Post(card)s from Winter Break (The Building Moxie Knows Frozen Pipes Edition)

OK. I’ll admit it, we’re on a break.  I mentioned something about this in my last post.  But by now you may have figured — “Christmas Vacation” was actually code for – “I better take a step out before I really start to lose my shit.”

“Why for . . .?” . . . *furrowed brow* You may ask.

The holidays (which yes, have come and gone) are busy enough as they are; we all know that.  They mark the end of every year.  And 2010 I can assure you, actually glad it’s gone, was one strange one for me.  It was filled with many highs, yes, some lows and a few revelations about myself that I just could not avoid.

Going into the holiday season, and as crazy as I already thought this was, my wife and I planned to finally finish our kitchen.  With that work underway, and with the captiveness of her new other man, she also (and almost unilaterally) made the call to move forward with our long-intentioned “master” bath project.

“Yeah, so. What’s the problem?” You may ask.

While normally not an issue, that is — a “fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” home project, this one caught me at . . . well, less than a great time.  I had, and for lack of a better phrase, been “burning the candle at both ends.”  And while we never traditionally “over-prepare” for our projects, I usually like to have a little more than . . . and I quote:  “We’ve talked about this . . . *funk eye* . . . the shower will go there, the sink there, and the toilet there.  Oh and by the way – we need to have everything picked out by next Monday.” (We actually had a little more time than that — but it sounds much better, in this story, if I write it just so.)

It was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  My back — and something had to give.  Our site had just been “hacked” for a second time – and the thought of blog posts from the wee hours of the morning – just. a. little. too much to bear . . . .  So I didn’t fight, instead . . . “Winter Break!”

“OK. So when will you be back?” You may ask.

When we’ll be back on a regular posting schedule . . . well, um >> honestly still not sure.  I was able to fix most of the issues introduced by the Magic Quotes incident.  (You may notice the absence of quotation marks in some quoted material and an inconsistent comment count in some places.)  The details surrounding that invasion, and the feelings resulting from it, I still can’t speak of without a whimper.

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My partner in crime Barry and I remain in contact; we speak almost every other day.  We talk of some of the things we’d like to see happen in 2011. And what we need to do to achieve those things.

Running Building Moxie, as it was, as a daily, and given each of our own day to day responsibilities — we admit, proved to be difficult.  It was just not wholly sustainable.  Some changes (and maybe only in the way we manage things) were needed.

This is not to say that our dedication to the “cause” has diminished.  We remain committed to the idea of a broad-based, community-driven blog.  Building Moxie, I see it now, is built upon, and for, the more human aspects of what we all do . . . within this industry and beyond.

Logistics, maybe, or asking for and finding help . . . is that our answer?  And I probably couldn’t have written those things, just like that, before we took this break.

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Thanks for reading.  More in a day or two. jb