Somewhere else… probably stuck in someone’s hard drive or the internets or something.

Life has been very busy and there hasn’t been to much time for posting.  We took a trip to Denver (details will be forthcoming – it was an interesting trip) and of course, after a vacation, you come home to a mountain of laundry and work to catch up on.

That was my main goal this week – to get caught up on work stuff.  It turns out both my bosses took this week off, so I had a great start in getting dug out of the paperwork hell I was in.  I had piles and piles and piles (literally – I had three piles) of paperwork to double check was entered in the computer and then scan and then file.  I completed pile #1 on Monday.  On Tuesday I completed an online project (so I could work from the bedroom and clean up 15 episodes of General Hospital).  On Wednesday I completed pile #2.  Thursday – not so productive.

I went to tai chi class – something I haven’t been able to do for the last six weeks.  It felt good, but man, am I out of practice!  Then, I did some work for the three guys who hadn’t gone on vacation, and I must admit, I probably goofed off a bit as well.  So, not a real productive day, but – hey – there’s always Friday, right?  Plus, The Boy is camping with The Grandparents this weekend, so it’s kinda like he’s back in school or something.

Friday.   Ah, sweet, sweet Friday.  I started with good intentions.  I had four loads of laundry washed and out on the line by noon.  The Hubby came home for lunch…but really to pick up his Camaro convertible.  Shortly after he left, he called.  He had spilled some gas additive on his shoes when he filled up the Camaro.  Then he called again… it wasn’t just on his shoes – it was on his socks and pants.  I offered to run him up some clean clothes, and he didn’t hesitate to say yes.  So… off to his workplace with clean clothes.  He had baked a cake (yes, he did all himself!) for his administrative assistant’s birthday, so I stayed for a piece of cake.  So, about an hour down the drain there.  I was going to head over to the church to pick up some boxes, but one of my guys said he needed a letter asap.  So off I go home to take care of that, hoping I could still swing by the church before dinner to get those boxes.

I walk into the office.  Everything looked the same… everything looked fine.  But it was not fine.  Folks, I hate to tell you this, but THE BITCH IS BACK AGAIN.  Yes, my laptop pulled the same stunt as last month.  It would not start.  I almost cried.

But I am a big girl, so instead I called customer service.   After a couple of minutes explaining my situation and trying a little troubleshooting over the phone, Diane (very nice Diane at Lenovo) suggested I send it back in to The Depot.  I said – what other choice do I have?  in that disgusted-I- give- up tone.  Well, she said, you DO have another option.  I can pass the case to Customer Relations.  They are the big guns  – the ones that can authorize things such as a new computer.  So, after a bit of discussion, I tell her to move me over to Customer Relations.

Now I have to wait 3 to 7 BUSINESS days for them to contact me.  The Hubby advises me to just tell them outright to get me a new computer as they clearly can’t … or just aren’t interested… in fixing my computer.  I certainly would like a new working laptop.  We’ll see what kind of attitude I get when they call.

But for now, once again, I am back on The Hubby’s old desktop, trying to control my bitchiness and deal with it.

UGGHHHHH!!

PS – just to top the day off, there were goat issues at The Grandparent’s place.  I now hate goats.

L

If you’re going to dance with the Devil, at least get to know the color of his underpants.

That stuck me as one of the best lines I’ve read in a long time.

By the time I post this, it will actually be The Boy’s 16th birthday.   But now, as I am writing it, it is just his Birthday Eve.

It’s hard to imagine that sixteen years ago tonight, I was in such pain but so happy about it.  There had been a false alarm the week before and all of us were ready to get it over and done with.  It was really hot that summer… not much rain and my parents had actually run the well dry (that happened with regularity every summer).  I was big and miserable, and anxious to meet the little guy who had been poking me in the ribs for the past few months.

That night, I certainly wasn’t thinking about this night.  It is not just Birthday Eve, but it is Driver Permit Eve.  Yes, the grand world of driving will be opening up for my little boy.  Except, of course, he is no longer little.  I can no longer deny that he is growing up, becoming his own person, and getting ready to leave the nest.  I still have a few years before college, but with the driver’s license comes the real independence.

