News from Ground Zero

      At the moment, there are a few staggering survivors of the computer meltdown. My data -- including my writing -- seems to be intact, as well as my photos and graphics. I don't know how I will get everything from this hard drive into a new computer, but at least the possibility exists. Fortunately the book is safe on numerous floppies and flash drives. I've always been paranoid about losing it. (Years ago, I once lost nearly 100 pages of a mystery novel when an old hard drive died, and there were no other copies. It taught me a hard lesson.)
       So ... what does this mean? I don't know. I used my roomie's computer to shop for computers online last night. I don't think I can manage to purchase one this month, but maybe next month. Man, I hate being poor. Enough whining. Truly I'm not poor. I have friends, a home, food (too much) and a lot of other blessings. Gotta keep remembering that. And I still have access to a computer at work, at the library and at home (my roomie's when he's not using it). So I'll make it. I'm afraid the blog will suffer some. I won't be able to post pictures for a while, and I might have to miss a few days there, depending on what I can work out on computer access. Oh well. Not the end of the world.
      The book is going to suffer, too, but it can't be helped right now. I can't write on it at work (not and keep my job!) and the library doesn't allow people to insert disks (They're worried about viruses). So I will have to use my roomie's computer when he's not using it. He uses it a lot. And should since it's his. So maybe I won't get it done by my birthday in July, which was my original goal. Or maybe I will. I'll just do the best I can, and we'll see. The July deadline was one that I imposed anyway.
      Email is also going to be hit and miss for a while, but I can access most of my accounts from my roomie's computer so I won't be terribly behind. My family newsletter -- already two months late -- will simply have to wait. I can't install all the necessary programs to produce it on my roomie's computer, not to mention that his printer couldn't handle all the photos and graphics. I may be producing simpler version with a photocopy machine until I get a new computer.
      I won't deny that I'm bit down emotionally. I've worked so hard on my debt reduction plan, and then I got sick for a couple of months and that's still going on and taking money, and now my computer dies, more money that I don't have. Kinda like a kick in the ribs after you're already on your knees. Still, like I said, I got a lot of blessings.
      And hey, a new computer is always a cool thing; even if it won't be top-of-the-line, it will still be faster than what I have now. I will have to buy a few problems on top of the computer purchase -- Microsoft Publisher (for the newsletter) and Adobe Photoshop Elements (my current version won't run under XP) and probably a couple others that I haven't thought about, but somehow I'll make it happen. Particularly if I can sell a kidney. Or two.
      That's all the news from Ground Zero. Y'all have a great day.