The good news is, I am posting this from my new laptop.
The bad news is, that didn’t come about quite as planned.
Last week, my home desktop decided it was worn out. It had hung in there longer than many desktops do, but it was tired of being the recipient of my stories of manwhores, my ranting blog posts, and my countless essays and short tales of both hope and creepiness. It was probably also tired of Facebooking, Words With Friends, and my inner weather geek’s obsessive checking of Accuweather.com.
It flitted off to wherever tired hard drives go without so much as a goodbye. And here, I thought we were friends.
I’ve been planning on getting a laptop for a while, and even wrote about my intention as one of my writer’s goals for the year. I knew that the flexibility of writing whenever and wherever instead of chaining myself to my desk might help my creative mojo. The desktop saying “sayonara” just expedited the process a little.
A little more than a week went by between The Great Kaput and my laptop coming home with me. Although I of course have a PC in my office at work, things have been crazy busy in the office, and I barely had time to update even my Facebook status to let my buddies there know my unusual silence had nothing to do with a winning lotto ticket and a disappearance to some Caribbean island.
Meanwhile, blogs went unwritten, 500-word-a-day goals went ignored, and short stories went unedited. You don’t know how much an inability to write will make you tweak until you’re faced with this situation. My brain was not happy with this turn of events, and even beer couldn’t help.
But that’s all in the past now. I’m back in business.
My laptop is a Dell, a refurbished one that my ex-husband put together for me. We’re getting to know each and other and enjoying each other’s company quite nicely so far. I think we’re going to be very good friends.
It is amazing how much catch-up I feel I have to play after just over a week, though. I am woefully behind on blog reading. My Twitter has been quite Tweetless. And of course, my stories and other writings have been neglected.
Before I begin catching up on those things, though, I’ve got a lot of housecleaning to do. Fellow writers, let my experience be a lesson. If you do not do so now, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE start backing up your files. After each writing session, I email my work to myself and then both store it on disk and in email files. If I did not do this constantly, I would be in mourning right now. Even one good writing session is too much to lose if your trusty computer takes a not-so-trusty crap on you.
So much of this weekend will be sent setting up all my files – my novel and my short stories and my many, many photos, on my new computer. I’ve got to move them into their new home and make sure they’re nice and comfy. Once I’ve got them all moved in, we can start visiting and having good times again.
I think ManWhore and all the others will like their new home.
Enjoy your weekend, my friends. I’ll catch up more soon!
And finally, a shoutout of thanks to AMC for having a “The Walking Dead” marathon and new episode last weekend. Without that and my Kindle, I don’t know how I’d have made it through a weekend of computerlessness.
Writing, weasels, shot fairies and slices of life. 
Hawleyville 
Oh, yes, I’ve been there. I felt stifled without my hard drive and my self-built templates. Good luck with the laptop; I know a lot of people who love ’em, but I still want my desktop. (My lap is really too old for this mishegas…)
I had an external backup drive that worked beautifully when I bought the new computer last spring. But after my new hard drive was installed, I found out that something happened to the hardware; I don’t know when it stopped recording. Upload it, you suggest? I’ve lost an entire album I had built on FB. Pfui!
Ugghhh … those type of backup malfunctions would drive me buggy! I thought I might really miss my desktop too and eventually end up getting another one to augment the laptop, but the more time I spend with the laptop the less appealing that becomes. When I want to put myself in true “work mode” I can still work at my desk as always. When I want to be in “relax” mode but on the computer, I can go … anywhere : ).
Oh no…I missed the The Walking Dead. Crap.
They usually show the previous week’s episode right before the new one so you should be able to see it this Sunday if not before : )!
“The Great Kaput” Excellent title.
Glad you’re up and writing again!
Thanks Jess – am so glad to be back : )!
Aargh – I don’t know how long I could live without a computer. My main computer, a laptop, is reaching a cranky old age and I may have to replace it soon. I’m very reluctant to do this. I have so much crap on it that it would take forever to transfer the data!
Hi Margy – thanks for stopping by! I know what you mean – transferring my data has taken up much of my time and I’m still not all the way finished getting organized. It is like our primary computers become part of our brains, isn’t it? : ).
Sigh…yes!
The most recent episode of The Walking Dead was available on the AMC website. I haven’t checked to see if it’s still available.
Must have driven you crazy! Can’t imagine, but glad you a portable and newer machine to keep you going! I was wondering where you were. 🙂
Oh, it did! I felt so lost and learned all over again just how stuck my brain gets when I don’t have a keyboard to tap-tap-tap on. It is bad enough not being able to get to your favorite reads and communicate the way you are used to doing, but throwing in how uncooperative my writing mojo is when I try to find it with a pen and paper was soooo yucky! So glad to be getting back in action : ).
Love your title. Nothing like a laptop, especially a Mac. Just saying;)
So far I am loving the laptop life : ). Mine is a Dell that my ex refurbished for me. I’m still in the honeymoon phase with the joy of being able to curl up on the couch or step outside to read/write on here instead of having my butt glued to my desk chair for hours!
I hear ya! I just bought a netbook last month after I couldn’t take it any more with my desktop. It’s been dying for the last two years and fixing it is out of my budget. I still have all the files from the computer prior to that one on a flash drive and updated said files when I had a friend wipe out my computer last summer. I refuse to save to this computer (a few minor files not withstanding) and exclusively save to a flash drive now. To that end, I’m off my self-imposed hiatus now in both writing and blogging, and I’ve missed it terribly!
Glad your hiatus is ending, Ter – I’ve checked in on your blog now and then (although not recently because of my own hiatus followed by my desktop’s demise …) and have missed seeing what’s going on with you!
Congrats on the new computer! Very sound advice about keeping multiple files. Hope you are well, my friend!
Hope you are too, Monsoon – I once again have a bit of catch-up to play but have been reading about all your marathons! I am loving the laptop. It adds a whole new freedom and flexibility to my writing and I can’t believe it too me this long to go there!