Here’s where we all learn if he’s got the skills to get by in life – learning to juggle school, work, fun, relationships, and activities.  Here’s where he can fail and still have a safety net.

I’m sure he can do it… he’s a great kid with a pretty good head on his shoulders.  He has plans, goals and ambitions.  Someone asked me recently what I wanted for him to be when he grew up.   My answer was – I want him to be happy and successful, but by his definitions, not by mine.

So that is my birthday wish for The Boy – happiness and success, by his definitions, whatever they may be.

That is the question The Hubby asked me this morning as he was getting ready for work.

It’s Friday

It’s the last day of the work week

It’s the start of the weekend

It’s the 10th

Oh, wait… today is the day I get my computer back!

Yes, folks, the computer is on it’s way back to me.  I am a bit apprehensive about it, though.  When I talked to the customer service rep on Wednesday, I was told “they fixed the hard drive – it was improperly installed”.  I wasn’t aware you could have an “improper hard drive installation”.  I figured if you don’t have it in correctly, it won’t work.  I mean, I installed 15 programs on this “improperly installed” hard drive last Thursday.  I installed, rebooted, installed, rebooted, etc. multiple times and never had a problem until I put it into “sleep” mode at night.

So my plan of attack today will be to install Firefox and Mcaffee – nothing else.  I’ll putz around the web for a bit and then put it into sleep mode for a while.  If I can get it back, I will feel safer about installing the rest of my programs and files.  But if it doesn’t come out of sleep mode, I will be making yet another call to Lenovo.  I am seriously considering telling them they need to just give me new computer since they clearly can’t fix this one.  It’s still under warranty (plus, I purchased the extended warranty from them when this whole thing started), so we will see how that goes.  I guess I might be borrowing trouble, but sometimes it pays to be prepared for your next action.

The cruel summer sun beats down through the window.  Nary a breeze comes through… all is still.  A dog barks in the distance.  A dog barks again, this time closer and with more urgency.

Bark! Bark! Bark!

Damn dog… doesn’t he know he’s disturbing my pity party here on Day 16 of Life Without My Laptop?  I have customer service centers to call… and be placed on hold with.  At last, a real person… who has to read the novella my service record now must be and takes five minutes to read it all.  All I want to do is make sure they have my laptop in their system as arrived at “The Depot”, so that, in theory, it can be looked at for the actual thing that is causing it not to work.  Possibly even fixed… I dunno…I’m kinda hopeful about that.  {You know, like the last year you believe – or sort of believe – in the Big Fat Guy in a Red Suit Who Brings You the BEST…STUFF…EVER (and fruit in your stocking)}.

“Yes, we can see from the UPS tracking you provided us that we must have your computer.”  Gee, how encouraging.

Plans for Day 17: call after 3 pm to check on status.  Plans for Day 17 Eve: dream of the BEST…STUFF…EVER that comes from the FedEx guy… a box with my fixed computer in it!  Of course, the “fruit in my stocking” will be the delivery of an empty box they are sending me… just so I can send them my laptop (when I have already sent it to them on my own dime to cut out 4 to 5 more days of this hell).

the continuing saga….

I called the computer company on Tuesday.  I still hadn’t heard (either by phone or email – both of which was promised to me!) if they had even recieved my computer.  So imagine my surprise when the customer service rep told me it was on it’s way back to me and should arrive on Thursday.

I was happy about that, but a bit puzzled by what she said after that.  She said that they hadn’t found anything wrong with it – they re-formatted the hard drive and it worked fine.  It was a power drain issue that they could have walked me through over the phone.  Actually, when I heard that last bit, I wasn’t puzzled…I was pissed.  So I had sent my computer out to Texas for no reason?  Been working off an external drive on an old desktop so my laptop could “vacation”  this summer?

But, I was happy enough that it was on it’s way back to me to overlook, or at least not dwell, on those little questions.

