The Back Fence is … Back
It was time to dust off the cobwebs of this old relic that has been the tradition of Moon Productions since our inception over ten years ago. The Back Fence was originally created on Microsoft Publisher (later, on Quark) and distributed by snail mail to friends and family. As the cost of postage grew, distribution was downsized until the time involved to put such a newsletter together was more than I had. Although it kept up skills in desktop publishing, the cost of postage played heavily in the factor to end the quarterly publication.
On paper, that is.
The internet opened up the creation of e-zines, electronic versions of published magazines, and so there was hope for The Back Fence. Ideas were toyed with, a couple of actual publications generated online, but it was at a time when the internet wasn't yet commonplace within households. Debate was made as to whether or not to return to publishing the newsletter on paper, but nothing came to fruition.
In 2004, I attempted again to revive the electronic version, but procrastination led to dust and cobwebs eeking their way back. You can still view that attempt in the Archives section. A new job and new marriage in 2005 kept me quite busy, to the extent that I brought work home. It wasn't until the summer of 2006 when I slowed down — by force.
One of my resolutions for 2007 was revisiting all of my webpages and reviving The Back Fence. Enjoy.
Confessions of a Mad Woman
What a Year …
It seems like only yesterday that we were half-awake listening to Dick Clark count down the ball dropping in Times Square. Oh wait! Now he has his protégée, Ryan Seacrest, to help him count. That's the other voice I vaguely remember hearing.
For us, New Year's Eve is a night like any other night. We haven't celebrated or gone out for the noisy night since 1999, myself, Tony and my daughter Nikki went to a private party at Times Square, right beneath the ball drop zone, listening to Prince since his fated song over and over again on radios in an eerie sort of "surround sound."
I guess nothing else can compare to that night.
And now we have reached — and passed — that night once again … where has that year gone?
Nothing really stood out in the year; it was for the most part spent busy at our jobs. Tony did finally get hired on full time with his company a couple of months ago. He's doing a lot more for his company than anyone previously in his position has done, and they truly like him there.
My job just gets busier. We lost my assistant that had been here before I came on board, which wasn't too terrible a thing; he was young, inexperienced and lazy. However, as the year wore on, and we went through one replacement after another, he didn't seem so bad after all. Additionally, our staff grew to add two more part-time sales people and the workload piled on my shoulders got heavier. It's at the point now that I'm concerned my shoulders will break.
We celebrated our first year anniversary by going to B.B. King's to have dinner and see one of our favorite guitarists — Eric Johnson. Disappointing all around, the food had declined since our last visit there, and Eric was intent on doing mostly covers and not his own original work.
Looking back, that night seemed to serve as an omen …
The next morning I woke to find my left knee swollen. I did nothing I could think of that might have stressed my knee. I told Tony that my one-year warranty expired.
After several doctor visits and physical therapy visits, I gave up before I wound up penniless; the doctors couldn't seem to make a diagnosis. Tony also gave me this great massager for my birthday that works much like the TENS units. What a blessing and no more need for spending 15 minutes with the therapist to get hooked to the TENS unit at $50 a shot. Though, I do miss my therapist. He was a Reiki practitioner as well, and the first physical therapist not to send me home feeling worse than when I arrived.
After nearly four months, my knee was beginning to feel better — and my right knew blew up. With my doctors and physical therapist all vacationing in Tahiti thanks to me, I began to simply browse the internet for information and started taking glucosamine supplements. In addition to the glucosamine, I've adjusted my diet to that of one suffering from gout, and its definitely helped.
So much for modern science!
Unfortunately, it's left me in a very cranky I-don't-want-to-be-around-anyone sort of mood, coming home after work to ice up and massage and live a less mobile life than I preferred to live. I'm just glad that I drive to work; if I had to rely on public transportation, I would have been unable to go to work during those worse weeks. Now, I can walk more than I used to, though I have to be careful and not overdo it. Standing for more than 5-10 minutes is still difficult, making my legs get wobbly and threatening to send me falling.
This past Christmas was especially nice. Tony flew my youngest daughter, Amanda, out here and we spent a great week together. I took the day after Christmas off, and we went into Brooklyn, explored the promenade so she could snap pictures of Lady Liberty, and then we made our way back into Manhattan, making stops along the way for photo shoots. The most exciting moment, though, was the day I drove her back to the airport — only to discover she had forgotten her purse. She was quite lucky we not only lived 20 minutes away, but there was no traffic and we had started out to get her to the airport 2 hours before her flight.
Kids.
But all in all, life is good and Tony and I hope that this finds you and yours well and that your holidays were good, and wish you a prosperous New Year!