First, important question. Does anybody have experience with WP Engine private server hosting? Are they worth the money, because the price they quoted me is stratospheric.
Three days ago
Me: There is a giant mosquito.
Gordon, picking up a fly swatter: I’ll get it.
Me: I think you might need a bigger flyswatter.
Two days ago
Me: There is a spider of significant size in the bathroom.
Gordon: I’ll take it outside. ::Reviewing the size of the spider:: Hmm. No, I think I may have to kill this one.
Last night
Me, walking in my nightgown into the study.
Gordon: ?
Me: There is a scorpion in the closet.
Gordon, getting up.
Me: No need. I killed it. I just wanted you to know it was there and I almost stepped on it, so be careful walking in there barefoot.
It was a small scorpion, too, which made it particularly poisonous.
Listen, Texas, I am game and all, but quit it. I mean it.
I grew up in Oklahoma and have lived all around the country. Now I live in Virginia Beach which is tropical in the summer. The bugs are never-ending because it’s so wet and swampy. If I could, I’d go north for the summer.
Omg….reading all the comments here….I will never again complain about life in northern ontario. Its too freakn cold up here most of the time for any sort of large insect to survive. Though we do have bears….and moosies. ??♀️??♀️
And never mind us stepping on the bugs, we have to think about our curious, stupid pets. I moved from Los Angeles to Orange County in Southern California, and for the first time in my life came upon scorpions here. They were small, and I found them because both of my cats, of course, were standing over them sniffing them, their noses an inch away.
The house would be up for sale the next morning.
This reminds me of military assignment to TX.
DH employed exterminators to kill everything living in our house—except us.
Next door neighbor accused DH of harming the environment, and gave him a great deal of lip service for it.
A few weeks later, a scorpion fell from neighbor’s ceiling onto his bed, stinging him in a delicate place….a few days later, exterminator was at neighbor’s house.
DH was both sympathetic, and endlessly amused.
#ScorpionRevenge
Hey, when I first moved to Texas, some 25 years ago to boonies outside New Braunfels, the scorpion population was unavoidable. Keep baking soda handy as applying damp/watery teaspoon full to sting site will help with venom. Recommend having a bug guy regularly spray house quarterly. Depending on weather, sometimes the spider population gets outrageous. Just pointed out to Mom still living in N.B. she had a tarantula in overhead light fixture this past weekend.
BWAHAHAHAHA!!!! Awesome!!! Always glad we never had orders to TX…..hubs had tons of TDY’s there, but I was good not joining him! ??
I bought these thing from amazon that you plug into the wall and they keep those nasty critters out of the house! Safe for dogs and cats!
https://www.amazon.com/VEPOWER-Ultrasonic-Repellent-Electronic-Repeller/dp/B07VM4C5F1/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=electronic+bug+repellent+indoor&qid=1565543671&s=gateway&sprefix=electronic+bug&sr=8-1
My Mom said scorpions travel in mated pairs. Hoping yours was too young.
*grins* Get them fixed before then?
You might try looking into “droplets.” Digital Ocean has very good prices. I know your traffic is much higher than mine, but you get your own part of the cloud (a droplet, so to speak). I can do a referral and I think you get 25 dollars off of something, but you can look into it or other cloud server providers and see if it meets your needs. We looked very briefly at a server, but, uh-huh, no. I’ve been on Digital Ocean now since November and I’m very happy with it so far.
yikes, don’t you need pest control? i mean scorpionssssssss?!?!?! what if it bites you in your sleep?
WP Engine – the top tier of WordPress hosting services! I’m guessing you’re being asked to pay around $300 more per year for your web hosting. If you’re spending over 3 hours per year dealing with web issues, then I’d say it’s worth making the switch. If you’re only looking for a few minor improvements then you might consider SiteGround – I’ve had really good experiences working with them.
So much here is about the capacity the site needs and the security levels, which I assume are lower given no transactions are taking place. A more baseline service is likely feasible but without understanding the requirements it is hard to say.
Ah, Texas! Where you can buy gas for your car, ammo for your gun, and alcohol for yourself, all at the same place.
And the bugs…. *shudder*
I started a my first ever teaching position in San Antonio, and we had a cricket infestation on Day One. So they fumigated the building over the weekend, killing literally thousands of crickets. Cricket corpses were everywhere. Which attracted the fire ants, who invaded in search of a yummy poisoned cricket snack.
The teacher in the room next to me sat down at her desk, not realizing there was a cricket corpse hidden under it. She had so many fire ant stings on her legs that she went into anaphylactic shock and had to be rushed to the hospital.
I didn’t renew my contract.
We moved to Texas from Washington
State when I was a teenager. Opened the door to the back patio first day and promptly shut it. There were three huge spiders out there. My dad said they were wolf spiders. I never opened that door again!!! Between the spiders, scorpions, fire ants, and other critters, it was crazy lol! So many huge bugs.
Basic training, Lackland AFB, San Antonio, TX – I, and 40 or so other 18-19 year old girls, discovered the cockroaches can be two or more inches long and FLY! There’s nothing quite like going to the bathroom at 5am and being strafed by gigantic, flying cockroaches!
Not only do they fly; I can tell you from my personal experience, they BITE.
I grew up in San Antonio….I have vivid memories of the Mexican Crickets (followed by piles of dead Mexican Crickets) trees full of tent worms (euww!) learning the difference between ant nests so that I knew which were Fire Ants and which weren’t.
But most important of all…I learned about Chiggers.
Hey yes, one of my clients uses wpengine. I can’t say I recommend it. It’s backend is.. arcane, to say the least.
This explains SO much about your books….ESPECIALLY the body count.
Yeah, don’t step on those. I made the mistake of walking barefoot in the dark (in the house) and one got me between the toes. Hurt like a lightning strike. Eventually the pain went away and I went to bed. Woke in the middle of the night with that entire side paralyzed and my mouth feeling full of cotton. Couldn’t even yell for help.
When we first moved to OK we averaged 8 scorpions a week in the house. Learned to shake out shoes before putting them on, and to keep drinking glasses upside down (you do not want that story). Guinea hens took care of the problem.
Chiggers, though. When you take off your socks and your skin peels off with it you have a real problem. We eventually learned that showering as soon as you come in for the evening and wiping down thoroughly with a washcloth soaked with bleach prevents a lot of misery. (Clothes go directly in the wash – no getting a second days wear.)