Sorry for the lack of new posts in some time.  Learning how to develop a new custom theme and deciding just what I really want to use this blog for.

I apologize for it being so long since I posted.

One big change has been the start of my new job.  The other is that I am writing from a new computer – as the 2 computers I had at home both decided to up and die on me of hardware failures.

Now that the new computer is in place and I am settling in to my job, expect some new posts soon.

As a follow-up to yesterday’s talk about losing my wallet, there is good news.

The wallet disappeared Tuesday evening during a two hour span of time. I searched for it and asked other people in the group if they had seen it. Ultimately, I conceded defeat and reported it missing.

Thursday evening, after going through the trouble of replacing my driver’s license and canceling my cards, the wallet was turned in. It surprised the staff there too – they said they had never had a wallet get turned in after it was reported stolen.

When I arrived to pick it up, we were all surprised that everything except the cash ($6) was still in there.  Nothing missing, no attempts made to use the cards before they were canceled. Nothing was even out of place.

A pleasant end to a not so fun experience.

Having lost my wallet (presumed stolen) the other day, I have been having fun canceling cards and obtaining new identification.  Having few accounts to take care of, this was not a difficult task.  6 phone calls to notify the institutions I work with and the credit bureaus.

In the modern world, think about how difficult life could be without any form of identification.  Since the only identification that I have used for a while has been my driver’s license, I thought I might be in for some difficulties getting replacements.

It was nearly the case, as my driver’s license was the old, laminated style – not the new digital ones that can be easily looked up at the DMV.  My backup picture id is my passport, but it expired last year. So,it was with trepidation that I proceeded to the local office and prepared to make my case.

I had the fortune to be going in on Halloween.  At the door was the number machine.  I punched in my request, and even before my ticket had printed that number was being called.  As I approached the terminal for assistance, I saw that it was being manned by a witch – spiderwebs included.

Fortunately, she was not the wicked witch of the west.  With a sympathetic ear and an acceptance of my expired passport, I was able to not only get a replacement license, but was able to renew it out to 2016.  This one is the new style, so if it gets stolen again, there will not be a problem getting it replaced.

Still, I wonder what would have happened if I did not have my passport available.   Getting a replacement social security card, driver’s license, or birth certificate would have been significantly complicated.  Has anybody had to deal with that nightmare?  How did it work out?  Any tips that you have?

The only thing I can suggest is to get a passport, even if you do not plan on traveling outside the country.  It is $67 well spent.  Just store it in your safe deposit box or safe to protect it.  That way you have backup and have something to start from if you too lose all of your identification.  It sure saved me.

I Am a Packrat.

There. I’ve gotten that off my chest. I find it hard to throw things out. There are people who are much worse off about it but the average person does better than I do.

There are boxes that have moved more than twice without having been opened. Leftover parts from projects that are long completed. Mail from several years can be found in boxes in the garage – among other detritus from the years.  School papers are with computer games, next to hand tools and sitting on top of blankets and clean dishes.

I store things, plan to go through them and make sense of them.  Nothing happens.  I throw out several boxes worth of things that are useless now.  Yet, I do not seem to make any progress at eliminating the clutter.  New things seem to magically arise to take the place of any room I do make.

From time to time, the thought comes to just throw everything in a storage unit for a year.  If it is still thereat the end of the year, then trash it.  That should solve the problem, but I just cannot bring myself to do that.  Part of it is spending money to store trash.  The other part is a fear of throwing out something that I find out I truly need.

Any suggestions on what to do?

Just a quick notice for everybody that I am in the process of upgrading to the current version of Wordpress. Based on the information I have about performing the upgrade, it is possible that some things on the site may be temporarily broken. The expectation is that you will see little or no issues with the site while the upgrade is being performed, and that any issues that arise will be resolved today.

This post will be updated once the upgrade is complete.

Update: Upgrade is complete, and I do not see any remaining issues. Please add a comment if you encounter any problems.