’s been pretty scary. A week on, she has a lot of work ahead of her, but the doctors are very pleased with her progress which has been well beyond their expectations of what she would be capable of. I’m going to try to visit her in a few weeks’ time, once she’s allowed visitors and my partner’s got his meds sorted.

So yes, my mind is soup right now. A variety of thoughts, jobs and demands all slushed together to make something else. Oddly though, I feel as though things are going to start getting better and I look forward to it.

I also have to thank the awesome Violet for offering to help me with finishing the layout, just for the sake of being a good friend. Thank you so much! I haven’t taken her up on it, but am so grateful to know that I have someone willing to help lighten the load.

In the meantime, please be patient, and accept my apology for this post sounding so much like a damn country song! I loathe country music…