Thursday, August 14, 2008

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

There's nothing quite like being all set for a week of writing in a great situation: a beautiful house in a gorgeous location -- and it comes with a cat (isn't Hamilton cute?). But then out of the blue -- because we're speaking about my dependable Powerbook G4 -- a massive crash occurs. We're talking code in black and white on the screen, funny noises, and an absurd look of horror on my face (or so I imagine). It took a while to get the computer to shut off. It took even longer for it to come back on. I tried to do a few things to help it recover, but mostly I crossed my fingers and hoped. On the plus side, I lost a few sentences at most of what I was writing. And yes, backed up to the external HD before I left, backing up regularly to the virtual drive and the jumpdrive is right here, too.
So far this morning, everything seems fine, apart from a persistent whir that I don't think was there before, but at this point I could be imagining it, too. Yet I am smiling (see, I submit photographic proof -- sorry for the poor quality, but I only have the PDA cam with me). Maybe it's because I woke up to mist-shrouded trees (and wow, bed head!), or maybe it's because I'm drinking from a gigantic lemony yellow smiley face mug (though it's tempting to add a Watchmen touch), but most likely it's because I still have days to relax and write (okay, maybe with a pen and paper) and that's good. Before the meltdown, I had written a good deal which had been surprisingly effortless -- well, for me, which means rather than plonking down the odd word every few minutes, I was actually typing along as fast as my fingers could go (admittedly, not very fast). I started writing (on paper) as soon as I got up today and even had some ideas for a story that has languished for months in limbo after a promising opening paragraph.

So, cross your fingers for me. With luck, it will all be fine.

5 comments:

CL said...

Heeeere's Katie!
;-)

C. Margery Kempe said...

Fingers crossed it won't get all Jack Nicholson here (hate to think of poor Hamilton running away from my limping, axe-wielding self), provided the computer holds up.

At present email, Word, Firefox and iTunes (playing the Punk Rock Jukebox of course) all working fine. Fingers remained crossed.

Wendy said...

Sending good computer thoughts your way!

C. Margery Kempe said...

Argh -- it's not looking good. I spoke too soon I think, being unreasonably optimistic. It's frozen a few times today already.

I do like the way the post turned out, so it appears that Hamilton is staring at me in frank disbelief. She does that a lot, walking into the room where I am and staring at me as if to say, "You're not my human!"

Gene Kannenberg, Jr. said...

I think the look on Hammy's face says, "Why the heck isn't that gigantic smiley face mug FULL OF FOOD FOR ME?!?!??"