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Now - Ruby's Yesterdays

Posted 4 January 2005

When my husband Jim decided his nature almanac, The Waterman and Hill-Traveller's companion, needed a website, I said "Sounds good." When he told me I was to be his "web mistress," I said "No! No way."

But his stubborn conviction that I was going to undertake the assignment overcame my resistance. I decided that I needed a "practice site," something I could get on the Web to get my feet wet for his "real" site. But what would I do for content?

"Just keep a journal," I told myself. "I've always wanted to do that, anyway."

Well yes. Time and again I've tried to keep a journal, but I never make entries for more than a few days, a few weeks at most.

Not only did I not stick with it, when I looked back on it, I didn't even want to read it.

So I thought harder. "The books on writing all say Write what you know." I told myself. "But I've never wanted to do that. I write about what I want, not about what I have. But I bet it would be good for me to write from my experience. And after all, my life isn't very interesting, but when I meet new people, they seem to enjoy hearing my stories. So why not write down my stories?"

I put my first "memoir" up in Sept 2002. I started out using Tripod's Sitebuilder, and then for a combination of reasons I transfered to this site where I'm using a simpler HTML editor, writing new entries and transfering the previously posted ones to this site. I haven't always made my weekly deadline - I haven't even always posted every month! But as I wrote this in January 2004, and even as I picked it up again this December, I've stuck with this longer than I've ever stuck with a conventional journal. My old friends say they've enjoyed it, and I've made some new friends along the way. One of those is Dawn, and inspired by her Encourager Site, I got more interested in "Art for art's sake" backgrounds. I thought that would be a passing fancy. I exected to try out all the ones I liked on a bargain disk I'd bought at Staples and then settle on just a few. Instead I've been delighted by how much someone with an old copy of Photoshop, no artistic ablilty and a few free programs can accomplish for themselves.

I'm running out of stories that pop to mind, although I'm still finding them when I dig a little deeper.

2004 was an unproductive year for Tuesdays, I'm afraid. But I worked on naturealmanac.com and finally took some steps to shake off a long period of depression.

One of those was to try to get help dealing with the tinnitus that's been creeping up on me for years. My doctor gave me a referal to an ear doctor, who gave me a referal to a psychotherapist, who gave me a referal to a hypnotherapist,Don Benitone, when I mentioned someone else had suggested that avenue.

Even the first session helped (I've had two sessions as I write this.) The funny thing is, Mr. Benitone has been thinking of getting a website himself, and after my sessions we've kicked around a few ideas about the process.

I was pulled into this thing kicking and screaming, I found out that I enjoyed it, and now I'm in a position where I can help somebody else get started on a project of their own. I'm pleased with that journey, and it only seems fitting that it's brought me back here to my old site to finish this entry I began a year ago this month.