The mercury topped 100 degrees here in Hudson today and I finally had enough  … I was steamed with the hosting company.  It’s been close to 8 years that I’ve been hosting the site with the same company and I’ve been very happy with them.  Fortunately (?) for them, they were acquired this past fall by another company and the acquisition plans called for the migration of all the legacy accounts onto a new and updated hosting platform.

New and updated?

It was misery from day one … a textbook example of how to ruin a business.  Doing some quick searches on the web show the disappointment to outright hostility towards the new support plans and platform speed.  I can certainly sympathize.  While I didn’t lose $1000s of dollars as others did during downtime and slow server response, the 1 or 2 people who read this blog every 6 months were no doubt frantic to learn that not only was there no new update, but the site was entirely down.  Being danberall, and always one to stand on principle, the heat did me in.  After 8 long years with WebHost4Life, I’ve moved on.

Eight years?  Something else is coming up eight years next week.  🙂

So this was another wonderful year on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  Woo hoo!  There was some question in a few of the families as to whether we would have a place to stay (confirming only 3 days before leaving), but playing snipe-a-house worked out nicely.  Ask Heidi whether my approach to bartering is worth the stress and hassle.  🙂

While the weather was overcast a few of the days, I’m not sure that any raindrops fell except when it was time for the kids to say good-night to their cousins.  As you might imagine, the excitement of the first morning meant that the kids were rarin’ to go at 5:30am. There were hot tubs to relax in, beaches to explore, and swimming pools to be jumped in from the cabana roof.  As the week progressed, the mornings did  manage to push back to nearly 7am as the kids were so exhausted from the schedule that there was no possible way for their bodies to kick start.

Despite the neighborhood being roused and Child Protective Services being notified by people 100 miles away when we started throwing Isaac in the pool (whether he liked it or NOT), the week finished a resounding success as he discovered that jumping in the pool is not the equivalent of waterboarding.  Yay!  It was a long time coming …  Final verdict on 2010?  A success!  🙂

So I have been a loyal customer of my hosting company for more than 8 years now when they “upgraded” me to a new platform.  The result?  Almost 10 days with a broken site, no support and general unhappiness …. Bah humbug!