Just Enough

This past week was one of those weeks I'd like to forget ever happened. I was glad to see Sunday morning dawn and thus the start of a new week, a fresh start, with all that went on last week behind us I hope.

I won't go into detail but lets just say there were dissappointments, heartaches, and frustrations on multiple levels including personal and business.

It was just enough to push us both to the end of our ropes.

We've spent the last day and night sleeping a lot, recovering, and healing and trying to regain our sanity.

The one thing I can share with you involves our laptop, and the reason why this blog post will be the first in a week and a brief one too.

Wednesday evening the screen in our laptop went out. Talk about frustrating. We had just finished loading and were supposed to take the potatoes from Bakersfield, CA to Hermiston, OR. Kind of hard on us to drive without laptop abilities b/c we do all our logs on the computer. So we drove to the nearest Best Buy where the Geek Squad there filled us in on the issue, suggested a new computer, and thankfully they were able to save all my pictures, files, etc onto one of those external hard drive (for $300) so that I'd still have it all to put on the new computer. Our old computer wouldn't cooperate so they ended up staying and working on it till almost 11:00, even though the store closed at 9:30. I thought that was really generous of them. They don't have to do that kind of stuff. Still I think we got ripped off a little bit, and even though they saved the log files, I can't get them loaded onto our current computer which means I've lost 2 months of logs. BAD news if we ever get audited. That's what I get for being lazy and not printing them off daily like I'm supposed to.

Anyway, since we had a new computer we decided to buy an updated version of our GPS system b/c what we had was three years out of date, plus we didn't have the old software with us. So we stopped at a truck stop and grabbed that. I proceeded to install it at which point we discovered that it wasn't compatiable with our new computer.

So the next day we drove on to Modesto, where we found another Best Buy. We knew we had 14 days to return/exchange the laptop we'd bought. Turned out NONE of the computers in the store were compatible. The GPS requires a 34 bit system( whatever that means) and all the new computers are 64 bit. The Geek Squad guys and the MAC rep. there suggested buying a MAC, and said they could basically transfer my old computer onto the MAC so I'd have both computers and the ability to run the GPS. Sounds really confusing, but they said it wasn't that much so. Whatever...just do it. It was supposed to take 3 hours. FIVE hours later it still hadn't worked. Apparently the old computer had currupted files.

At this point we were in a bit of a panic. Technically we didn't have a delivery appointment till 7:00 the next morning, but realistically we should have been in Oregon already and on another load, but we were still 800 miles away and it was already 6:00 in the evening. Crunch time.

The alternative they told us was to buy a regular PC (they suggested the Gateway for what we needed to do) and then over-write the current Windows 7 (which was a 64 bit program) and install the 32 bit Windows 7 so our GPS would work, but even then they only gave it a slim chance of actually working. And I would have to do it because we really had to get on the road.

So we decided to take a chance. We returned the MAC, bought the Gateway and the software, and hit the road running. I took a deep breath and plunged in, being very nearly completly technically illiterate! Scary!

BUT...miracle of all miracles...I did it! And it worked! Our GPS is up and running, the log program is in order, and I re-loaded all my pictures, though to my great frustration they are no longer in files, but just one big file of over 3000 pictures, three years worth. So that's my current project...getting all those re-organizes. So it took two Geek Squads and we basically owned 4 different laptops in a 24 hour period, but what matters is that we're back in action.

And all this was going on in the midst of a bit of a family crisis, along with work stress, we'd been out long enough to need a lengthy home visit, and it was just enough to drive me close to the edge like I said.

We made it to our delivery only 15 minutes late...thanks to Malcolm driving like a bat out of hell through Oregon...glad we didn't get caught and add to the strain of the day.

Then to beat it all and top it off, the next day I was trying to put the laptop back in the computer stand after installing a CD, and I lost my grip on it. It didn't fall to the floor, just landed on the stand, but as I dropped it, my fingernail caught the "z" key and ripped off the key cover. So now I have no 'Z", only the little button that sticks up and it takes concentration to hit it just right.

And also I can't type on this laptop. My palms keep brushing the mousepad and moving my curser to various places in my writing so that about every other sentence I have to go find where its at, and erase what I typed in the wrong place, and then re-type it in the right place.

So...this post actually ended up longer than expected,, but I'm stopping here.

We'll be in Riverside, CA tonight, and deliver in the morning. Then we ought to be making our way to Tennessee to celebrate Independance Day next weekend with my family.

Take care and have a great week! I'm hoping ours will be easy and calm. We could use it.