Murder, She Wishes

We're about to confront another Covid variation because until we get the entire world vaccinated we'll never get out of this, don't people get it?

I'm just hoping I can get this post out, because last week I turned my laptop over to a repairman to give it more memory plus an SSD rather than an HDD drive, for those of you in the know. Not that I understand their lingo, but it's supposed to help run some of my larger programs like Photoshop(PS) and Dreamweaver (DW); plus I have tons of photos (you've seen my posts) because I don't trust the Cloud.  And something about Windows 10 turning into 11 but I never understood those updates, either.  Before I decided on the work I read up on what he proposed in order to familiarize myself at least a little, just like I read up about car repairs, water heaters and can openers before making a purchase.

My current laptop was a real find. I was volunteering in Austin in 2017 and had less disposable cash than now, when my laptop died.  I knew it was going, and the IT guy at Community First gave me some guidance in what I should be looking for, based on my needs.  It was the cost of the programs I was worried about.

I'd never be able to afford the Adobe Creative Suite (over $1,000 at the time but now only available to rent), which contains PS and DW; but as luck would have it I found this laptop for $200.  It's about 15" and it's blue; other than that I'm sketchy.  Some young entrepreneur closed his business and had a closet-full of them.  A fellow volunteer, who was more savvy about computers, came along to advise me and bought one, too.  They're LOADED with programs (90% of them I don't use) including the Adobe CS, Microsoft Office Pro and a calculator. The touch screen is something I came to love.  I didn't think the program 'updates' would continue to work after a year or so, but for $200 I'd take my chances.  Here I am, 4 years later, so everyone agrees it's been a great deal.

So I told the repairman more than once NOT to do anything which could possibly mess up my programs because I didn't own the software. He didn't think there'd be a problem.

But he didn't know my luck of late, so ever since he performed the beef-up my laptop freezes up and there's no way to close anything or shut it down without holding the OFF button.  

"That's not the ideal way," he said to me, and explained there's no 'Error message' indicating a hardware problem, but Windows should be reloaded.  Except we can't without losing everything.

NO SHIT so I'm screwed, thanks for that reaming, felt real good.

I gave away my backup laptop because I don't have room to store extra machines, so the only thing to do was bite the bullet.  If I get something to do the easy stuff like searching, blogging and streaming, I can keep this for when I need to use PS and DW.  It's a good thing it's been Black Friday for a couple of weeks now, let's hope I don't get screwed on my 'Like New' laptop. It's pink, it's smaller and lighter (without programs), and I realized I already have a monitor in the form of HAL, my clear RCA TV, top.  So during the final hours of Black Friday I ordered a USB C-hub with VGA, HDMI, Ethernet, several USB A ports and a hole for an earphone.  It's silver.  Impressed?

I stopped in the Post Office last week, we have a very small one.  There's a sign posted on the glass advising people entering the station area to wear a mask, and no more than two customers inside.  So I'm inside with another masked woman and in walks this mask-less, 30-something gal who looks like one of the Gen-Whatevers who live in those golf course homes.

I didn't think I was being nasty when, after a time, I said, "Excuse me, I get that you don't want to wear a mask..." that's as much as I could get out.

"Oh, am I standing too close?!" she laughed and walked out, pointing at me and joking with another mask-less woman waiting her turn in the lobby.

WTF?  Get a grip, Andrea, think of Mrs. Fletcher*.  So when I left all I said to her was, "You're old enough, you don't need to be told."

"You're old enough, you can keep your mouth shut," her reply as she opened the door.

I'll leave it to your vivid imaginations what transpired next, but suffice it to say I wasn't jailed.  However, I haven't returned to the Post Office either, until I figure people's memories have faded.

Once this Section 8 is officially over I hope I'll feel like a great weight has been lifted, even if I don't find a home.  The process has been sheer agony.  "What are other people doing?  How many have found a place," my friends wonder but I'm not asking, in case I'm the only one who hasn't.  But I'll bet most if not all do not own a pet.  No wonder they only grant one 60-day extension to the 60-day voucher.  I don't think I'd survive another term.  Kinda how I feel about Trump.

* Since lockdown I've become addicted to Murder, She Wrote, a series I'd never watched.  When it originally aired in the 1980s and 90s, I thought Angela Lansbury's character was too fuddy-duddy-ish, plus I lived out of the country much of that time (I took the photo up top when I was playing with my new camera, a Christmas gift from last December.)

Now that I'm OLDER than Mrs. Fletcher she doesn't seem so dated to me.  What I've enjoyed in particular is her repartee.  She keeps her cool, and delivers verbal jabs in such a pleasant manner - the perfect role model; so when I say "I think of Mrs. Fletcher" it's to counter Amy's troublesome nature and prevent MURDER.