browser life

Although it might not appear that I've been "gone" due to the Raves of the Day posted with a future date, we had to put the computer in the shop on Tuesday. We were told our hard drive was in the death throes again, so even though we could ill afford it, I had them put in a new one with a bit more memory. Whether for good or for ill, I've crossed the line from the computer being an amusement to the computer being a necessity.

We got it back on Saturday and hooked it up. I wasn't on it very long because we had agreed to go to Dan's parents for an early Father's Day gathering. And I couldn't fire it up last night because of thunderstorms.

So I got started on my regular activities today. Came to discover that the stuff that was going wrong before, like cursor freezing, not being able to print, etc., still wasn't resolved! What's worse, now my default browser keeps vanishing so that I must re-download it every time I power up the machine, and my e-mail is screwy!

I am PISSED! Why the hell did I just spend a fortune when the hard drive probably wasn't even the problem?!? I will have to call the Mac repair place tomorrow and have Dan bring it in on Tuesday again (I can't lift our massive tower drive).

In basement news: the basement is a goddamn mess. The carpenter guys finally got their act together and stripped the south wall down to the concrete foundation. Approximately one-third of our basement is torn up now.

Taking down the brick fixture behind the wood-burning stove was a BITCH! The only way to do it was to break it up into pieces. This kicked up dust so thick that it aggravated my asthma while I was all the way upstairs.

And the brick the stove was sitting on was GLUED down to the floor! They ended up having to leave it because it would be a major problem getting the surface underneath smoothed out after chipping the brick out. So now I have this ridiculous brick platform serving no purpose that just begs to be tripped over.

Oh, and we still have the dumpster in our driveway and the stove sitting on the carpet in the basement! There is a layer of dust covering pretty much every surface downstairs that doesn't wipe away easily. I haven't spent much time down here as a result.

The next step is for the foundation guys to put in the anchors and drainage system. The earliest they can do that is July 7. I'm not gonna invest a lot of effort in cleaning up the basement before then because they will be creating more dust when they drill into the walls and floor.

Luckily, the foundation company says they can get all their work done in one day. Then I get to have the carpenter dudes come back and put in new drywall and insulation. I am hoping they can salvage the desk, cabinet and paneling and re-install them.

The main saving grace financially for us right now is that we got our economic stimulus check last week. I wasn't planning to spend it on our computer, though, as the entire check will not even cover a third of the total cost of fixing the basement. And I've still got a year's worth of payments to the Mayo Clinic to go.

I did allow myself one fun thing to do with my "rebate", though. I went to see "Prince Caspian" yesterday, yayyyyy! I did go to the matinee so I could get discounted admission.

Would like to add more, but I'd better try to get the checkbook straightened out before I put the computer back in the shop. And I need to copy my recently downloaded iTunes music onto some CDs since I forgot to do that last week.

Is depending so much on a machine materialistic? Or just sad?