A Week Without a Computer

In case I didn’t think I was addicted, now I know for sure: my computer broke down, and just not being able to check my e-mail for two or three days at a stretch was an unexpected form of torture, reminiscent of the feeling I get when every one of the nearest noisemakers goes off at the same time. (That would be a yappy dog, a parrot, a car alarm, a howling dog, and an enraged toddler. I’m turning the toddler into a book.) Anyway, my neighbor down the hall was kind of surprised by my request, but she did let me log on to my e-mail from her laptop the other day. As a bonus, I got to meet her segregated cats—the one who is determined to eat the other one lives in the bedrooms and hallway, purring insanely to itself behind closed doors, while the trembly potential victim resides in the kitchen and living room.

So you may have noticed this blog has looked a little funny lately or, as I’m now suspecting, every one of my nice followers has been dumped into the great in-between by the computer switch. My apologies! I will spare you the gorier details of my 7-8 trips to the computer store over the course of four days. I find I’m shaking like that front-room cat thanks to having exchanged a record three computers before I got one that didn’t react badly to my other devices and software, also the inexplicably uncooperative wireless adapter, the monitor that refused to work even a little bit, and late night calls to snide techies in Asia who hung up on me when they didn’t have the answers and/or wanted a coffee break. (I promise I didn’t yell at them. But I may have whined a little.) And yes, I heroically slogged over to my sister’s place last Saturday to post a couple of reviews so I wouldn’t miss a week of blogging! Dedication, OCD, call it what you will.

While I’ve yet to fully trust the new (and fourth) computer, right now it’s behaving nicely, the monitor’s wider and the fonts all have sharper edges. What’s more, this PC doesn’t make a funny noise that’s half-way between a grunt and a growl, like a phlegmy old man trying to get your attention. Much as I loved my old computer, it was time to move on.

One Day Later: (1) Yay, my Followers list reappeared! (2) Computer #4 failed me, doing this thing where it froze up for 10-15 seconds every 3-5 minutes, then acted like nothing was wrong. After a refund (no more exchanges), Computer #5 is on order from a DIFFERENT store, but I’m still looking around to see if I’ve been punked by the secret computer people. Perhaps a voodoo curse? Writing from work, naturally...