UPDATED: Woman vs. Machine x 2

Or “The time my laptop died, and the windows let in the rain.”

Believe it or not, these things are not related.

Don’t worry, the post about the naked guy in Quartzsite is still coming, but there’s been a slight delay…

The Sacred Laptop, holder of all photos, articles, and videos, has decided to take a vacation… just when I have a deadline for a Yahoo! News article. All 200 photos of Slab City, the town on which the article is based, are on said dead laptop, along with the aforementioned, soon-to-be-due article.

I’ve rewritten the article from (what’s left of my) memory and notes. If worse comes to worst, I do have ONE back up photo. Just one photo for the article. I certainly would have preferred choosing several from the 200 photos, but at least I’ve got a Plan B.

Meanwhile, all is not lost. As a 30-year resident of Silicon Valley, some things you just learn by osmosis… like how to rescue your hard drive. It’s been a long time since I’ve done this, and some memories are hard to retrieve. Like what I had for breakfast this morning, never mind the basic programming I learned 20+ years ago. (And how do you get to the DOS prompt in Windows Vista??? Gees, it used to be so easy.)

The Yahoo! News article is due tomorrow (Tuesday). Yeah, no pressure.

As if The Universe thought that wasn’t enough, while driving to northern California my windshield and driver’s side windows both sprung major leaks at the same time.

It was pouring down rain, inside and out.

When I stopped for the night, I got out my caulk and did my best to seal what I thought might be the offending leak.

In the rain.

I do not recommend trying to use caulk in the rain. It’s probably the type of thing a panicky lemming might do.

Thanks goodness the Gods took pity on me and it stopped raining for the rest of the night. I applied more caulk in the morning. Now, I’m just hoping the next rain stays entirely outside my rig/house on wheels.

*fingers crossed*

Please keep your fingers crossed for me, my dear Kernutties. Pray for me if you’re the praying type. Send me good energy if you’re the metaphysical type. Burn sage, ring bells, chant, dance in a circle, and shake your booty.

*sits in Lotus position, chanting Ooommmmm*

UPDATE: Well, the rig/house windows seem to be keeping out the rain as intended. However, the “Windows” operating system in the Sacred Laptop is another issue.

The SL is currently at a friend’s house, downloading all sacred data… it is expected to take approximately 28 hours. My friend deserves a medal. After that’s done, he’s going to reinstall the hard drive and see what is keeping it from mounting. It seems to mount just fine in other places, just not when in the laptop chassis. Maybe it’s withholding sex from the Sacred Laptop chassis. Or maybe it just wants to mount everything ELSE in sight, the little hussy.

P.S. The Yahoo News article was published! WOOT! And, it made Yahoo’s “Top Stories”!

UPDATED, again: The Sacred Laptop is back. She’s working, but we had to turn off “Intel Turbo Memory”. She seems to be running ok, but I have yet to edit video.

Comments

UPDATED: Woman vs. Machine x 2 — 11 Comments

bluzdude on November 21, 2011 at 8:47 pm said:

Send you good energy? I ought to send you a tarp and some duct tape.

Hope you can perform the rescue… or at least show some leg and flag down some passing geeks… make them fix it for you.
- Kernut on November 28, 2011 at 1:28 pm said:
  
  Rats! That reminds me, I left the tarp in my friend’s car.
  
  HAHA! Well, I do have some techie geek friends in Silicon Valley. One is currently retrieving the data as I write this. He’s a saint – it’s going to take more than 24 hours just to get the data to a safe place, before he attempts resurrection of the (not failing?) drive.
  
  Short skirt is ready and waiting.
Mrs. Tuna on November 25, 2011 at 8:21 pm said:

Ughhh……I now feel like I need to immediately stop surfing blogs and back up to my external hard drive.
- Kernut on November 28, 2011 at 1:29 pm said:
  
  Do it! Do it, now. Stop reading this reply and just do it.
secret agent woman on November 27, 2011 at 1:43 pm said:

Ooh – that’s tough. I lost a laptop once when I knocked a glass of wine onto it!
- Kernut on November 28, 2011 at 1:30 pm said:
  
  Ahh, but what a way to go. If you’re a laptop. Probably not a bad way to go if you’re a human, too.
Richard on November 27, 2011 at 3:58 pm said:

Helloooooooooo, your way to funnyyyyyyyyyy, wish i could of spent more time with you, but atlas, maybe in the future, in the meantime only in my head, and who knows where that goes. LOL. o.k. hope to ooommmmm with ya later. take care, God Bless.
- Kernut on November 28, 2011 at 1:32 pm said:
  
  Thanks, Darlin’! I miss you and the rest of the gang already! Got your email, and replied. Hugs and blessings to you! Hope to see you soon! 🙂
Jeane on November 29, 2011 at 6:13 pm said:

You oooommmmmed yourself right into a finished article…awesome! Which you are, of course. I am a firm believer in duct tape for all (those windows especially) but might have to draw the line with duck tape and a laptop…so glad you have great friends
The Hook on December 11, 2011 at 4:48 pm said:

Technology – where would we be without it?
- Kernut on December 12, 2011 at 10:16 am said:
  
  My friend Mark R posted on Facebook yesterday that we were suffering from ‘Technology Exhaustion”. An excellent term. At this point I’m ready for some down time parked at a beach.