Computer woes

 

The computer gods are against me today. Nothing, but nothing, I touched went right. It started when I tried to upload a book to Amazon. The book, Skeleton in a Dead Space, is something like twelve years old, and Amazon shows it for sale in paperback. But when I went to my dashboard to order a discounted copy, it said it needed to be uploaded. So I dutifully entered all the information again but was stymied when the form called or a PDF of the cover and I only had a jpeg. So I sent the cover to a designer friend and asked her to send it to me as a PDF. She did, but it took me four times to figure out how to save it—I’m sure my friend began to rethink her initial wiling patience. I finally got it saved, had to do a lot of figuring and experimenting to figure out how to go from the saved download to the Amazon upload, but I got it done. So Amazon said in effect “Yay! All done. Now preview it.” But the preview wouldn’t launch because my browser window isn’t big enough. I cannot tell you how many books I’ve uploaded to Amazon without this becoming an issue. I have no idea what to do about it, but Colin will be working from home tomorrow and will help me with it. He can remotely take over my computer.

I made a doctor’s appointment and went to put it on my calendar, only to discover the calendar had somehow switched its format and would allow only one skinny line per hour. That would never do, so I set about changing it—and in the process totally messed up the way Outlook displays email. I maybe could live with the calendar wonky, but I must have my email in a format where I can manage it. I probably spent forty-five minutes trying to fix it. Finally, something I did worked, and it once again displayed the Favorites bar that had disappeared into cyberspace. Now I can’t tell you what I did.

Next I checked notifications on Facebook, something I can really do fairly quickly because a lot are just viewers liking something I’ve posted. Notifications, for the uninitiated or the multitudes who hate Facebook, have a blue dot next to them; when you’ve clicked on one, the blue dot goes away. Only today it didn’t go away, so I had a wealth of messages and couldn’t tell what I’d read and what I hadn’t. I should have rebooted at that point, but I was lazy. I did let the computer rest while I napped, and apparently it collected itself because when I came back to it, the blue dots were gone.

At happy hour I served the dipping spices I’d made, and Mary Dulle was so taken with them she asked for the recipe. No problem, I’d scan and send it to her. Except the printer would say it had scanned when it hadn’t and then ask me if I had something else to scan. Yes, I did—the original scan. I tried auto feed, and I tried putting the recipe on the glass plate. Nothing worked. I still haven’t solved that one and may end up typing the recipe—and it’s not a short one. Lots of spices.

My woes weren’t confined to the computer but apparently included all electronics. I mentioned that the wonderful display of colored, pinpoint lights that shows on my neighbors white wall had suddenly gone all red. Jordan said I had pushed a button I shouldn’t have (I haven’t touched the remote in months) and there is a multicolor button. I pushed it. Nothing, but it was daylight. So I pushed the on button. Nothing. Jordan said wait until dark. Once dark came, she tried, announced the on/off button doesn’t work, and when the lights come on, I should push the multicolor button. Now, nearing ten o’clock, the lights haven’t come on yet. I’m sure she thinks I broke it.

Jordan says my trouble is I got clickety-click all over the place too quickly. She took the mouse, dragged it down somehow, and sort of semi-fixed the calendar. Her advice was to leave it alone for now.

So maybe tomorrow, after a reboot, all my troubles will be over. Ha! Do I really believer that? Meantime the only really good thing I did today was to cook a pork tenderloin with tiny new potatoes around it. I served it with raspberry/peach/chipotle sauce—so good—and Christian did Brussel sprouts, shaved, with lemon and butter. Jordan announced that meal must be in our regular rotation.

I’d blame my woes on the computer—and maybe it will fix itself—but when so much goes wrong, you can’t avoid user error. I think many of us are so tense right now about the imminent midterms, that we are losing our grip. I’m not sure what I’ll do election night although Jordan said we’ll have dinner as usual and watch returns. I’m not sure, and already we’re hearing about decisions that will probably come down “after midterms.” It’s as though the whole world is holding its breath. One of the Halloween guests, a political consultant, said to me that Tarrant County Democrats weren’t voting in the numbers hoped for. I brushed by and said I didn’t even want to hear it.