Recently I had decided to downgrade my website hosting plan, which would mean that many features like the forum for instance would not be available anymore. My decision to do so was that there was so little traffic, I couldn’t justify spending so much money on an upgraded plan to have plugins that no one really used.

Well, now I don’t have to make that decision, at least for another whole year, because a reader made the decision for me to donate the $319 for the upgraded premium plan!

So, whoever you are, generous donor, thank you very much! May Our Lady of Perpetual Help help you on the road to heaven with many graces in return.

Life Update

Much has changed since last I wrote about my personal life. For starters, I am no longer a reporter for the local newspaper. Corporate decision makers terminated my position for financial reasons. I cannot blame them: local journalism is dead, not just dying. Every citizen with a social media account and smart phone is a photographer and journalist, at least at the local reporting level where journalistic prowess and story telling skill is not required or desired. There will always be specialized reporters and investigative journalism, we hope, but the local reporter is extinct as the triceratops.

I was working concurrently in the U.S. Forest Service at the time I was laid off from the newspaper, so that worked out. I am a front desk worker at the Shawnee National Forest, where I answer tourists’ questions about recreational sites, and general forest information. Additionally, I help in public affairs, taking photos, creating graphics, writing news releases and feature stories, and updating social media.

Another iron I have in the fire is my enrollment in a PhD in Communication program. I am very exited to be doing scholarly work again, but I have found that several years of not doing so has dimmed my wits and stunted my memory glands. I am hoping that with practice ability will follow.

Finally, my seventh child has been born, Francis Thomas, after the saints most famous of those names. Though born premature, he is very healthy and beautiful and I am deeply grateful to God for him and for all my children and wife of fifteen years.

Well, that is just a recap of the past several months of what has been happening in my neck of the woods. I hope you all are doing well, growing in holiness and in the love of neighbor and God, praying at home the mass and rosary, and finding little ways throughout your days to bless God and thank him for your constant creation.