Random 3 for February 23, 2025 – Weather, last time, blogging comments

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Just 3 today. Slow news week!

Soon!

You can feel the change – We’ve had dreadfully cold weather this February. I’ve been wearing multiple layers of clothing indoors! Sometimes it’s three layers and two are sweatshirts. (Yes we have indoor heat!) I dread going out. It sucks out my energy. Then the weather changed overnight. Last night to be exact. It is moderating and getting more seasonal this week. At this time of year our average should be 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7C), but we’ve been consistently below freezing all day and night. This morning it feels warm (hovering around freezing) and it feels so good. It’s changed my disposition (for the better!). OMG! I’m feeling spring fever! I need another dose of sunshine!

The last time – In the past four months we’ve lost several friends and acquaintances. Each time I hear of a loss, I think of the last time I saw them. I wish that I had known it was the last time. I recently lost a mahjong friend in a surprising turn of events. She was receiving aggressive cancer treatment, and it killed her. I vividly remember that last time she hosted our game. It wasn’t that long ago. She had already started the chemo treatments and was weathering them okay. She would be sick the following day but would bounce back. That is until she didn’t. Chemo treatments are cumulative, so the side effects build as you go. She had to quarantine as her immune system was compromised so we didn’t see her after that. By the end of her 12-week treatment she was very ill and died shortly thereafter. I remember that last game with her and wish I knew it was the last time. I would have hugged her tightly and told her what a great friend she was.

For bloggers – I’ve been having issues commenting on other blogs. Comment sections layouts are different on different blogs and I don’t know why. My blog comment section is in block style although I don’t use block editor to post. That style requires 3 clicks before you can type something, and I find it annoying, but I don’t know how to change it. Sometimes I put a comment on another blog and poof it disappears. This week I received an email from WordPress (host of my blog). They have “guidelines” on commenting. If you aren’t within them, your comment is deleted. The major infractions include one-word comments, overly long comments (not sure what constitutes long unless it’s those spam comments), multiple responses (is that like conversations?), links, self-promotion and support questions.  Now I’m trying to figure out how my poofed comments fit into that.

So how was your week?

72 thoughts on “Random 3 for February 23, 2025 – Weather, last time, blogging comments”

  1. In an effort to fix something that wasn’t broken, WP has really risen to the top of the ‘short’ list. I suspect the reason for different appearances related to one’s theme and what kind of device they’re using but could be mistaken. I’m no tekkie so take that with a grain of salt. I’m also a classic editor user yet in order to comment (after a sufficiently over abundance number of irritating clicks) I have to go through that damn dance as well. It’s mind-numbingly irritating and leaves me feeling like I want to chuck this whole blogging thing. Who needs this much aggravation? No one that’s who and especially those who have been paying for that privilege. So sorry for the loss of your Mahjong friend. #Cancersucks and it’s especially hard to process when the medication treating it makes the end come quicker. A dear friend of mine who is also a cancer survivor said her chemo was a form of poisoning-you just hope your body can outlast it to get rid of the cancer before it gets rid of you. Sending gentle thoughts of comfort.

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    • I’m responding to this in Reader and it’s the old version. Easy peasy, one click. I’m on my desktop but many of my comments come through the block editor. Not exactly able to figure it out yet. I love blogging so I’m not ready to throw in the towel but I do complain! Yes, cancer sucks. Women are still dying of breast cancer despite all the advances we’ve made. This was devastating because it happened fast. We celebrated her last chemo treatment and the next communication was that she was in the hospital intubated. It is poison. There must be a better way but I don’t expect much research in the next few years.

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  2. I’m on WordPress but received no guidelines from them. I’d like to see no more first comments with only an emoji. After the conversation is in process, sure you can use one—but don’t just put a “😁” out there to begin with and expect me to respect you.

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  3. It sounds like February has been quite a challenge with the cold weather! I’m glad to hear that it’s finally warming up a bit and giving you a boost in spirits. It’s amazing how a little bit of sunshine and seasonal warmth can shift your mood.