Thursday came… Fed Ex came… I opened the box, put the battery back in, plugged it in and everything was fine.  I loaded up about 15 programs and started to relax.  I hadn’t gotten to loading up any of my files, but I was ok with that.  I wanted to buy a hard drive dock and be able to get some files that had not been backed up onto my external drive.  I figured I’d do that over the long weekend and come Monday, it would be like everything always had been.

The Boy had The Girlfriend over for dinner.  He actually made dinner for her (and, by extension, us).  He decided on a chicken parm dish, so I pulled up the trusty website, A Year of Crockpotting, to come up with just the right approach to the meal.  He got up in the morning, made the chicken parm and got it into the crockpot.  When she got here around 5, it was ready, so he boiled the water for the pasta and made the garlic bread.

The Hubby and I ate in the bedroom and the kids got the dining room.  She was very impressed (I think, anyway!) with the thought that went behind the meal.  They were celebrating their six month anniversary, so it was very sweet of him to do this for her.

So after dinner, The Hubby and I hang out in the bedroom, both of on our laptops, happily putzing away the night.  It gets to be time to drive The Girlfriend home, so I put the computer into sleep mode and head out.

It’s about 11:30 when I get back, so clearly it’s time for bed… not computing.  I woke up around 7:45 this morning and went to turn it on to get the news and my email.  Hit the power button… start to hear the sound wave.. then it dies.  Hit the power button again.. absolutely nothing this time.  I decide not to waste any time and bring the computer upstairs to the office and call the computer company.

So I spend the next 20 or so minutes with my new best friend, Derrick.  He tells me that the notes on the account indicate they just reformatted the hard drive and turned it on to verify it worked.  And it did.  So they sent it back to me.  No where was there any note that the tech they sent out to me had put in a new hard drive, seen that it wasn’t a power issue, and recommended a new motherboard.  NO WHERE.   So, it being a Friday, he can send me a box with a prepaid label, but that wouldn’t even leave Texas until Monday, then take two days to get to me, and then a day to fix it, then two more days to get it back to me.  That puts it roughly around Christmas, I think.  So I ask if I can send it back myself (I do have a box for it now) just to get this party started quicker.  He says that will be fine and will cut down on the turnaround time for me.

So I hustle it over to the UPS Store in town and get it shipped out today, for delivery on Monday by 8:30 am.  So my sincere hope is that it will be a WORKING computer, back in my hands by Wednesday at 4:30.

The Bitch is Back, people.

…my… laptop.

I..Want..My..Laptop..

I.Want.My.Laptop.

IWantMyLaptopIWantMyLaptopIWantMyLaptopIWantMyLaptop.

Do I sound like a cranky, tired two year-old?  ‘Cause that’s how I feel.

I called Lenovo yesterday, and they said it was scheduled to arrive on Monday by 4:30.  Dang – I shipped it out Thursday, and it was just arriving on Monday?!?  I hope they have a quick turnaround.

It seems that just about every technological item in my possession is out to get me.  No laptop.  Using old desktop.  Have to remember passwords.  Have to go through hoops to get passwords/user names if forgotten.  Have work email issues for my email.  Have work email issues for half of my group.  Fax machine won’t fax more than one page at a time.

On the other hand, to cheer me up, the back up drive still works.   The printer works.  The cable tv works.  A margarita still works. (no drinking during working hours, you silly goose!)

(unless it is absolutely necessary!)

Ok, it’s not as good as the movie “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”, but, hey, we don’t live in Roman times with Phil Silvers or Buster Keaton.

We were driving The Girlfriend (yes, The Boy has a steady girl) home last night.  Usually it is just me and The Boy on this trip, but The Hubby decided to join us.  We dropped off The Girlfriend at her house (about 30 minutes away from our house, by the way) and started our journey back home.

We started to talk about our plans for Sunday and general family chit-chat.  Up ahead, we saw some flashing lights from emergency vehicles near the stop light on the divided highway we were on.  We get to the stop light, and it is clear that something big is going on just past the curve, but we can’t see it.  Soon there are other off-duty emergency personnel showing up (you know, the “regular” cars with the nice blue lights – volunteers on the ambulance corp, etc.) and the best we can do is to stay in our lane and stay out of the way.

