It's Been A While

I haven't posted for some time due to a few reasons. First and foremost, my old laptop has been limping along for some time. I don't remember exactly when things got so bad I could barely stand to use the machine, but it must have been around the time of the last entry. I immediately tried to figure out what to do and finally just got to an impasse where I knew the only choice was to reformat that machine's harddrive. However, the combination of it being a Mac and a second hand machine drove my confidence to an all time low.

What if I didn't have the right disks? What if I was missing or forgetting something? What would be lost because it came installed on the machine when I got it and didn't have CD's to do a reinstall? What if something went wrong? How long would I be without a laptop all together?

It was more than I could handle!

So I worked hard to get everything off the machine that I cared about. Believe me, this took days and days because I couldn't just copy folders. No, I had to copy file by file! UGH! It was a fucking nightmare! I don't know if it was because the Mac was sick or because I was copying from a Mac to Windows or what.

I then sent out an email to friends telling them for the next little while if they needed to be in contact with me, it would be best to use the phone. I limited my use of the Internet and laptop and just made due.

Additionally, my father and his third wife came for a visit in early March and my health has been really up and down -- mostly down, with up days consumed with keeping up with the apartment and garden. I'm trying and doing okay, but my energy just continues to flag and there seems to be little to do about it.

All that basically conspired to help me to forget about this blog for some time. It was interesting though, I actually got some emails saying, "Hello? Are you okay? I've been watching your blog and you haven't posted for a while..." It's always nice to know that people care! I told myself that I should at least post a message about what was going on but it just didn't seem to happen.

Now for the good news!

A friend had been planning on replacing a laptop for some time. When he found out what kind of trouble I was having (and knowing that I'm not exactly helpless when it comes to computers) he decided to speed the process up a couple of months. So today he dropped by his old laptop for me to use!

What a relief it is! It's nothing terribly fancy, just a decent Dell Inspiron with a pretty excellent screen. So I've been putzing around getting some stuff set up, including Internet connection, and figured it was time to post a note.

I've got lots to do over the next few days -- files to transfer, programs to install -- and I'm sure that I'll start blogging again more regularly as I grow use to the machine. However, I think the adjustment process will be a bit easier. I don't care what anyone says, I'm glad to be back on Windows! It's the OS I know best and I couldn't care less about the snob value associated with other OSes. I just need something that works for me with the least amount of fuss and bother. I seem to have lost the patience for computer problem solving that once endeared me to friends and clients.

There are other things to life and when one's energy grows short, I guess beating one's head against a brick wall is the first thing to go!