Whispering Winds Blog

It’s gone. I destroyed it by mistake. I tried to be so careful, but the technology has changed so much in ten years. According to WordPress, the format of my blog is too old fashioned to be continued. “Bouquet” – the theme I used for the design of my blog has been retired. I can still use it, but if I run into any problems, WordPress won’t help me fix it.

I still have the content – almost 300 blog posts, but the format – the pretty blue background, the flowery heading, the page links, the sidebar – everything that made the Whispering Winds Blog look like the Whispering Winds Blog – disappeared the instant I clicked on “Change Theme.”

I thought I was just trying out the new theme in draft mode. Nope. The old version of Whispering Winds Blog is gone. So, I’m quickly trying to implement a new “theme” (the word WordPress uses for format or style) for the Whispering Winds Blog. I guess my new theme looks modern, even if it’s not particularly pretty. I have to accept the fact that styles change, even in the tech world.

That reminds me of a conversation I frequently had with my dad. It started when he turned 80. He died when he was 87. During those last seven years of his life, his favorite thing to talk about was all the changes he had seen in his lifetime. He was born in 1904 on a farm in Lake Mills (the farm that is now Korth Park). He talked about farming with horses and how big a change it was when they got their first tractor. Cranking up the old F-20 and driving it across a field was a lot different than hitching up a team of horses and driving them across a field.

Then he talked about riding in automobiles instead of buggies, and how the world of transportation changed next with airplanes. Communication changed with the arrival of telephones. And radios. Then television. He never did have a cellphone or a computer.

I guess I can pick up on Dad’s listing of changes. Specifically related to writing, I “advanced” from pencil and paper, to a typewriter, to mainframe computer-based word processing, to PC-based word processing, to desktop publishing, to blogging. Which brings me to where I am now, struggling to learn a new editor to be able to write something in my new blog theme.

In my last blog post, November 9, 2021, I announced that I had finished writing my fifth book, Hymns for All Seasons, and that I would probably start writing for my blog more often, like once or twice a month. Now, three and a half months later, I’m starting…

Slowly, I’m learning… I’ve re-written the “About” and the “Books” pages of the blog, and inserted the links in the heading. I’ve also added a search box at the bottom of the heading. Brief descriptions of all 296 posts are listed below the heading in chronological order. If you scan through them and see one you would like to read, just click on it. Or, if you wonder if I ever wrote about a particular topic, type a key word or two into the search box of the heading, click on the search button, and you will go right to the posts on the topic.

I have a few notes scattered around my desk about ideas for blog topics. And just yesterday, Floey asked me if we could start writing again.

I guess it’s time to struggle through the painful phase of learning the new tools necessary to “modernize” Whispering Winds Blog enough for WordPress. Hopefully, in time I’ll be able to make the blog pretty again, too.

When in his 80s, my dad marveled at all the changes he had seen in his lifetime. However, I’m pretty sure he must have had some moments of extreme frustration in the past when turning the crank on the F-20 just wouldn’t start the engine, and he wished for the simplicity of hitching up the horses.

That’s where I am now. Quite frustrated. The reason I have pictures in pairs in this post is that I can’t figure out how to size and center a single picture. But I think I can still learn new things. And, I hope that someday I’ll be able to marvel at all the wonderful changes I’ve seen in my lifetime. Even this one!