Thank You Very Much
Oct 27th, 2006 at 7:07 pm by Susie
Well, you readers are just amazing. Not only do Mary Beth and Eric have a new generator on the way, they can even get their brake lines fixed. Mucho karma points to everyone who contributed. From Mary Beth:
For the past couple of years, we tried to cover the costs of the Koufaxes in a rather “traditional” bloggy way - appeal to the A-listers to put in plugs on their blogs, and hope such pleas didn’t roll off their pages before seeing a couple of donations come in. In 2004, it worked okay; last year, hardly at all. So, as I mentioned earlier this week, we just figured this year to downsize our expectations, and enjoy running the awards for the sake of the awards.
Thus, we were incredibly shocked when the readers of two relatively mid-sized blogs contributed more in three days to Wampum than the total sum of donations last year. My dear friend Susie Madrak of Suburban Guerilla started the ball rolling and within hours, her readers had contributed enough to cover the cost of critical repairs to our towing vehicle’s brake system (estimated at between $500-700.) The following day, Zeke Clarke, and his pet, Chris, of Creek Running North, requested their readers contribute to our generator fund, and wow, did they come through. Last night, at 11:03 PM PST, I placed the winning bid on EBay for $935 for a 3000 watt Kipor generator, which will allow us to run this year’s Koufaxes “off the grid”, whether it be boondocking in the deserts of Southern California or on the beach in Baja.
As many readers of Wampum might realize as of late, things have been pretty tough financially for 2/3rds of the blog’s editors, those with the surname Williams, to be exact. We still don’t regret the decision of selling our home in Maine; the bubble has now burst in that market, with houses selling for tens of thousands less than last year. Our financial choices for six years have revolved around the needs of Sam and Jonah, with relatively excellent personal outcomes; Jonah is still alive and Sam has made amazing, absolutely amazing developmental leaps forward. And while California’s social services deems us indigent and in fact “homeless”, we have a home we cherish, which has provided comfort and stability to our family, and the opportunity for experiences far too few Americans ever have. Our nomadic life over the past 18 months has led to a complete reconsideration of our material priorities, and a change in career paths for at least one, maybe both of us (Eric’s working towards teaching credentials here in California; I have mine from Connecticut, and only need their reciprocity approved.) At times I’ve been immensely embarrassed over our financial straits, and my concern that such would tarnish Dwight’s reputation, and so have been reluctant to reach out for help, whether from our readers or my blogging friends. Susie has helped cure me of that “character flaw”; from now on, I’m determined to tell readers of our needs, and let them make their own decisions. As I’ve learned, it seems people really do want to help, and even like doing it.
So, thank you all. I have a number of personal emails to send out, but for all who donated anonymously, and especially Susie and Chris, you have our most heartfelt thanks.
Holy crap Susie…
Sometimes a real number would be helpful. When you hear about debilitating car repairs you think thousands not hundreds…
Give people a chance to hit a goal…it works for PBS.
Actually, that was our fault, not Susie’s. We weren’t able to get an estimate until two days ago. All we knew was that we were leaking a pint of brake fluid every two days, and when our front brakes went last years, the bill was over $1500. But $500 or $1500, we didn’t have either amount. Now, because of Susie and her wonderful readers, we do. Plus, I got the car re-registered (it was overdue) and can replace the battery which has started to die if the dome light is on for more than a few minutes.
Granted, it’s still an estimate. We won’t know for sure until we take it in on Monday.
Geeze, Ryan, to me, $400 IS a debilitating car repair…
I think one of the problems with the “A-list” bloggers is that their readership has grown SO huge that most feel emotionally disconnected from the blog.
I read Eschaton, but almost never read or post comments any more. It’s too much of a pain to wade through 756 trolls/flames/etc.
As you found, the midsize blogs are better for having a real community.
Hope this is the beginning of a long, steady, upward path, MB.
I’m always conflicted about the $5 or $10 donation because of the overhead to process the donation.
Yeah, $400 is a chuck of change and I don’t like it either.
Oh, well, I’ll call it a night; we can drag this out later…
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