Hey guys, many of you might remember me for the work I did on the Wiki and all the forum posts I made.
I have not been around or working on anything as of late and I might not be able to jump both feet in for a bit. I know I don't owe an explination to anyone but I wanted to give one as to why I have been absent.
First, I live on the Gulf Coast of Texas. This means myself, family and friends were effected by the hurricane and tropical storms late last year. We are all still recovering and its a long road ahead. Ontop of helping my own family and friends, I am a volunteer firefighter/EMT so I have to help a lot of people there. After the hurricane my truck crew alone was pulling 60+ people out of the water a day. My wife and I volunteer at an animal rescue that was hit hard due to the hurricane and spend a lot of time there.
Ontop of that we rescue animals, currently we have 40+ animals at our home, many of whom are seeking adoption. Some of the sad cases include a dog I found on the interstate, someone had shot him in the arm and thrown him out of a moving car he was also negelected and is almost deaf. We have a dog someone beat till he went blind and we had to have one of his eyes removed. We also have rabbits who are missing toes, ears, eyes, etc because of man rasing them as "pets" in horrific conditions. 5/6 dogs at our home are mild to severe special needs including brain damage, deafness, blindness, PTSD, etc.
My career also took a different path. Our company was sold to a large corporation, that corporation mis-handled it and they decided to sell it back to the original owners. When that happened I was placed in a limbo area for a month or two before I was offered a better position with the "new" company. I went from Junior network engineer / CSR to CSR Department Manager / Network Engineer. This brought on a lot of new challenges and responsabilities that I am learning to cope with and address. So, my professional life is now taking up much more of my time. Also, ontop of my volunteer activities and my job, I was somewhat inclined to pick up a second job working for the city as an EMT for public events like concerts, and things like that.
Add all of this to the fact I am married and want to spend time with my wife and family. That and I would like to persue other hobbies ontop of Pantheon and that life...Well life happens.
In short, I know many people have sent me PM's and I want to thank you for being so understanding. Thanks everyone in the community for everything you do and for being great people. I want to thank the staff for keeping this project as strong as ever. I am not gone, I still read the forums now and again. I want to do more but I am temporarly limited in my abillity due to time constraints and I hope no one will feel ill-will towards me because of it.
I love you Pantheon community. Stay strong.
You've got your hands full, to be sure! Congratulations on your promotion after making it through all that, wew. Family first! You and your wife are wonderful people to shelter all those dogs and I hope they all get loving homes soon. You gave the wiki a great start and it, as well as the game, will be there when you can relax a bit.
Love and successes to you and yours!
Ari
I appreciate your post greatly. Enjoyed the photos :)
My older brother just came back from helping rebuild homes around Houston that were destroyed due to the hurricane’s flooding with a group of volunteers. He decided to help in Texas and I decided to help in Florida.
We are planning to possibly come to Texas together to volunteer.
The well-being of you and your family is the most important thing. Other things can wait.
Welcome back Burnsmh, looks like you've really been through it..btw I am an animal lover and admire what you are doing to help the abused and helpless animals out there. My dog is a rescue from a puppy mill, got him at 5 weeks old, he's turning 10 yrs old in May. Husky shepherd cross, my big baby. :) (he's 100 pounds..used to be 130..til I changed his diet) :)
Cana