Goodbye, 2007.You’ve been an interesting year, 2007. A very interesting year. There was the discovery of the abandoned Turnpike. There was my first handgun (and my second, and now my third). My college degree (albeit ten years too late). Too many court dates (as witness for prosecution, for the record) to count. Even more personal developments. A few weeks ago, I even found myself patching things up with an old and missed friend. Somewhere in the middle of it all, I realized that that it was around this time back in 1997 that I first became a ‘burger. Wow. Those of you who have either lived in this area your entire life or who have “downgraded” from a bigger city will probably get a chuckle out of this. But since I came from a far more rural area (Columbia County), moving to the region was about on par with moving from Harrisburg to midtown Manhattan. I distinctly remember driving down 11 into Wormleysburg (or Marysville, as I thought it to be at the time) and — I swear I am not making this up — being amazed at the “congestion” and “development”. I also remember coming down 81 on a subsequent trip, and how metro it felt to split onto 581 (a state highway with FOUR LANES? And a MEDIAN? And RAMPS? Wow!). And even though I know I am setting myself up for teasing for some time to come, I remember thinking that the retaining walls and sound barriers at the 81 / 581 interchange were signs that I was really going into The Big City. Easily amused, I am.Fast-forward through all the details. The job at PCS One / T-Mobile (yes, the coverage was awful. Still is. Why do you think I use Sprint?), the job at Wink 104, the downtown revolution, the downtown apartment (and the semi-weekly, ever-fun, “Hey Dave, we had too much to drink, we can crash at your place right? Do you have any grilled cheese?” parties), the website, the Cougar (missed), the Saturn (not missed), the Element (loved), the flying, the career change, the blogHarrisburg Annual Summer Meeting, my full-retirement-at-56-future … so much has happened in the past decade. It’s been a fun ten years.So: Hello 2008. Lots on the plate. Sparing you the details of my personal life, perhaps the most interesting change is that the exponential growth of floor9.com and blogHarrisburg have necessitated an upgrade from shared hosting. Beginning in the early months of 2008, all of my domains — floor9.com, blogHarrisburg, HarrisburgBlogs, Happycat For President, and another new project — will be transitioned over to a much more robust server in LA. Aside from faster performance, this opens up a world of possibilities for what each site can do. We haven’t even scratched the surface yet.I’ll be posting more detail on the move once I make it through New Years’. In the meantime, hope your Christmas was as good as mine, and have a happy and safe New Years’. See you in 2008!
