A Week in the Dark

Lights out.

A little over a week ago, as I emailed a post to this blog, I was met with a startling message. My blog had been disabled. In a burst of denial, I tried to log on as if I were a visitor to my blog. Again, I received a message. My blog had been deleted.

Disabled? Deleted? Why? Who? Is this part of a Wikipedia-type shutdown in protest of anti-piracy legislation? No. Other bloggers using Blogger were still up and running. So why me?
I read the fine print in the message from Blogger. Was it my cookies setting? No. Had I violated the Terms of Use? No. If I thought the blog had been disabled in error, click here. Yes. I clicked. I clicked again. And again. I continued to click. I sent an email message trying to explain that I had not knowingly violated any terms of use and would like an explanation, please, why my blog was somehow lost in cyberspace. No response.

Since I’ve been burning the candle at both ends since the beginning of tax season, juggling two jobs and a batch of custom Etsy orders, I thought perhaps it was a not so subtle message from The Big Guy Upstairs that perhaps I was spending too much time in front of the computer screen. I tried to adjust to my new life as NB (non-blogger), but I still found it hard to accept. Why would my blog be disabled? I’m no terrorist. I didn’t even protest (overtly) in the 60s. I was so straight, my college roommate’s boyfriend thought I was a narc. I’m a blogging granny who has very consciously tried to avoid any controversial subjects because I know my employers would not approve, and I need my day jobs. I try to link back when referencing someone else’s work and give credit where credit is due.

Then a small miracle happened. I happened to note in a comment to my blogging buddy Edi Royer of Memories for Life (http://memoriesforlifescrapbooks.blogspot.com) that my blog was dead, so I had decided to drop out of the Etsy Blog Team until I could recreate one. She mentioned that her blogging friend Gia from One Perfect Day (http://oneperfectday-accessories-and-bags.blogspot.com) had recently experienced a similar blackout, and urged me to get in touch with Gia.

Gia was more than supportive. She understood the shock of seeing months of posts obliterated without a trace, and no clue as to why. She compared the feeling to someone stealing a diary. She suggested I click through the Blogger prompts again, but this time, instead of using email, disclose my cell phone number. That’s how her blog was restored. And…voila! The code was sent via text to my cell phone. I typed in the code, and my blog, widgets and all, was restored.

Thank you Edi and Gia! I’ll be your Followers for life. And thank you to my loyal little band of followers, for coming back to visit. The lights are on again at Ponderings!

TTFN
LeAnn aka pasqueflower
http://www.etsy.com/shop/pasqueflower
http://pasqueflowerponderings.blogspot.com

The light bulb embroidery hoop art pictured above was created by Jaime from SacreCoeurVintage on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/77664810/light-bulb-embroidery-hoop-art