I had a busy day at work today, and didn’t accomplish the three things of “change” by myself outside of that time.

Item 7.1 is still my website stuff. So, for a quick recap:

1. ThePolyBlog.ca i.e., this site, was unaffected by the big server crash.
2. PolyWogg.ca was restored early on from a backup I had, all seemed fine on the front-end with something odd in the back-end, but not big.
3. Astropontiac.ca was restored next, all good.
4. ManagementConsultingServices.ca took a bit longer with some other config issues, but it too is up and running.

So it would seem like it was all good, right? I’ve been actively trying NOT to go down any rabbitholes on this process but tonight I found a small glitch in the back-end of my PolyWogg site. When I tried to go to the main page of the admin panel, I got a 503 error. A bit odd, but umm, okay. I could get the full menu other ways and I could generally access every other page of the back-end, but I couldn’t seem to access the main page. Weird.

It started out innocently enough. If you have a 503 error, the recommendation is to change themes and see if that corrects the problem…it didn’t. Step 2 is to disable all plugins, a small PITA, and see if that fixes it. It did. Okay, easy peasy, it’s a conflict with one plugin, add them back in until it stops working OR put them all back in and disable them again until it starts working again. Except I put them all back in and it kept working. Until I went to access it again today, and I got the 503 error again. And this is despite the fact that I have done a full re-store from backup AND overwrote any particular buggy code with a fresh install of the software. Tonight I got some extra gremlins playing in the setup — sometimes I didn’t get a 503 error code, sometimes I just got a semi-blank screen. Yep, only “semi-blank” — sometimes the side menu was there and sometimes it wasn’t. I was convinced it was a load issue, but I played with the settings for memory, etc., and it was all good. But the pages wouldn’t load right in the admin section.

I decided to go hard-core for a bit tonight, and weeded all my plugins from about 47 down to about 24 active ones. It’s a really harsh cut, and while it improves my speed, it limits a bunch of other stuff on the back-end. And it STILL didn’t solve the problem. I’ve tried everything I can think of, or almost. Even typing this, I thought of one small setup issue I could test. I don’t see how it would make a difference, but worth a shot.

The funny part is after making huge changes to the site to test stuff, three clicks later and I could reinstall from the backup again. The front-end is great, no issues at all. Just a PITA for me on the back-end. I’ve asked in some fora for some suggestions, but I had nothing at the moment. Or so I thought.

I think I just solved it. I took the time while writing this to go check out those other settings, and something clicked in my brain as I did. Two levels down in a menu, hidden from normal view, is a setting I changed long ago. ***But I changed it on the MAIN server.*** Now I’m on the backup / lifeboat server. And sure enough, it’s set to the old settings. I’m not sure that will fix everything, but fingers crossed. If not, I’ve got more work in front of me. Sigh.

Item 7.2 was getting Jacob ready for school. He needs some school supplies, and I saw it as a triple opportunity. First and foremost, I want him to think of it as some sort of “fun” outing. I used to love getting supplies for school, and he got a new lunchbag, as well as some basic things, and a new water bottle. Plus his own agenda for keeping track of all his schedule and homework. He seemed a bit more buoyant afterwards. Secondly, I wanted him to take some “control” of the outing, to feel like there is something in his control despite the level of change swirling around him. He’s already a little stressed with all the change coming at him in two days, but being able to control this aspect, and to get ready for it, might help a little with his stress levels. And third, I also wanted him to have a positive “outing” with Mom. A lot of organizer conversations have been with me in recent months, but this is more of a fun one potentially, and I didn’t want it to seem like I was leading him to water (or a water bottle). I’m more directional on this stuff than Mom is, so I played chauffeur while they went shopping.

And out of nowhere, J had a great interaction with a stranger at Staples, as one of the clerks there has Cerebral Palsy and openly talked to him about it. He babbled like the proverbial brook telling me about her, and then he informed me that THIS Staples is now his favourite Staples.

As I noted at the top, I didn’t do much for this one, it was all Andrea and Jacob, I just facilitated it.

Item 7.3 was a simple health outing for the week. Andrea wasn’t able to attend her chiro appointment today, so rather than cancel, I went in her stead. My back is feeling WAY better.

Onward…