This is our 396th post, and we’re approaching Worth A Dam’s first Birthday! Other great reasons to celebrate?
Our loyal readers will remember that we suffered a website blow last month and have been struggling to right ourselves since then. The kind viewers using Microsoft Explorer have seen a navigation bar of gibberish, and the rest of us on Firefox and Safari had to put up with general untidiness. Beaver friend Kelly boldly offered help, but WordPress was not forthcoming in disclosing her secrets and he despaired. In one of those extended panics that just keep getting worse I wrote our friend Lisa Owens Viani of the San Francisco Estuary Project and said, “by the way who does YOUR web page and um…how do they feel about beavers?”
Lisa suggested a beaver fan closer to home, Jean Matuska who was one of our tree planting volunteers. Like Kelly I had no idea of what she did for a living or I’m sure I would have bothered her sooner. (I’m thinking any woman with a shovel can plant a tree, but how many can decipher html?) So I got my Sunday come a’courting email out and approached with the most imploring and unassuming tone I could muster to ask if she might possibly consider helping.
SHE DID!!!
Today in a burst of brow-furrowing, puzzle-solving, encryption worthy of any sudoko match, she rebuilt our navigation bar, expanded, resized and recolored the links and made more space in between. Then she went back and did it all again for explorer users because explorer is no longer feeling the love from WordPress and obeys only half of every other command it is given. Next she unearthed the beloved Worth A Dam at the top of the page which, like a chameleon or cuttlefish, was there but had so blended into its surroundings as to become invisible. Mind you in the middle of this she continued to respond kindly to all my panicked emails and resembling Washington in the Potomac, remained steady.
And the best part? When it was all finished she said she might continue to help out in the future!
So Beaver friends all need to repay her kindness by following the link to her site and admiring the other sites she has designed. Maybe you have a boss or a colleague that is thinking about a new look for their online presence, or maybe you’re just interested in what a real designer can do. We owe Jean great thanks, and I promise to need her help as little as possible in the future.
