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Please join St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Center City Charlotte today, June 14, 2016 at 6PM for a Prayer Vigil Service to be followed by a candlelit walk to Romare Beardon Park

St. Peter's Address is:

115 West Seventh Street, Charlotte, NC, 28202

Apologies. I tend to be a bit long-winded and I've yet to find a piece of paper that can contrain to to a mere 1,200 words.

Pish. (Also, I hope this is OK!)

My full, untruncated post of fivrr:

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I bought two web templates from CreativeMarket.com & need help. One is a one-page design utilizing HTML, CSS (incl. SCSS), js, PHP & Web Fonts. It is called “Fabric.” I will not need it until July 27. The other is a "Coming Soon" count-down page utilizing HTML, CSS, js, JQuery, PHP, Bootstrap & Web Fonts. It is called TikTak

The first, Fabric, is fairly well-commented and the second, TikTak seems very well-commented. I’ve been using Sublime trying to retool each of these to fit my needs but, man, I am SO rusty with this stuff these days. It’s sad.

My first priority is for all deliverables to contain really, really well-commented code for all changes made to the original templates so that I can make my own changes. My second priority is the completion of the "Coming Soon" page, TikTak, which I will need no later than June 27.

Then, of course, I will need the final piece, the one-page design, Fabric, no later than July 27. I will be taking care of all graphic assets and copy and if you need them for testing, I can promise a 48-hour turn-around.

This is my first time using fivrr and can’t image all that I’m requesting of you to be worth a mere $5. As soon as I hit ENTER, I’ll be reading the fine print and, if allowed, I will gladly pay you more. I’m not willing to put a number on that yet because I first want to see what your thoughts are and what you have to say about all of this.

FYI, some things I will be asking you to do include are changing the color of the TikTak page and hoping that you will be able to make the border at the top of that page (I may not be using the word border correctly) semi-transparent. It already is so on the Fabric site as you will see. What he’s done at the top on Fabric is what I’d like to see in TikTak

I will be asking you to empower me to make changes to the color of nearly every element. I’m assuming you’ll want hex values which is no problem.

I will be asking you to empower me to move copy, especially on Fabric because I haven’t yet decided on my hero image. I don’t think I’ll need to know more than how to move it up for down. However, if you choose to give me some pointers, I will be most grateful. :)

I will be asking you to empower me to swap one web font for another should that every become an issue. In fact, I may ask you to replace all the web fonts that are currently in use in both templates.

I can’t think of anything else right now but I’m sure I will have more questions and more requests. Please don’t hesitate to let me know what additional information that you need from me!

The Beginning.

It was not a dark and stormy night but this is where my life super-changed.

My Grandfather died last November.  He was 89 and I was right there.  Totally, it does suck, but it was strangely OK then and remains so.  However, he left behind my now 92 year-old Grandmother who refuses to move in with either of her daughters, one of them being my 72 year-old Mother.

Everyone assumed she’d move in with my Mother.  Not so much.  Imagine the following.  She moved from her father’s house, to her horribly abusive first-husband’s house and, finally, to the house of the only Grandfather on my mother’s side that I’ve ever known.  She had never lived alone.  Ever.

When asked about moving in with my Mother (or my Aunt), she railed, “Are you drunk right now?  I’m sorry he’s gone but I’m having fun being by myself!”  And she is!  She’s doing great!

However, she’s able to do so because my Mom does myriads of things for her every single day and my Mother is dreadfully overweight bordering on obesity and has mobility issues of her own.  I should mention that my Grandmother fits exactly that image of the sweet little, old lady.  She, in fact, is a very sweet and charming little, old lady with a wicked sense of humor but who is so Goddamn demanding in almost every way, it’d make your head swim.  She’s a handful even for a team of professionals.

We don’t have a single team of professionals.  Not a one.  We have my Mother.  My Aunt isn’t a factor, sadly.  She’s the baby as well as the under-performing sibling who has no problem letting my Mom, the over-performing sibling, do all the heavy lifting.  In order to prevent my Mother from dropping dead from exhaustion and/or from committing matricide, I compensate for my Aunt by spending about half my time at home in Charlotte and the other half in Lexington.  The rage I feel toward my Aunt comes and goes.  I think I’m getting closer to accepting things as they are.