    I’m so sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. It’s hard when we realize that moments we take for granted were actually the last. Your reflection on that final mahjong game is poignant, and it’s clear how much she meant to you.

    As for the blogging comment troubles, it’s frustrating when the tech side of things gets in the way of connecting with others. It’s so strange that comments are disappearing, and I can see how the WordPress guidelines would make it even more confusing. Hopefully, it all works itself out soon.

    Wishing you a week filled with sunshine and smooth blogging experiences! 😊

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  4. I’ve been having lots of trouble with comments, and I’ve read that others are, too. Not only that, but I’ve used WordPress ads for my books, and that gave me trouble, as well. I don’t pay for my WordPress blog, but I do pay for ads.

    Anyway, I don’t use block for my posts, but I don’t think there’s a choice with commenting. Also, my first comment disappears and it tells me it can’t be posted. When I try again, it posts fine. Try posting your comments again. I have to copy this one before I click post, because it’s going to disappear the first time. Then I’ll paste it and try again.

    Wishing us both luck with this crazy website.

    P.S. Hugs to you in the loss of your Mahjong friend.

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  6. Sorry for your loss. I need to just start living every moment as if it might be the last because regardless of your health, it could be your last. I will try to heed your warning! I’m off to give my kitties treats and hug them! Love you, love your blog, and God bless all!! (cause you never know if I will be here tomorrow to say that!)

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  7. Kate, I am so sorry about your friend. That’s a hard loss. You saw her often and then she was gone. Your thoughts about hugging friends and family and telling them how much we care about and love them are good reminders. I do try to make that happen because we never know.
    I have one blog that I visit that I am not able to comment on. I miss commenting there. After I write the comment, a white screen comes up and gives me a 503 Error code. It’s frustrating.
    Our week was filled with visiting family from MO again. We had a great time 🙂

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    • It was so sudden and such a shock. We all celebrated (by texting because she was in isolation) when she had her last treatment and had no idea what was coming. The treatment had destroyed her lungs. She was 80 but a healthy vibrant 80. She may have had a couple years with the cancer. Commenting has been so weird lately and it seems like I’m the only one who got the email from WP. That’s weird too. Glad you enjoyed your visitors. I love them too but they exhaust me.

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  10. I understand about needing extra sweatshirts! My home office is on the north side of the house and I had to buy sweatshirts and sweatpants to keep warm there. And a space heater. Ugh.

    I’m sorry to hear about losing your friend.

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    • My office is also on the north side but the heating vent is near my feet. The front of our house (which has an inefficient palladium window) is always 5 degrees colder (or hotter in the summer) than the rest of the house and it makes a difference. We are going to do some work to insulate that this summer (hopefully!).

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    • Exactly what happened when I comment on your blog. They are trying to come between us. I don’t know why I’m the only one who got an email about commenting guidelines from WP. I must have been naughty.

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  12. Hi, Kate – Interesting about the email you received from WordPress. I think they may just be covering their proverbial behind. Numerous bloggers I know (including me) have had their comments recently disappear…quite frequently. While it was nice of them to send a list of things that make comments disappear, I am not convinced. Because I now always copy my comment before submitting. Poof! It is gone the first time. But the same darn comment goes through without problem the second time. How does WP explain that?

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  13. I’ve known several people who died from chemotherapy effects rather than the cancer. It was their choice to attack the disease so aggressively. Makes me think about choosing quality of remaining life rather than fighting such a fierce battle. If it were to happen to me, I’d be thinking about that. I’m having trouble with comments of mine getting eaten when I try to make them outside of the Jetpack app. 🤞it hasn’t happened when I use their app.

    Deb

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    • I’m not sure when I’m using the app so that complicates things. A friend’s son eventually died from the treatment for pancreatic cancer but he lived 5 years which at the time was phenomenal. Most people died within months of being diagnosed. When my friend told me about her treatment, I was stunned. It was very aggressive. I had breast cancer and it wasn’t at all like that (my cancer was not the aggressive form). Her cancer was aggressive (she had the BRAC gene) but I still questioned it. Everyone including her family were stunned at the results. Within 14 weeks of starting treatment she was gone. She was 80 but a very healthy vibrant 80 at the start.

