Blog problems? the solution is always "simple"

Blog problems? The solution is always simple -- or so they say. It's not simple, though, until you figure out what the problem is. Then you hit yourself alongside the head and say, "duh!"

If you viewed my blog yesterday, my right sidebar was sitting below my posts. It was an irritating problem that vexed me for nearly 24 hours. Then, as what usually happens, the solution is something simple. Yep -- simple -- that's what "they" said in every blogger help blog I read about "the disappearing sidebar."

I was about ready to pull my hair out. My wife was getting irritated by me for my obstinate desire to fix the problem. "You need to get off that computer and spend some time with your family," she kept wailing at me. "And stop dinking with your html. You keep getting your blog just the way you want it, and then you play around."

And I agreed with her. But I was unable to pull myself from the problem. And no matter what I did I couldn't get it to work. Hell, I even changed templates -- twice, and the problem didn't go away. Even with a new Minima template, no tabs, no third column, that right hand sidebar was sitting down below where I didn't' want it. I could have screamed. Maybe I did scream at one point. When you work nights and you are chronically deprived of sleep, irritation sometimes seems one missing sidebar away.

About a week ago I had a similar problem. While my blog was functioning fine, and my html template was visible, my "page elements" page was gone. No matter what I did I couldn't get it to come back. Then, by some miracle by my guardian angel perhaps, I decided on a whim to delete something I put into my template the day before, and wham! The problem was resolved. Now, with my right sidebar missing, I was hoping for a similar "guardian angel" moment. But it wasn't happening -- until just now.

I woke due to allergies. I decided I had better sit on the couch sniffling and sneezing and blowing until the antihistamine kicked in. Then I noticed my wife never shut the computer off when she went to bed. It was calling me: "Rick, come to me! Rick!" You know the feeling. That Internet was-a-calling. So I clicked the mouse. The computer woke. It said hi! Well, not really.

So I clicked on my blog hoping the problem would be gone. It wasn't. I changed templates on a whim. The dog gone right sidebar was still hanging below the posts. Knowing this wouldn't solve my problem, I googled "Why is my sidebar missing?" for the 200th time, and I came across this post.

It turns out, the problem was as "they" say "simple to solve." I don't know why it didn't click earlier. I had added an element to the bottom of my post that was too wide. I deleted it a moment ago, and the right sidebar came back. Turns out the "element" I deleted somehow made the post too wide. I never had that problem before. I'll never have it again. And, I suppose, neither will you since your reading this post.

It's interesting -- isn't it? -- how blog problems seem so vexing to solve until you find the solution. Then you realize that all the help blogs you read that said "the solution is simple" or "I hit myself in the head and said "duh!" when I figured out what the problem was were right -- the solution was simple

Well, now that this problem is resolved, I'm going back to bed. I have to work tonight and I need my beauty sleep.