Icy roads, an unexpected drive to Anchorage with vehicles overturning and a tech I cannot reach mean my new blog cannot launch before tomorrow

No schoolbuses prowled the streets of Wasilla or Anchorage today. We have experiened a spectacular warm-up, with temperatures out here climbing from the -20 F range to 30 above. The warmth brought rain. The rain froze. The roads became icy and dangerous. School was canceled. Lavina had planned to bring Margie home this afternoon and I was glad. I have much to do before we leave for Arizona Saturday night and I especially wanted to get this new Squarespace 6 blog up and running. I was very close, but had a few other things to do first. Just as I was about to turn my attention to Squarespace 6, Margie called. Lavina did not feel comfortable to drive the icy roads – especially since they would've had to bring Kalib and Lynxton along for the ride.

Margie wanted me to come and get her. She has much to do as well. I wanted to stay put and get these things done, but I could not leave my wife stranded in Anchorage. And, to be honest, given the conditions, if she had to come I did not want any one but me to drive her and I did not want Lynxton and Kalib on the road.

It was a scary drive - vehicles sliding off the road all over the place, a few overturning. According to the news, 90 vehicles wound up "in distress" and there were 45 accidents, several involving injuries, but no reports of deaths. The news reports say nothing of serious or critical injuries – just injuries. I do not know what the outcome was here on the Glenn Highway in front of Eagle River as I drove in.

It took hours to get back home. I was frazzled. I had to take a break. Finally, I turned my attention to Squarespace 6. I got so close, but encountered a strange appearance problem I could not solve without the tech's help. I am glad he is helping me, but he can take hours and hours and hours and hours and hours to respond. I posed the question to him hours ago, but I doubt I will hear from him before tomorrow and it is after midnight now, so my blog is not going up tonight. Consider this a preview of what will be in it tomorrow, as I intend to make the first post a multiple picture post, focused on my trip over icy roads to town and back on the day that Nelson Mandela died.

It will be old news by tomorrow, but still I will post it.

The Daily School Bus: Okay, I believe I have just about got it

I did succeed today at really sleeping in, like when I was younger. I didn't get up until almost noon. I couldn't even eat breakfast at Abby's, because they close the breakfast grill at 11, but I needed the sleep. It was good to get it. I was so exhausted I think I was on the verge of physical collapse.

I have made some decent accomplishments today, including putting up a few experimental, not for publication, posts in Squarespace 6. I have much to learn about the broad capabilities of the platform and there are many, but I do have enough basics down to where I can make blog posts in close to the style my readers are accustomed to.

I have yet to try out the Squarespace 6 iPhone app. Before I can do that I must purchase and activate this trial version, which means I must then also quickly import my old blog into it and target it to my current address. I'm a little nervous about that. So I am going to wait until tomorrow when, hopefully, I can have the tech who has promised to help me stand by to be sure nothing goes wrong - or if it does to help me quickly correct it.

As for this schoolbus, I snapped it right after I stopped at the stop sign at the corner of Wards and Selden I was on my afternoon coffee break, coming home from Metro Cafe the long way with a coffee in my hand. Actually, I had pretty much drank all the coffee by the time I reach the stop sign. There were maybe three or four drops left in the cup, that's all. I wasn't holding the cup anymore, either. It was in the cup holder. So the coffee was not in my hand at all.

I am truly, truly, hoping that this post will be the last I ever do in Squarespace 5. Anyone who dropped in here in the last 15 or 20 minutes would have found a title over an empty post. Yet, I had tried to post it from my phone twice, and both times the picture had failed to appear. I finally had to email the image to myself, open it in my computer, resave it and then upload it into the blog and resize it.

So, you see, even the Squarespace nightmare is theoretically over, it has hung in there to this, which, one way or another, I intend to make my final post in Squarespace 5.

The Daily School Bus: Well, it didn't quite happen today

I got a bit into Squarespace 6 but a lot of confusing things happened, beginning with the fact that the instructional video would not play and Squarespace had no idea why. Squarespace did lead me to another very long video recording of an online Squarespace 6 workshop with quite a bit of good information. Before I could apply very much of it, Margie put Lynxton down for a long nap and then took off for a long time to do some shopping but Lynxton woke right back up and I had to care for him for a long time.

Now I must drive Margie and Lynxton to Anchorage. Then Margie and I will go to a movie and I afterward I will drop her off to babysit for the next couple of days and I will come home again.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow I will get this. I saw enough today to make me believe there are some real advantages in going with Squarespace 6, even beyond my daily phone posts. And I believe the phone post process will truly improve. I sure hope so.

The Daily School Bus: hopefully, this is the last time I will have to post using this technological Squarespace nightmare

We will soon find out if the Squarespace nightmare is truly over. As I have already noted, right after I got to Nuiqsut, I received an email from a Squarespace tech informing me that they were dropping the defective Squarespace 5 app I had been using to post my blog from my iPhone and are moving away from Squarespace 5 altogether. He informed me they have to Squarespace 6 iPhone apps they claim are very, very, good. I was given the option to start a new Squarespace 6 blog and to import this blog into it, or to start the new blog and keep this blog as a separate archived entity.

Either way, I was assured I would have amazing capabilities in the new apps to post on the fly from my phone. I could not make the transition while I was working in the field and so decided I would try it after I got home. Based on his assurance, I dropped my long-running Squarespace protest, illustrated each day with an image of the Daily School Bus. Tomorrow, Tuesday, is the day I have designated to give Squarespace 6 a try. I am hopeful, but not totally convinced. The tech said he would personally be there to help me every step of the way with whatever assistance I might need. He said to let him know when I was going to do it. So last night I sent him an email and told him it would be tomorrow. I have not heard back from him. For the moment, I am giving him the benefit of the doubt as there could be legitimate reasons – perhaps he has been off for the past couple of days, or maybe he has come down with the flu.

Lots of people seem to have come down with the flu.

This is the last post I will put up until after I have either succeeded or failed at making the transition - hopefully sometime tomorrow. Either way, my address will be the same. The option I am choosing to try is to import this blog into the new Squarespace 6 format and to keep the same URL. 

Touch those cat ears gently, Lynxton!

I returned from coffee ready to take a quick shower and then drive Margie and Lynx into town. The plan was to drop Lynx off at his house and then I would take Margie to see 12 Years a Slave and afterword drop her back off so she could babysit for the rest of the week. But that plan changed while I was gone. I now learned we are going to keep Lynx one more night. I sat down for a few minutes. Jimmy came over and sat on my lap. Then Lynx came to touch Jimmy's ears.

"Be gentle to the kitty," I said to Lynx. He can get exuberant. Jimmy's ears are not laid back in the way an angry, hissing cat will lay back its ears. He is holding them this way in anticipation of the coming touch, which he is not sure will be gentle or exuberant. Lynx was gentle with this touch and several more that followed.