It becomes very clear we are not going straight onward… in fact, a police car pulls up and blocks our half of  the divided highway.  So, we have to decide whether to turn left or right.  Turning left, we are 95% sure there is no way home.  Turning right, we are 90% sure there is no way home.  So, considering the odds, we make the split second decision to turn right and go up the hill.

We follow some other cars up the hill who have made the same decision.  But it becomes clear no one knows where to go.  The car in front of us puts his blinker on for the first left, and we plan to follow.  But instead of turning, he keeps going up the hill.  We turn, just as The Boy points out the One Way road sign.  So now we are going the wrong way on a one way street, with no idea where we will end up.  Very quickly, we see the divided highway below us, with traffic coming up the one way road (in the right direction).  So we pull into a driveway and turn around.

Now we have to fight our way to take a left to go back up the hill.  Now there is a lot more traffic coming up the hill.  We manage to squeeze in, and go up the hill a bit more.

We see several cars put their blinkers on to turn left, and not ones to find our own way, we turned left with the crowd.  Quickly we saw traffic turning around in the dead end circle of that street.  So, back to the hill we head.

By this time, the GPS has finally found itself and I can plug in “Home” for a destination, careful to press the “avoid freeways” option.   We continue down the hill, and miraculously, we know where we are and are free to continue on our journey home.

Of course, that is not the end of the story, my friends.

As we are going down the road, we see the railroad crossing has the arms down and is making its’ merry little tune.  There are only a couple of cars ahead of us, so we assume that we got there just as the arms were going down and we would see the train pass us by, and then we could continue on.

Nope.

We sat for four minutes, listening to the ringing bells, warning us of the impending train, but train was to be had.  We saw someone in the oncoming lanes actually get out of his car to peer down the tracks.  Now we were in the mass exodus of cars turning around to get out of that traffic.  We ending up driving by the route we would have taken if our original path hadn’t been interrupted.  There was no traffic coming down that road… so clearly something major must have happened.

Now, I don’t mean to imply that whatever accident happened on that road should be taken lightly.  I suspect several lives were impacted with the events of the night.

But for our family, it was a night of adventure – full of little missteps and happenstance… a fond family memory.

The computer tech was just here.

Not a hard drive problem; not a power issue.

Her assessment: it’s the motherboard.

She placed a call to Lenovo, and they are sending me a box so I can send my laptop to them (a.k.a., “The Depot”).  Getting the box will be 1 to 2 days; then 7 days after that it should magically reappear, in full working order.

I am seriously bummed.  No laptop love for me for at least 7 to 9 days.

On the other hand, I now have my “old” hard drive in hand, so when I send my ‘puter off to The Depot, no one will have access to information on my hard drive.  If they “lose” it (I have read way too many articles on The Consumerist), I will at least only be losing a computer, not my information.  They can always replace a computer… it’s the information on it that is harder to come by!  Plus, if they can’t find the problem, they can just ship me a new computer, right? Right!

Yes, folks, my hard drive is dead.  This, just after I did a reinstall two weeks ago.

So now I am tethered to The Hubby’s old desktop.   No more can I watch TV on the couch and surf the wonderful web.  No more can I work from the comfort of my bedroom.  I have to sit at a desk and use a desktop.   Don’t you feel sorry for me?

No?? Not even a little?  Geez, what a tough crowd!

The bright side is, because I just did a re-install a few weeks ago, I know I have a fairly up to date back up of my emails; and since I back up daily at noontime I know I have most of my files available.  The computer is still under warranty, so the labor and cost of the new hard drive = $0.00.

The down side – I have to install a bunch of stuff on The Hubby’s computer so I can work this week while I wait for the replacement to happen.  Plus, you know, the whole working at the desk thing.  Which, I do all the time, but now that it isn’t optional, feels like a jail sentence.