My website, this blog, crashed. Well, it didn't crash, but I and everyone else was locked out. Why? Because I couldn't pay $10 to renew the domain name of donnathomson.com. I couldn't pay for all sorts of boring reasons, but chief among them is that I have moved twice in the last couple of years, changed phone numbers and my VISA card changed its expiration date (and of course billing address). Add to that, this blogging platform changed the way it manages custom domain names. I was so upset that I said to my husband, "I feel like squatters have taken over our beloved home and locked us out. They say we don't own our home anymore and apparently they are right." A lot of my life's work is in this blog and I couldn't access it. It wasn't life threatening, but it felt pretty awful.
I spent upwards of one hundred hours trying to solve the problem with various Google support sites. One person, Peggy, was very kind but couldn't help. Others, I'm pretty sure, were bots. At least they didn't behave like humans. Nothing worked to convince Google that I am me and the owner of my site. It was, as they say, 'Kafka-esque'.
Family always comes to the rescue and this time, my knight in shining armour was our daughter's partner Alex, who happens to be a computer programmer. I have no idea what he did, but my website is back and the damned $10 is paid at least until my current VISA card expires or I move again. Actually, scratch that. Alex has offered to quarterback any future tech problems with my site. He is my friend forever. Now I can sleep again, write new blog posts and keep working on my new book without the distraction of shattered nerves. Ahhh. I'm back home and I feel better.
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