What a wicked day

 

All my tecchie troubles came back to me today with such force that I went back to bed twice to avoid facing the day. Last night, my computer did it’s no Wi-Fi thing again, and I could not fix it. That not only meant no email or internet, but I couldn’t write because the computer would not save any new copy. I wasn’t about to work really hard on writing my daily thousand words, only to have them go away when I turned it off for the night—and I’ve always been leery of leaving my computer going 24/7. I rebooted, did everything I knew, and ventured into unknown territory—the Settings page on my computer. Went to Wi-Fi, ran diagnostics, and honestly cannot tell you what else I did. But somehow it worked.

This morning, while Sophie did her business outside, I idly booted my computer and checked email. Took me two seconds to realize I had loosed the hounds from hell who lurk in computers. Without my knowing it, my computer had re-sent some old emails but dated them yesterday, so people thought they were knew. And, I’m sure, thought I had fallen into dementia. An email asking about a guest interview, when in truth that great interview ran weeks ago; a complaint that I couldn’t access the judging site for a contest when, really, I had submitted my evaluation. It was like the last month had been wiped out of my mind. So I spent the morning writing individuals and explaining. One friend sent a link to a site that essentially said that happens, no one knows why, no one knows what to do about it. If you got a crazy email from me, thanks for understanding.

Then my alarm system began to talk to me again for no reason. Having learned earlier in the week, I disarmed it and called the company. Fortunately because of last week’s episode, I now knew my password. Earlier in the week when I fixed this, the tech (and I) took a long time, lots of keypad changes, etc. So I’m leery when this woman said, “You fixed it.” The word security is still highlighted.

But some things did go well. I called my insurance company, found that vision is covered in my policy and I don’t need that extra policy that TCU Is suggesting. Phone call was again so quick and efficient, I was left in doubt. Isn’t that strange—we are so used to long waits that a quick fix makes us suspicious.

The biggest blow was that the county voter registration had rejected my vote-by-mail application. Reason given: I did not supply a personal identification number or the last four of my social number. I had sent one application which, when I called to check on it, had not been received. So I followed with a computer-generated application, which I clearly remember had that information on it. So I think they finally got the first one and rejected it. This morning I sent the requested information in an email—Monday I’ll check to make sure that makes me legal. I am concerned that seven out of ten applications are rejected, whereas before the new law, only two out of ten were rejected. I intend to follow up on that.

On the bright side, Christian, out of sympathy I think, brought me fried chicken for dinner. Looking forward to that. One thing about this isolation is that I’ve been eating well. Jordan made a delicious chicken dish last night—I’m still not sure what was in it, but it was good. And a couple of days ago I made Ina Garten’s recipe for a tuna melt. Tuna salad much as I’ve always made it but with the addition of diced celery and a bit of anchovy paste. When I added pepper, I accidentally opened the wrong end and got much. Not a problem---it was just the right amount of peppery. Used Swiss cheese and broiled it in my new toaster oven. So good I have really bee looking forward to lunch every day.

Obviously my daily writing goal went by the boards. Last night I wrote a mere hundred words, went through an elaborate procedure to save them, only to find out this morning that the computer, despite it’s warnings, had saved the new copy. So tonight I hope to write my thousand words. If the spot on the moon goes away.

Hoping you all had a better day. Enjoy this brief spell of nice weather.