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  14. I’m loving the warmer weather. This week we’ve had a high 50 degrees more or less most days. Suddenly it’s feeling comfortable.

    I can’t seem to comment on a couple of blogs I follow. I keep trying thinking there’s something I need to figure out.

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  15. I think we are turning a corner too Kate – we will get to 40 tomorrow afternoon, but before I could get too awfully excited for that, our winds will be gusting to 40 mph, so “no go” for a Park walk once again. If there’s any ice on the path at the Park, it would be daunting enough, without a 40 mph wind buffeting me around. Maybe Tuesday – 44 degrees. How crazy is that when a few days ago it was below zero?

    I’m sorry to hear about your friend … I guess I understand why some people prefer to forego any treatment for cancer, preferring their time left to be battling the disease, not the treatment. So sad.

    I have never heard of that protocol with WP comments – wow! I have encountered that “duplicate comment, you’ve already said that” before, so I just reword it and it “takes” – sigh. I am happy to report I can “like” again.

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          • That does make you wonder.

            I had an odd e-mail from WordPress last week, which caused me to contact them and I’m going to mention it to you. I’ve been blogging 12 years as you know from my recent blogiversary post. So my blog is billed one time, the domain name another time and a couple of years ago I reserved another domain name (“Walkin’ and Whatnot”) for down the road when I’m 90 and maybe not walking so much. These three items are billed at three different times. (I “get it” for the afterthought domain name but … ?) So three times to be billed.

            So, I always got a reminder 30 days ahead that my credit card will be charged for renewal – okay, no problem. Seamless all these years. I got a deal on two years for the actual blog, so I took it and that’s until 2026.

            Last week I got an urgent e-mail that unless I no longer wanted my blog to proceed, my blog was “unchecked” for auto renewal. It was not a credit card expiring (that is in 2027) so I did a bot chat (bot was a bit creepy too) and I got nowhere so I asked for a human. They do not know why I got the e-mail and yes, before I opened it I checked it was legitimate hovering my mouse over the name. They said “no worries – you are paid up – sorry to put you thru this” but they had no explanation why this happened. They said always check your blog to ensure nothing is unchecked for auto renewal. Well, you WOULD contact me one month before right? I have a list of all my subscriptions anyway and when they renew anyway. It was a bit unnerving.

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            • My blog renewal just happened. I pay for my domain and ad-free but the basic blog is free. They bill me 2 times. I always get a notice of renewal before it’s done.

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              • Hmm – well why am I paying $156.00 every other year then? Every time they offer the two years I take it as you have some savings – I thought it was $99.00/year for the blog when I started, but the domain names are around $19.00 I think. I have always gotten notice … this was just wierd.

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                • I have issues the Ancestry. I have auto renewal with that and it keeps going up. I haven’t done a lot of research in the past few years but I do go in there sometimes. I keep wondering if it’s worth it but I would have to transfer my family tree (which at this point has hundreds of people) to another site. On the scale of life it’s not that much. Maybe the cost of 2 pair of sneakers!

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                  • I’ll bet that Ancestry knows its longtime subscribers have a lot of data on their site, so they can “get away” with increasing the price yearly just for the reason you say: inconvenience. We are at the age that we just go along with it for convenience sake. Sigh.

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                    • I’m sure you are right. When I started ancestry research there was a free site but it wasn’t as user friendly so I opted for Ancestry. After all this time I’d have to check out the free site and figure out how to transfer (hopefully) my tree. Ancestry has done a lot of upgrades to make it easy and fun which is what kept me there. However, they charge for some areas of research so I occasionally go on the free site for the “way back” stuff.

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                    • That’s interesting. My friend/neighbor Marge had the Ancestry software and loved working on her “tree” as she had a lot of relatives and tracked down people way back. She even found another woman named “Marge Aubin” – no relation at all, but they kept in touch until Marge’s passing in 2017.

