Apparently brammerville.com has been unavailable for quite some time and i never even knew it until recently i had a conversation with a friend about what i used to blog. I went to my site and noticed a big error saying

“Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL extension which is required by WordPress.”

After looking at a few articles and then finding time to read through each one while at my computer to see if I can fix it, the answer was really simple: i just needed to update Word Press. Once I did that, I was back in business, and I can once again start to blog or share some more thoughts and try to do it more on a regular basis.

Along with fixing my website, the other update i to share is what i thought was just cold turned into what i never dreamed of having or saying. Over the weekend, i never felt well, and pretty much slept. I took Monday off from work and rested. Tuesday I got up and felt fine enough to go to work, however decided to take a Covid home test to make sure it was just a cold, and nothing more. That was far from the truth! The results showed a totally different story and thus put me on a different track for the coming days. I was on the phone Tuesday morning some time talking with my employer, people who i was in contact with over the weekend, and the County Health Dept.

For me, i have been fully vaccinated since February, and just feels like i have a cold with some fatigue. Since i took a Home Test, it was also required for me to go get a Rapid Test so results could be placed into the database system and proper contact tracing could take place. Today is Thursday, and today was the first time i noticed i lost my sniffer (grant it, my sniffer does not work well), but still in a house of essentials oils, there are some oils that should smell.

Now just waiting to hear back from the contract tracing people since they left a voicemail this morning, and i called back, and waited on hold, then had chance to leave a message.

Here’s to another day of taking it easy, getting rest, and trying to get better! 🙂 🙂

SB

2010 was a year of high and low for me, and it actually started at the end of 2009 when my landlord (I was renting at the time) told me I had six months to move out because she was going to sell her house and move into the house I was living in (which was actually her mom’s house). As a side note, I was blessed to have lived there three years, and pictures of that house are here.

Anyway, back to 2010, so the start of the year I was looking for houses to buy in the area. Trying to find a decent house, that was in my price range and that didn’t involve some major remodeling was going to be interesting. I started looking online as well as driving around town to start a list. After getting a realtor and looking at several houses, I found one that seemed perfect for me. Then playing the patience game began. There was two grants I was trying to secure, and one of them didn’t come and didn’t come, and the seller was not going to wait forever, and I was going to buy it, but really wanted the grant that provided me the extra money that allowed me to put down 20%, this along with the help of another grant and my parents. So after a couple of months, I successfully purchased my first home in April!

Also during the first couple of months, I won an iPod nano at an American Idol Launch Party held at John Wood, and I also got to go to my first Quincy High Blue Devil game thanks to two good friends! 🙂

A month later in May, storms came at John Wood. Because of the financial wreck the State of IL is in, we were told that each of the four Service Areas had to decrease staff by 5%. I was really nervous because I just bought me a house and had to stay there for 5 yrs to not pay back the grants, and secondly, me and trying to find jobs takes a while (according to past history). Luckily, I was going to go on a mini vacation for a weekend and see some friends, so I was looking forward to that and not have to deal with stressed about possibly losing my job. After I got back, I was still worried about losing my job, however after some much needed assurance from co-workers in my department and outside my department, I felt a little better about the situation. However D-Day came and went and I still had a job, but my heart went out to those who were let go or volunteered to leave John Wood.

During the summer, I had the chance to go to a STL game three twice. However the first one I didn’t go to because of possible rain in the STL area, and we didn’t want to drive down and sit in the rain, especially when one person in our group, was the first STL game she would have been to at the new stadium. The second time was in July with two friends from work. I was able to get cheap, but decent seats, and we all had a good time. I also had a house-warming party on probably one of the hottest days of the summer and there was about 20-30 people that actually showed up. We decided to move things indoors and compromised on how we did food. For those who wanted to show, but couldn’t or those who didn’t and still would like to see my new place, just let me know or stop by. 🙂 At work, the summer is always the busiest for us, this year I took up the project to implement printing quotas for the students.

The fall brought the students back to college, and I had the opportunity go to one last STL Cardinal game, and the last minute and i took it. I also had the opportunity to play in an outdoor volleyball league with some friends from work. It was fun, and right after that, our church had an indoor league that I along with a friend from work played in. It was also during the fall that I decided to make plans to go back to my alma mater for my 10-yr reunion. I tried to get a group together and go back, but most could not make it. I decided to go anyway, and even though it wasn’t much of a reunion, it was worth it because of two conversations I had: one with a family from OH that their son was thinking about going to college there, and another couple that had a 5-yr old who is on the similar medicine that I am taking for seizures. Those two made the trip worth it. On the way home though, I made up with a good friend from college in Nashville, and did a few things with them.

The year ended with a surprising Christmas. Usually I have a good idea of what I am getting because every year for the last 30 yrs, my parents want a Christmas list from us kids. Being that my fall was busy this year, I never really got around giving them on until really late. Like I said, I usually know what I get by what I put down on the Christmas list until this year when I opened one of the presents and it turned out to be an Xbox 360. To say the least, I was both surprised and shocked! It was a gift from my parents as well as my brother and sister-in-law. Speaking of my brother and sis-in-law, they will be having their first kid in March, so that is going to be fun.

This year was also the first time I’ve been to Starbucks as well as Panera. I told myself i would not go to either place, but i was coerced into Starbucks, and this summer, a friend ask me if i wanted to go out for supper, and i said sure, and was able to finally use my Panera gift card that was given to me by a parent during Upward Basketball. Now, Panera is now a favorite!

To end 2010 here in the Mid-west, only here can you go from 60 degrees and having several tornado watches\warnings to 20-30 degrees by the time midnight rolls through to welcome in 2011.

Thanks to all those who made 2010 a year to remember for me, and thanks to the new people I’ve meet this past year, and may we meet again in 2011!

it’s the 100-year flood 15 years after our last 100-year flood. I think they should say we will have one of these every 15-20 years. The last one before 1993 was in 1973. My uncle owns a firework stand which is now under water. He build a new one a few years after the 93 flood several feet higher than his previous stand. Shown in this picture is both stands. The shot is an aerial picture, and is a little hard to tell how high the water actually is. However the one on the left is the new one and the one on the right is several feet lower than the current firework stand. Oh, once the water does go down, it’s not fun cleaning the mess up. Been there, done that a few times in 1993.

My dad’s sister and family live a few miles west, and as of yesterday, they had 8″ of water in their basement. They got most of their things moved up into their garage or totally out of the area. As well, the only way in is by boat.

My parent’s live in Canton, Mo which the levee is still holding ,but they live on the bluff and not downtown, where there is a volunteer evacuation. Click here for more info. Click here for some pictures in Canton.

Moving south to the Quincy area now. The city itself sits mostly on a bluff, but there are some parts that are under water, like the riverfront, and one of the two bridges are closed due to high water. The east-bound traffic bridge is closed and the west-bound traffic bridge is now doing both lanes. Since there are several different photo albums of the flood waters in Quincy, here’s the link to the different ones. Can’t remember which one has it, but one of them shows a closeup of the east-bound bridge and how close the water was when the pic was taken.

Finally, moving south to Hannibal, MO and Mark Twain Country and some pics from them can be found here. The river isn’t suppose to crest here in Q-Town until later this week at 32ft. Now it’s just a waiting game for most of the area.