“Oh, we have grown
Maybe I’ve overstayed awhile
In my time in exile and
Oh time has flown
And the only thing I’ve learned
I want a life now of my own…”
~My Time in Exile, Third Eye Blind

I have always noted a sense of separation and loneliness in Stephan Jenkins’ lyrics. In Dao of St. Paul, he laments, “Well I confess that so far happiness eludes me in my life. You better hurry up if its ever to be mine.”

It’s been an up and down week.

• The Check-Up

My biannual check-up showed I am in excellent health. My weight hasn’t changed in six years, and my numbers are all fine. My doctor called me “the poster child for good patients.”

• The Explosion

As I was cutting some elm saplings from the core of one of our Rose-of-Sharon bushes along the driveway Monday, I heard a huge explosion from the southwest that rattled the ground. Initially, I thought it was going to be a major disaster like the Murrah Building Bombing, but after a few seconds I didn’t see a smoke plume, so I was baffled. I ran to the garage to turn up the scanner and go inside to ask Abby if she heard it. By the time I got inside, she was already out in the front yard, scared to death she would find me lying next to an exploded lawn mower. I called Central Dispatch, but they had no reports. Social media, though, had the same experience I did, including one friend who heard it in Konawa 10 miles away. We never found out what caused it.

• The Six Days War

After yet another episode of bad customer service and borderline fraud on the part of iPower.com (site crashes and outages, “infected” files showing up in my directories), I decided to change the host of this site to GreenGeeks.com, which Michael, who I regard as my IT advisor, recommended. (Wil C. Fry recommended HostGator, which I also considered.) Readers might remember that I switched to iPower six years ago after my site host then, mysitespace.com,  switched ownership and their service became worthless. Sadly, GreenGeeks was not as capable as they should have been, and took six days and an insulting number of “it should be up and ready in a couple of hours” phone conversations before they actually successfully migrated my site. I don’t want to write them off yet though, so time will tell if they have their shit together.

• WordPress vs WordPress

At least one friend panicked when I announced I was changing hosts, and chided me with, “What? No WordPress anymore? Based on your word, I highly recommend WordPress to bloggers.” I should clarify that while WordPress.com is indeed a web site host, it is not the one I use. There are two ways to use WordPress, and I recommend both. 1. Sign up for a WordPress.com account and use their version of WordPress (example of one I use is here), or 2. Purchase web site space from a host and install WordPress software, as I do for this site. Both share the same versatility and creative possibilities.

• Snorty the Horse

I was assigned this week to photograph a 40-year-old horse named Snorty, who long ago won a tracking contest. Yesterday after photographing U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe, I called Snorty’s owner, who told me Snorty was down and wedged under a feed trough, and he’d been tranquilized by a vet, and a welder was coming to free him. Maybe, we thought, we waited one day too long to photograph Snorty. But he surprised us and was up and about yesterday.

As long as I mentioned Jim Inhofe, I should mention I’ve had these two phrases stuck in my head all week: reptile disfunction, and twat nozzle. I’m not calling him those things, but uh…

• Fatalities and Fires in the Heat

It’s the hottest week of the year, with temperature in the low 100s. Somehow the heat thrust tragedy upon our community, in the form of three fatality car crashes yesterday, and a huge house fire just south of downtown Ada this afternoon. Two volunteer fire departments (Byng and Pickett) were called in to relieve Ada firefighters in the withering heat.

Upon returning from one of the crashes, coworker Randy was getting dehydrated. When he explained he was drinking plenty of water, I told him, “You’ve never been this old before.” I thought that was kind of insightful.

I’m glad to have my web site back. Even if few people visit it, I look at it all the time, and I am proud of it.

“Cause I recognize something in you
that makes me feel I’m not alone
And I recognize something deeper than I’ve ever known
And we’ll never change, we’ll never have a home
This is ours now for awhile
We’re exiles
We are exiles…”
~Exiles, Third Eye Blind