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  17. Sorry for the loss of your friend Kate.
    Commenting on some blogs is becoming tedious as some say I need to be logged in (and I am) and others I have to fill in my email, name and blog site and despite asking it to be saved, it isn’t. It depends where I’m accessing it though, from the notifications ie. pingbacks or my reader.

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  19. I had trouble commenting on your blog just now, LOL, so I had to share that. But I was so sorry to hear about your friend. Maybe we should all end every conversation with what we’d want our people to know. Just in case.

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  20. I am going to start copying all my comments before pressing “comment” because so many have disappeared in the past few weeks. Annoying, but not as life threatening as cancer or its cure (chemotherapy).

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    • On that note, sorry about your friend.

      We lost a friend this week too. He died in the middle of the night of a perforated bowel. He went to bed feeling fine with plans to play golf with his son in the morning.

      You don’t always know when the “last time” will be.

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    • There is that saying, “if the cancer doesn’t kill you the treatment will.” Sadly that was the case in this instance. Comments…sigh. They may have been putting guidelines in piecemeal with some having glitches. Not sure what was/is going on but I got the email.

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  21. God, is WordPress teaming up with Musk now too? Since when do we have a censor. It’s incredible.

    I had trouble on David Stewarts’s site. Couldn’t comment, but it seems fixed now. Maybe yours will be too. They make these changes that have glitches. Can’t anything just stay the same?

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    • Actually Musk gave up censorship completely but WP seems to have picked it up. Some of it is good but I don’t think I fit the categories they listed. Sometimes things go wonky!

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  22. We have so much snow on the ground, the town is hauling it out. It’s a mess out there, but we are also suppose to get a couple of 40 degree days, and I’ll take every one of them. As for WordPress, I have to copy every comment I make in case I get the dreaded ‘error’ message and have to start over. I wish they would just make two platforms – one for their young money making folks which they can keep updating at will and one for the folks who just want to blog and then leave us alone. Too much to ask, I know. 🙂 By the way, this is the third time trying to post this comment. I had to quit all the way out and then go back.

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    • Thank you for your perseverance. I did a thoughtful (not all of my comments are) on a blog on Friday and it was gone in a flash. No chance to copy or anything. I don’t know what happened and I was too tired to try to recreate so it went unsaid (or unwritten). We have had years where the local city scooped up snow and dumped it on park fields but not this year. Just a lot of cold. We will be flirting with the 50s this week and I’ll all for it!

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  23. Sorry to hear about your friend. I know I’ve had a few people in my life who have passed suddenly, and I wish I could have told them one more time, “I love you,” or given them a hug a little bit harder. This might not help, but I’m sure they knew how much you cared about them. 

    I live in a cold-weather state, and we’re experiencing a yo-yo effect with the weather. Last week was mostly below freezing, and now this week they’re saying it’s going to hit 50. The colder weather definitely takes a toll on the body. 

    I haven’t experienced any issues with my comment section as of yet, but then again, I am a new blogger, and as far as I can tell, no one has posted on my blog.

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    • Your blog is an ambitious endeavor with a lot of information and I wish you luck with it. You should attract followers easily. In them meantime, I’m ready for spring!

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      • Thanks. I wasn’t 100 percent sure where I would go with it, but I knew I needed a place where I could get thoughts out of my head and hopefully share them with others sparking a healthy conversation.

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  24. Dang! (on the comment issue) I hope my blog isn’t one of your “problem children” because I always love your feedback. So far the only issue I have some some blog is NOT being able to comment period. I try to send those friends that I have that issue with an email just to let them know I haven’t fallen off the earth (even though we all know it’s flat…..right?). Spring is TRYING to visit us but struggling. Today it was 18 degrees when we went grocery shopping and now it’s 43. We have one day this week when it will be 60. I think it’s a TEASE. Spring is pretty far away for us I think.

    Hugs, Pam

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  25. That’s very strange about the comments. I’ve gotten some comments on my blog lately that are novel-length, and they weren’t deleted. And I’ve so sorry about all your losses lately. That’s a lot. And as for spring – hooray, and bring it on. I’m loving having sunshine today. Maybe we’ll take the dogs out for a nice, long walk, and they won’t even need to wear coats!

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