After five years running my site on Network Solutions I finally grew tired of their performance issues. It was taking 60-120 seconds to load the home page on some occasions, and inquiries to tech support just got me form replies reminding me I was on a shared platform, and advising me about optimizing my javascript and images to load from a CDN. Yes, CDNs are good. If you have tons of traffic using a CDN can move a lot of load off your server. Some day, if I have tons of traffic, I might care about CDNs. At the moment I don’t have tons of traffic, don’t aspire to having tons of traffic, and don’t think it’s taking Chrome 120 seconds to download and process the javascript in my WordPress install. But thanks for the advice, Network Solutions. I’ve moved my site to Rochen Hosting, and the pages load in about 2 seconds. Meanwhile, you might want to take a gander at the load on your MySQL servers.

Over the last week my family and I had the pleasure of joining the rest of our far-flung and extended clan in Nag’s Head for the wedding of my brother and his delightful fiancee. Which is to say that by the end of the week the clan was even more extended and far-flung than it had been when we started. The wedding was held on Coquina beach, across from the access road to Bodie Island Light. The weather, and the relatives (for the most part), behaved admirably, and an excellent time was had by all. I had never been in the Outer Banks area before, and was captivated by the dunes, the long stretches of pristine beach, the Atlantic breakers rolling in after three days of steady winds. I managed to get out and take some pictures, capturing some scenes from Oregon Inlet all the way to Hatteras Light. I’ve collected the better ones in this gallery. Have a look and let me know what you think!

I figured out that the little balloon with the number “2” in it that appeared next to the “Plugins” menu choice in the admin screen meant that WordPress thought there were two plugins that required upgrading. I’m not sure why it thought that, as there was really just one. But that one didn’t show up right after upgrading to 2.6. It showed up the next day. Once I upgraded Sociable the tooltip disappeared.

Well I got around to upgrading this evening. I’m not sure whether I would ever go through this if it weren’t for the pale yellow nag bar that appears in the admin screen whenever there’s a new version. That’s a pretty effective device. Everything went smoothly, though it took a few minutes longer because I decided to actually follow advice this time and grab a database backup and a copy of the existing files. One little wierdness: since upgrading one of those little “tool tip balloons” appears next to “plugins” in the admin menu. It has the number “2” in it. Apparently there are two plugins that want… something. I understand when comments want to be admin’d, but I’m not sure what these two plugins want, or which plugins it is that want something. Clicking the balloon just goes to the plugin admin screen. Other than that I haven’t noticed any difference, which I’ll take as a good thing. Well, the nag bar did go away, and I guess that’s good too.

I left a message this morning at The Raptor Trust inquiring as to the progress of the young Broadwing Hawk we brought them last week, something they encourage people to do through an option on their voicemail system. Not all animal welfare organizations will provide progress updates to the people who rescue wildlife, so my daughters and I very much appreciate this aspect of their operation. A short time later I received a call from Donna who told me that the bird was doing well, and that she had been in an outdoor aviary since the 6th of July. They were unable to find any medical problem, however Donna noted that she is a young bird and that, to paraphrase her comments, fledgelings often get into trouble. Whether she was just confused and lost, or had been sideswiped by a car without sustaining serious injury we’ll never know, but at least she is well now, and we can look forward to her release back into the skies of Northern New Jersey. I can’t say enough about the professionalism and care that the folks at the Trust have displayed, and I encourage anyone who finds an injured raptor to contact them.

The princess was feeling quite a bit better when I went out to check the cage this morning. We tried to give her a restful night, but of course the girls and I couldn’t help peeking in from time to time. When I went up about 2 AM she was standing in the corner with her head tucked under her wing. A blanket covered the cage to darken it. When I lifted the blanket first thing this morning she was standing there looking at me, beak half open. She didn’t touch any of the chicken the kids provided for her, and I don’t know if she drank any of the water, but she did crap in the cage, as well as outside of it (thus settling the age-old debate about whether bird poop just drops out or has actual velocity), so at least that end of her is working. If you don’t know to whom I refer here, check out the post immediately below this one.

I ran out and picked up a pair of thick work gloves, and about 10:30 AM we transferred her from the wire cage to a cardboard box that would be safer for travelling. She didn’t appreciate the effort we were going to on her behalf, and just about put her talons through the gloves. About 11:15 AM we arrived at The Raptor Trust in Millington, New Jersey, on the edge of the Great Swamp wildlife refuge. The Trust just celebrated their twenty-fifth anniversary, and they have quite a compound there. After a young lady took the box from us we walked around and viewed the collection of raptors. Among the permanent residents are Great Snowy Owls, Golden Eagles, Bald Eagles, Vultures, Peregrine Falcons, and three or four kinds of hawks. It’s really quite a place.

Eventually we want back to the office to collect our box and towel. The volunteer who accepted the hawk from us told us she was a Broadwing, not a Red-tailed. She said that after the bird had calmed down they would be giving her a complete medical examination including x-rays, after which they would know what actions to take. If possible she will be returned to the wild. We’d like to think that’s what will happen. I feel pretty good about her chances after having her talons wrapped around my gloved fingers this morning. The staff at the Trust think she was probably hit by a car and stunned, and if she can’t fly it might indicate a broken shoulder bone. I’ll try to find out what happens to her and post an update down the road.