If you've been following this blog a while, you probably noticed that it disappeared for a couple of days.
And I take full credit. I spent about 12 weeks putting a new site together, but somehow I didn't reconnect the link to the blog the way I was supposed to. So a reader pointed out to me that the blog had disappeared – or that at least they hadn't been able to connect to it.
So anyway, I was up till about midnight last night trying to figure out what I had screwed up. Finally, I figured it out by doing something really simple. I just went back and looked at the link that I had on the previous website and duplicated it on this one. And now it works just fine.
Someone asked me a while back why I didn't get a professional to do our website. After all, I don't take care of my own yard or swimming pool. Nor do I clean my own house. It's a better use of my time to pay someone to do that for me.
But in the 20 years, TLC has had a website I've never been able to find anyone to work on it who didn't charge an astronomical price and at the same time produce dismal results.
About four or five months ago, I decided that maybe the problem was me. So I once again spent a couple of thousand dollars on a web designer and the same thing happened as before. I wasted that money on a site that I wasn't able to update – a site that also didn't capture the spirit or feeling of what we do at TLC.
One of my pet peeves is looking at the websites that most other recovery programs use in their advertising. The front page is usually filled with beautiful people, without tattoos, who have all their teeth, who are holding hands, laughing, and frolicking on a beach in a resort-like setting. But in my not so humble opinion recovery is not about luxury living, gourmet cooking, or luxury accommodations.
Recovery is about the reality of life. And the reality of life for most of us addicts that we didn't come from Beverly Hills or Rodeo Drive or live in a mansion on a beautiful beach. And I don't blame those who have the insurance that allowed them to go to those kinds of places – but the idea that the recovery there is any better quality than what we offer here is a myth. Plus it's kind of deceptive; because as soon as the insurance runs out those same addicts find themselves looking for a new place to live.
At least at TLC when a person's insurance runs out we don't kick them to the curb. As long as they're willing to work and contribute to their own support we find a place for them to continue their recovery as long as they want to stay with us.
Anyway, to circle back around to where all this started, the website is now connected to the blog once more. However, in my quest for perfection, you're going to see continual changes in the website until I get it to the point where I think it reflects what we do here at TLC: work hard at changing our lives and living in recovery.
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