foyleman

Last Friday I was taking care of some lawn issues. I’m still trying to get grass to grow and I think I found a good combination:

• water the lawn regularly
• seed the lawn once a week
• walk around the yard wondering what I’m doing wrong what else I can do

Well, while placing new sprinklers on the lawn, a guy drove up and stopped in front of the house. I thought he was going to ask for directions, but asked if I wanted a new driveway instead. I had thought about a new driveway a couple years ago, but prices were a bit high and I decided against it. So my reply was, “How much?”

He got out a measure the driveway. I told him I wanted something for two vehicles and that what price I got last time. He said he’d be willing to do it for the same price. This was good because the previous price was for a single lane of driveway while this was going to be double that.

I told him I needed a day to think about it. I wanted to compare prices and check his credentials. However, he turned and said I had to answer now. See, he had the guys around the corner finishing a job and they could start and finish that day. I said, “10 minutes and I’ll have your answer.” He agreed and off he went and online I went.

I made some calls to people I knew that recently had driveways put in. I got one friend who confirmed for me that the price I was getting was pretty good. I looked the guy up on Google and found nothing bad about him. I also asked a local neighbor that he claimed to have done work for them and they were happy.

There you have it… the guy came back for my answer and I told him I’d do it. Later that night I had a new driveway and today I got to use it for the first time.

I still feel a little like I just bought something from the street vendor on some corner in New York (which means I feel like I got something that isn’t as valuable as I thought it was). But I think that’s just my response to being spontaneous. I usually plan things out and do my research before making such big decisions. But, so far so good.

Yesterday was the big day for updating the MODSonline.com website. I wanted to implement new code to make the site run faster. I planned for the update for two weeks running tests and practicing the conversion process. I was hoping to make the transition quick and smooth.

Well, I can hope all I want. It’s not going to make it happen.

The site update didn’t go all that well. What I thought would take one hour ended up taking nearly three hours. The reason was that I screwed up made a few miscalculations. I then had to re-establish the entire server account system to resolve the errors.

The good news is that I was able to resolve all the errors and fix the problem. One thing that helps tremendously is the many backups of the site that I have. I have three backups online, two at home and one more elsewhere. If something goes down, it’s never a total loss.

This morning a few more errors issues were brought to my attention and I quickly fixed those. I think the site is now ready for action. Perhaps a little tuning here and there.. but it’s done.