Sunday, March 22, 2009

Qwest for a working computer ...or why I still love my pen and paper



My cousin Paul is giving my butt a kick to start writing again so I am on a borrowed computer until I can get my laptop working properly. I think I'd better recap since my absence has been due to technical difficulties. Here's what happened:

  • Nov. 2008 - My old computer dies from sheer exhaustion on election night and Barack Obama becomes President. It was worth the sacrifice.
  • Dec. 2009 - who cares. It's the holiday season and I would rather visit face-to face instead of face to Facebook. I am broke anyway so computer issue will have to wait till next year.
  • Jan. 2009 - Good friend at work has her husband put together a hard drive for me powered by something called Ubutu. I didn't speak the language.
  • Feb. 2009 - get a used Gateway laptop from work that has been wiped so clean I have yet to soil it. I buy Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007. Load that and call Qwest to get a modem. Yes folks I decide to spring for the wireless and loose my dial up. (Moment of silence).

  • Mar. 2009 - After much downloading and hours talking to people in India with names like Jennifer and Mitch my modem still will not work properly. I whine - it does no good.
  • Yesterday - My second visit from a Qwest service technician and we discover that none of the drivers for sound, video or the Ethernet are anywhere to be found on the laptop. Solution: download them. Problem: can't access internet to download. Solution: go out and buy a 4 gig jump drive to download drivers from another computer. Problem: When I try to unzip them on my laptop it cannot "create C:Cabs" and aborts the unzip process.
  • Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

(Go to your happy place SB.)

Now I never said I was a computer guru but I have Googled C:Cabs and found that nothing of much use turns up. I also added a new WinZip in hopes I could fool it into unzipping the files but no such luck.

My bedroom is strewn with so much non-working hardware and software I am thinking of dating a guy from the Geek Squad just to give us both some satisfaction.

Anyway, Now you know why I haven't written for a while.

















Friday, March 6, 2009

She's baaaaaack!


So sorry about my immensely, obnoxious, long absence but life is funny that way. My computer died on election night. (From joy and ecstasy I presume). I am still getting hooked up again, but wanted everyone to know I am still kicking even if I am not typing. My son, Alex however is hobbling. He broke both bones in his right leg in school last week doing a drama, jumping exercise that just happened to be on a throw rug that moved. Ahhhhhhh! It is our crisis du jour.

I'll write something substantial next time but for now it is just good to be back.