Poor, sick, computer

May I complain for a moment?

My computer is sick. I don't know how sick yet. Last night it was making a very odd noise and I shut it down let it rest overnight. This morning, it wouldn't start up. I got the Apple logo and it just hung. Finally, I put in the diagnostic disk and it finds a problem with the directory (not good!). I brought it to the office because the repair was taking a million years to run (well, more like an hour) and I figured I could take it to the shop today or tomorrow if this doesn't fix it. (My last back up was a couple of weeks ago, so I'm covered even if I lose the hard drive (yikes!!), but I'd like to run a current back up before taking it to the shop.)

Even if I get it running, it's still probably sick. A directory error would not cause the computer to make that weird whirring-too-loud noise.

What does this mean to you, dear reader? Well, nothing really, except I can't check gmail from work, so if you send an email to that account, don't expect a reply any time soon. Also, it will limit posting activity this weekend (if the computer is still sick). I'm going on an overnight business trip (leave Thursday, return Friday) so it's possible that I won't be able to post Friday-Sunday. Of course, this is not a huge deal, but I had a goal to post every day this month.

I just finished running the diagnostic. It took THREE hours. Not good. The repair suggested would result in losing over half of my hard drive (please choose "cancel" or "repair"—I chose cancel). That means baby computer is going to the Apple store this afternoon and will probably be shipped off to a repair center in Texas later today.

Sigh. I'm sure I will actually enjoy a few computer (at home) free days. Probably, it's even good for me. But the time…the time. I don't have the time for this right now.

Luckily, my "to do" list at work is very short, so the time out of the office this afternoon won't set me behind. But I'm planning this massively long work/vacation trip in June (the scheduling of two site visits in California, time with Dad (in CA) and time with Mom (in Seattle) is a logistical nightmare) and I need all the "overtime" I can get. If I stay late in the office, I can claim "credit hours" and use those for annual leave. I feel guilty about claiming credit hours when I don't have very much work to do, but if I'm actually here in the office and sort of working, my boss is ok with it. I don't have enough annual leave for my trip so I need to put in the credit hours. Long trips to the Apple store in the middle of the afternoon don't help in the credit-hour-accruing cause.

And, yes, of course, I could simply go to the computer store after work. But I won't do that because I have to ROW. I'm already going to miss practice Thursday night and that is enough for this week.

I talked to Mom about my trip and I said that part of what was worrying me was missing two weeks of practice. She said she'd find out if I could row with the Green Lake Crew in Seattle. That would be so great. I rowed with them a couple of summers many years ago. It's not standard practice (for any crew) to let people walk on for a week, but if they would let me, it would awesome. And I would be much less anxious about the whole trip.

I have a "Dear Jamy" all cued up (and saved as a draft in Blogger—good thing too!!), which I'll post tomorrow. Better late than never.

Grateful for: knowing it will work out somehow.