Let It Be

Well, I've done it again! Or I should say, haven't done it. But I guess a year and five days is better than almost two years, as it was last time. A little better anyway? ;-)

As for updates, I'm afraid that again the Alzheimer's in the News page is the only one that I have maintained with some regularity. I have failed to update the Bibliography and Filmography, but have however published an updated version in the form of my new book, Help for the Caring.

As for elsewhere on the Internet, I'm still involved in all of the below as reported last year, with the exception of the Top AD/Caregiving Sites Community at iUniverse which was eliminated when their site was reorganized. I was asked to do the newly founded Health Community there, but I had the common sense to realize that would be a bit too much to handle.

I have somewhat foolishly begun one additional Yahoo Groups list, Alzheimer's Book Reviews, but unfortunatly I haven't had time to finish reading several books I've started, thus there haven't been many reviews yet. This is an open list however, and others may post reviews-- so consider yourself invited!

This whole site needs a complete makeover badly. You know, in 1996 it was so easy to win awards, and this site climbed to the lower end of the top ten award-winning personal pages. But the Web has outgrown this site and my skills (and my lack of time). The awards are few and far between. Recently I was turned down for an award because of different backgrounds on various pages. Oh my-- there must be a hundred or more different backgrounds, including some of my first attempts at making them way back in 1996!!! I'm trying to learn to do stylesheets, and perhaps next year (or the next, or the next?) I will utilize them in doing that complete makeover this site needs.

Perhaps I might even do the unthinkable within the next few years and begin to use an HTML editor on this site, as my skills are getting outdated. I've been proud of my ability to open up Windows Notepad and do HTML from scratch, as I taught myself in 1996, but perhaps I can do more professional-looking sites a lot faster with an editor. I cringe and shudder as I say that, but I am seriously considering taking that drastic step at work where library webmaster is one of the several hats I wear.

As well as having a multicolored patchwork assortment of backgrounds on this site, and many pages badly needing updated, I also have had the complication of hundreds of non-functioning hit counters since BeSeen stopped providing that services. I found another service, and crossing my fingers that they will never stop, have replaced the code on quite a few pages, though I know I've missed many and am trying to do them as I see them.

Someone made the comment in my guestbook that they would like to read of what is happening to me now. I have thought of doing a blog, and I actually started one once, but I wrote in it only once, and didn't have time to get back to it, and now can't remember where it is. Sometimes I can't remember where all my Web sites are, either. Sometimes my husband finds one accidently and tells me about it. ;-)

There's no telling how long it would have taken me to update my updates this year (or would it have been next year?) if it hadn't been for our first snowfall. It began around midnight, and my husband woke me up to tell me. All the cats and I had to get up to watch, and we all got woke up and couldn't be quiet, so all of us except my husband got up around 2:30 a.m. (after the 1/2 inch of snow had quit falling)-- thus I'm updating my updates. ;-) It is somewhat reminiscent of full moon nights when I was my mother's caregiver (I've had several full moon nights up with my cats too).

It's hard to believe it was seven years ago this January that we placed her in a nursing home. It was snowing that January while we sat up with her in the hospital after she had taken pneumonia at the end of her first week at the home. One of my sister-in-laws who shared that hospital duty with us just passed away last week from cancer. Polly was a good daughter-in-law to my mother, and she will be missed by so many, including my brother, Bob, who is in my thoughts and prayers tonight.

Someday, this year or next (or next, or next) I need to scan some photos of my family and add them on this site. There are so many that I could share that would add to my mother's story, made during that time, or in years past, or since. Someday ... thank you for being patient with all my unfulfilled promised for this Web site. Hey, send some more snow down my way, and I might just surprise you and get something accomplished here! ;-) Happy New Year & God bless you all!

I apologize for not recording my updates for almost two years now, since April 2000. I'm afraid I haven't updated a great deal of my site since that time, however. I have been doing other things at various places on the Web, and I will try to fill you in on all of that in the coming days. The section of this site that I have tried to update regularly is Alzheimer's in the News, and I also try to keep up with the Bibliography and Filmography, although I know I've fallen behind some with it.

Elsewhere on the Internet, I've become list owner for Top Alzheimer's/Caregiving Sites, editor for the Alzheimer's Disease Topic at Suite 101, editor of the Top Alzheimer's/Caregiving Sites Community at iUniverse, editor of the Top Alzheimer's/Caregiving Sites Newsletter at Yahoo! Groups, and author of the book, Waiting for the Morning.

I must admit, as well as falling behind here, I'm way behind as editor and/or listowner of most of the above. I guess I've over-extended myself a bit. I will probably have to give up a few of the above in the near future. Maybe when I do, I can get back to doing a better job at keeping this site updated.

Again, my apologies for all of this, and for all of the unanswered emails and guestbook entries. Most of the emails over the past year have been lost as our 1996 computer has died, and we aquired a new computer at the end of 2001.

Thank you for your patience with me, and my best wishes for a happy new year to you all!

Brenda

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