Mac Attack

Do the words on the page look different today? They should. They're being typed on a Mac. Yesterday afternoon Blair and I drove to Raleigh, mortgaged the cats college futures and came home with 2 apple laptops, a printer (only $25 after rebate), Time Capsule (wireless internet network), and a bunch of cables and crap I have no interest in learning about so long as Blair gets them to function properly.

I'm cautiously optimistic at this point. Things are different, although not terrible different, on the Mac and I'm trying to find my way around. My biggest heart clencher at the moment involves straightening my e-mail. My files transferred over, but I lost the folders they were in. So let's say I previously had a folder called "Dogs," and in it I had 5 different folders for 5 dog magazines, and then I had separate article folders under each of those. Now, all those messages are just listed in one big list that I have to go back and start categorizing. Ugh.

Blair and I are sitting upstairs in the green chairs, legs out on ottoman, laptop on each of our laps. Our conversation consists of me saying, "How do I..." and Blair grunting, "I'm working on it."

Love over a laptop is grand.

The Little Treats In Life

The perfect morning:

• Up early for a 7-mile trail run with a friend
• Spotting a deer bounding up a hill on the trail
• Treating myself to a Starbucks mocha and glazed doughnut for the car ride home after the run
• A clear sky with bright sunshine and cool temps
• Early 80's Madonna blaring on the car radio
• Knowing the whole day is mine to explore and to get work done.

Do I miss the corporate life? You know, not so much...

The Computer - Not Dead Yet

So here's where we stand with the computer. We took it to the Geek Squad at Best Buy and they gave us no hope. $200 gone on that. Then several people recommended Intrex, so I toted the computer there yesterday. $100. They couldn't read the drive either. However, they said they had seen this before and they knew exactly who to send it to and are confident the data can be retrieved. (I liked Intrex very much and will be using them for future repairs, if needed.)

Intrex can remove the hard drive, which we would then mail to this third party vendor. Intrex said it would probably be a week or two before we got the data back. I don't have a price quote at this point.

After all this, I think I'm just going to let the data be lost. We're already $300 in on this little venture and I'm sure it will be at least another couple hundred to retrieve the data.  I'm not sure that what I've lost is worth $500. I've rewritten my article already, so that's done. We've lost our I-tunes, but it's hardly worth paying a few hundred dollars to replace those. I've lost updates to my Access database where I track job submissions and log payments, but I should be able to go through checking and piece together most of that. As for e-mails... I know I'll lose a bunch, but nothing is screaming at me that I must have it. I might be forgetting something, but I'm willing to risk it.

I'll check and see what the cost is to retrieve the data but I think whichever way it goes, we'll weather the storm okay.

And I'd like to think we've learned a little lesson about backing up the computers on a regular basis.

Thanks to everyone who posted on the blog or e-mailed suggestions on where to take the computer!

What's Good In Life

Enough of the negativity already--I'm wallowing in it. Let's focus instead on what is good in life:

• The uber housesitter left Eddy's Slow Churned Peanut Butter Chunk ice-cream in the freezer.
• She also left lager in the fridge. (That's a good housesitter.)
• If you'll recall from this entry, we'd lost the general contractor for our cabin. However, Blair found a brilliant man with loads of experience who came recommended by the Stokes County inspection center. He met with him and feels really good about working with him. Bonus: His name is Dallas. Important, I think, for a contractor to have a rugged name...
• While I lost some valuable data in the computer crash, it could have been much worse. Since I'm not doing a whole lot of freelancing these days, there wasn't as much to lose. Recovering what I lost will be uncomfortable and involve some mourning (like for the half-finished article I wrote that's now gone), but it's nothing I can't bounce back from with relative ease.
• The cats appear ecstatic to see us. They sit still to be combed and purr and wind around our ankles. The first night we were back, I woke up at 2 am to find a tabby had curled herself against my chest and under my chin and was pressed up against me as tightly as could be.
• It's awesome to be home. There's just something about being surrounded by your stuff that makes you feel good.
• I picked up the car today with it's "new" engine with 12,000 miles on it. Long live the Camry!
• There is a red cardinal on the tree outside the window as I type this, staring in at me.

So you see, life is not all angst. I tend towards the morbid and dramatic at times (shocking, yes?) but all in all, life is good.