The Soul of an Old Machine & Giveaway!
I’ve cried buckets of tears over the death of a cherished pet. Is it any surprise we mourn the loss of such companionship? Their lives are so intertwined with our own despite their short lifespans. I’ve come to expect that loss as part of the package of pet ownership and have grown more conscious of the limited time we have with them, although the claim on our hearts lasts much longer.
When my 8-year-old laptop computer became ‘sick’ last year, and then ‘died,’ this year, I was totally caught off guard. Like most of us who become dependent on technology, I try not take for granted the tasks my electronic servants carry out, but I do. At the back of my mind, I realized that I was pushing up against the limits of the ‘life expectancy’ for my computer. Still, I refused to face the fact that it was time to find a replacement.
Some of that refusal to face the facts was rooted in practical concerns. The cost of a new laptop isn’t a small thing. It’s not like buying a car, but it’s not chump change, either. Worse for a control freak like me, is the need to be sure I’m getting the best value for the money I fork over. That means, of course, that I spent months poring over articles in PC magazines and blog posts about the specs, as well as ratings and reviews by techies and users alike. By the time I had read through them and narrowed down my choices, the new year loomed with a whole new lineup of models available. It was back to the drawing board—almost like starting over.
In the meantime, my laptop had quit powering up—the receptor for the power cord had wiggled loose. Surely that was an easy fix, right? Wrong! Two weeks and a hundred bucks later, I got my laptop back from the store where I had left if for a diagnostic evaluation and repair. The replacement part had been installed, but there was still a ‘gremlin’ in there somewhere so even when powered up the laptop was misbehaving. Diagnosis: unknown gremlin. Okay.
Control freak gave way to the panicky writer as I tried to stay afloat. It wasn’t dead yet, and without a power cord, I could use it for a couple hours until the battery died and had to be recharged. My poor long-suffering husband allowed me to use his laptop to charge my battery. And, I borrowed his laptop when he wasn’t glued to it. Stop blogging, limit tweeting and posting on Facebook and elsewhere, and write enough to meet the deadlines looming. Months later, I’m still playing catch up.
The worst part of switching to a new laptop is all the time required to load software, transfer files [even with cloud backup], and learn the ins and outs of using a new machine. The time spent as a nomad, drifting between computers, leaving things on storage devices so I could drag my work along with me only made that worse. When the new machine finally arrived in January, the transition wasn’t as bad as I imagined it would be. On the other hand, it’s March and I’m not completely back up to speed.
Nor have I disposed of that old machine. Why not? It’s like a worn sweater, an old pair of comfy jeans, or battered slippers that are hard to throw away. It's just "stuff," right? When Tracy Kidder wrote “The Soul of the New Machine” in 1981, he called attention to the spirit infused into the machine by its creators as members of the tech team raced to produce it. Some of that same spirit must be infused into objects we use as consumers, too.
That laptop was the one I bought when I left my job. It became a symbol of freedom when I retired. It’s also the place where I wrote my first five fiction books as I launched my new avocation in retirement. Contrails in cyberspace left by a joyous flight into fiction writing. More tragic bits and pieces of my life were captured in the ‘soul’ of that old machine over the course of eight years. Some events that started as celebrations and ended in tragedy. Others inescapable and integral to the realization that life’s short, for pets, laptops, and people. My father-in-law’s last will and testament, pictures of him in his last few weeks of life, and photos of the honor guard at his gravesite.
My old laptop sits, like the flag we received to honor the passing of our “Pop-Pop.” That old machine on a shelf alongside diplomas, symbols of our past employment, pictures of pets, and photos from other treasured moments. Objects, not alive, but imbued with the spirit of life imprinted on them by memories of the moments they represent. I shed no tears for the soul of the old machine, but can’t quite let it go.
I am almost caught up with the backlog of writing deadlines. I'm not resorting to the electronic version of the "dog ate my homework" excuse. Gnarly New Year, book 2 in my Corsario Cove Cozy Mystery Series, should have been released late December. Hey, it's a Gnarly New Year all year long, isn't it? That's what my characters, Kim and Brien, will argue and I'm going to agree. I still have a number of features I want to write in order to share some of the great books written by great authors. I hope by next week I'll be back to writing a weekly post about a new Mystery [cozy or not] or Thriller. Stay tuned.