Where’s my brother, you say?  Being a shit and not helping me even a smidge.  In our ecosystem, he’s the under-performing sibling (as well as the baby) and I’m the over-performing stooge who wants to break his neck.  But, again, I think I’m getting closer to accepting things as they are.

When I make the eight-hour trek up there, I usually pack for a month’s long stay and have three — usually stinky — canines in tow in the back seat.  Thank God for station wagons!  Even still, it’s a lot of trouble but I have to do it and, despite the resentments, I do so gladly.  I like my Grandmother and I like my Mom and want them to hang out with me on this planet for as long as possible.  I never take my PS4, though.  I wanna and I could fit it but I’d never have time.  Seriously, my Grandmother has me on the move very nearly around the clock throughout the day.  “I just got back from Costco and now you’re telling me you need me to go back to Costco to get bananas?  At 4:35 PM?!  You know how easy it’d be for me to kill you, right?  You are very tiny.  Literally, I could kill you dead in about, I dunno, less than a minute?”  Our relationship allows us to talk to each like that.  As I say, she has a fierce sense of humor but, duh, she also drives me insane.

The Middle

On top of all of the above, I’m also starting my own business.  I provide private computer tutoring on Apple products to, well, ladies who lunch.  I charge an obscene amount for my services and I truly enjoy what I do.  It’s what I did for seven years while working for Apple so it ain’t no thang.  I feel very fortunate in this regard but what this means, though, is that even when I’m at home, I have very little time.  You’ll gain a greater understanding of the lack of time thing a few paragraphs down.

But wait! There’s more! About six to eight weeks ago, the HD on my PS4 died, dammit.  So, yay for that!  I was trying to logon to FFXIV and the entire system started acting just a little bit wonky; then, I heard The Sound.  I hate that sound.   I’ve been meaning to order the replacement kit from OWC but just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

The End.

Lastly, as some of you know, my right hand, my number one… she’s dying.  Her name is Paige and she has advanced kidney disease.  We learned this just a little over two weeks ago.  Many things that were priorities no longer are. She could die in a coupla weeks or, if we’re super-lucky, it could be in the area of eight months.  She’s nine years-old and the likelihood of her reaching ten is far-fetched.  My gut says I will have my sweet, sweet girl for two more months.  Just speculation, but I can kinda feel it.  I was a mess for about a week but I’m now in a better place.

Last week, a friend of mine and I and our collective pack spent a couple of days hiking in Pisgah National Forest and it was just what the doctor ordered, both for humans and canines alike.  I’ve slowly been posting photos in an iCloud Album.   As soon as I’m finished, I’ll post the URL.

Because I’m able to set my own hours, I’m able to spend as much time with her as I want.  I even take her to the office when I’m working.  Any prospective, new Student Clients are asked about allergies to dogs and if they provide an affirmative response, I apologize and refer them elsewhere.  That’s just the way it is.

You have no idea how much I miss all of you, mmm… most of you and can’t wait to visit FFXIV as soon as my stupid console gets fixed.

For those of you who don’t mind showing yours if I show you mine, catch me at

r—0—b—b—i—e—h—0—w—e—l—l—a—t—m—a—c—d—0—t—c—0—m (Ditch the dashes and change the zeros back to o’s.)

Otherwise, hit me up on Twitter.  I’m not there nearly as much as I used to be but I try to get on at least once every couple of weeks.  Sometimes, more, sometimes, less.

I’m over-the-moon to have heard from those of you who’ve reached out to me.  Thank you.  It means a lot.  I’ve been a shitty friend.  I know it.  You know it.  So, c’mon…  No reason to whitewash anything.  However, even though I’ve been a shitty friend, I think you’ll agree that my reasons are pretty compelling.    Nevertheless, I offer each of you my sincerest apology.

Lastly, I’d truly love to hear from all of you!  It may take a while to get caught up fully with each of you, but I’ll take that action over nothing.

Much love,

Robbie.

PS.  If anyone knows how to get my animated GIF’s to move on Tumblr, please let me know!  It’s making me crazy!  You’re missing out on my awesome dogs!