I'm back after 5 computerless days and I hope to stay back. I missed everyone.
I apologize to all those who viewed, tipped, recc'd, and commented on my September 5 diaries (I had 2 of them due to breaking news). Normally, I read all the comments regularly, tip them all, and respond to many. I was unable to do that after my computer froze and wouldn't boot up again and felt bad that I was unable to attend to them.
I couldn't come back until right now and I've been newsless, informationless, emailless, internet radioless, podcastless, and diaryless for 5 days. I feel stupid and ill informed relying only on the traditional media for just 5 days. I missed reading about the last 2 days of the Democratic National Convention and getting all those insights that are only available here.
It's my new computer - set up in June - bought to replace my 7 year old computer which I found myself referring to as the Tower of Misery (so slow I had to set comments to be shrunken in diaries so the diaries would load). The new Dell Inspiron One 2320 has been a pain in the butt since it was new. And I still have 2 more payments to make on it.
Dell blamed software conflicts and their "fixes" only made matterso worse so they sent me a thumb drive so the computer would be "set back to day 1". My computer guy had to come over to do this and again set up the new computer, transfer my files and do all the tweaking necessary to make things work. No, I can't do it myself - I'm an old retired nurse and technology exisits, I think, to foil me.
When that didn't work they installed a new hard drive which required Visit #3 from my computer guy and a third payment for his time to set everything up again - he does my stuff on his days off from his IT job and charges me about $20/hour which I usually double as a tip for his continuing help.
All seemed well until last week when my computer crashed. Yet another call to Dell who ran me through diagnostics. After they could hear alarms going off, I read off the hard drive error codes to them and they had me turn the computer off saying they were sending a tech to replace my hard drive and something called a mother board. I was still able to occassionally boot the computer up at times, it was only last Thursday before the new parts were installed. Sadly, my computer tech was unable to come until today to re-set everything up (install pps reader, a back up browser, import my files and favorites, Java, Flash, and most importantly, my Antivirus program (which gave him headaches when it refused to install after several attempts).
I toyed with the idea of plugging in the 7 year old Tower of Misery, but remembered how awful it was and just bit my lip and held out.
So, today I'm back and getting reconnected. I hope to stay back, hope all the miseries with the computer are behind me and will become funny stories to tell in the future, and that my problems are solved. When it's working, this computer is wonderful, fast, and I can load diaries with comments expanded. Pages load fast and I can move about with ease. It's the way it should be all the time.
I missed you all.
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