Cowabunga Christmas
Find me here on Goodreads or at http://www.desertcitiesmystery.com
Check out the Rafflecopter Giveaway free books & gift cards, ends MARCH 31, 2016
When my 8-year-old laptop computer became ‘sick’ last year, and then ‘died,’ this year, I was totally caught off guard. Like most of us who become dependent on technology, I try not take for granted the tasks my electronic servants carry out, but I do. At the back of my mind, I realized that I was pushing up against the limits of the ‘life expectancy’ for my computer. Still, I refused to face the fact that it was time to find a replacement.
Some of that refusal to face the facts was rooted in practical concerns. The cost of a new laptop isn’t a small thing. It’s not like buying a car, but it’s not chump change, either. Worse for a control freak like me, is the need to be sure I’m getting the best value for the money I fork over. That means, of course, that I spent months poring over articles in PC magazines and blog posts about the specs, as well as ratings and reviews by techies and users alike. By the time I had read through them and narrowed down my choices, the new year loomed with a whole new lineup of models available. It was back to the drawing board—almost like starting over.
In the meantime, my laptop had quit powering up—the receptor for the power cord had wiggled loose. Surely that was an easy fix, right? Wrong! Two weeks and a hundred bucks later, I got my laptop back from the store where I had left if for a diagnostic evaluation and repair. The replacement part had been installed, but there was still a ‘gremlin’ in there somewhere so even when powered up the laptop was misbehaving. Diagnosis: unknown gremlin. Okay.
Control freak gave way to the panicky writer as I tried to stay afloat. It wasn’t dead yet, and without a power cord, I could use it for a couple hours until the battery died and had to be recharged. My poor long-suffering husband allowed me to use his laptop to charge my battery. And, I borrowed his laptop when he wasn’t glued to it. Stop blogging, limit tweeting and posting on Facebook and elsewhere, and write enough to meet the deadlines looming. Months later, I’m still playing catch up.
The worst part of switching to a new laptop is all the time required to load software, transfer files [even with cloud backup], and learn the ins and outs of using a new machine. The time spent as a nomad, drifting between computers, leaving things on storage devices so I could drag my work along with me only made that worse. When the new machine finally arrived in January, the transition wasn’t as bad as I imagined it would be. On the other hand, it’s March and I’m not completely back up to speed.
Nor have I disposed of that old machine. Why not? It’s like a worn sweater, an old pair of comfy jeans, or battered slippers that are hard to throw away. It's just "stuff," right? When Tracy Kidder wrote “The Soul of the New Machine” in 1981, he called attention to the spirit infused into the machine by its creators as members of the tech team raced to produce it. Some of that same spirit must be infused into objects we use as consumers, too.
That laptop was the one I bought when I left my job. It became a symbol of freedom when I retired. It’s also the place where I wrote my first five fiction books as I launched my new avocation in retirement. Contrails in cyberspace left by a joyous flight into fiction writing. More tragic bits and pieces of my life were captured in the ‘soul’ of that old machine over the course of eight years. Some events that started as celebrations and ended in tragedy. Others inescapable and integral to the realization that life’s short, for pets, laptops, and people. My father-in-law’s last will and testament, pictures of him in his last few weeks of life, and photos of the honor guard at his gravesite.
My old laptop sits, like the flag we received to honor the passing of our “Pop-Pop.” That old machine on a shelf alongside diplomas, symbols of our past employment, pictures of pets, and photos from other treasured moments. Objects, not alive, but imbued with the spirit of life imprinted on them by memories of the moments they represent. I shed no tears for the soul of the old machine, but can’t quite let it go.
I am almost caught up with the backlog of writing deadlines. I'm not resorting to the electronic version of the "dog ate my homework" excuse. Gnarly New Year, book 2 in my Corsario Cove Cozy Mystery Series, should have been released late December. Hey, it's a Gnarly New Year all year long, isn't it? That's what my characters, Kim and Brien, will argue and I'm going to agree. I still have a number of features I want to write in order to share some of the great books written by great authors. I hope by next week I'll be back to writing a weekly post about a new Mystery [cozy or not] or Thriller. Stay tuned.
Cowabunga Christmas
Find me here on Goodreads or at http://www.desertcitiesmystery.com
Check out the Rafflecopter Giveaway free books & gift cards, ends MARCH 31, 2016
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