Day 33

Mini-vacation of sorts. Two days away from the keyboard. Back home now, with a refurbished computer. Back to the Blog, the first thing I do in the morning. It's first a rough draft, (believe it or not, I actually think about these blog posts), then rewrite them after I return from my walk to the Coffee Bean. Round trip is about a mile. Two bucks for coffee gets me up, forces me to look presentable, gets me outside. I could make my own, I've got a Mr Coffee, two matter of fact, but $2, it's worth it.

Anyway, my son and I drove over to Best Buy yesterday, bought a new WD disk drive, (looked at flash drives, I'll need one of those soon too), picked up 2 Little Caesars for the kids, ( Evan, Ian, and little Jack) and drove home. He wasn't sure if it would work. Was the old drive too corrupted; would it hold up just a little longer? All I could think about was the six months of writes, and rewrites adrift in the either, never to be read again, by humans anyway. Was there any life left in the old disk drive? Or had it taken it's last breath, it's last spasm, and (please no!), finally 'shuffling off this mortal coil?'

Took about 5 hours. My son did the grunt work; transferring the old drive to the new drive, wires, plugs, beeps, green dots moving across the bottom of the screen. About an hour in; “So far,okay.” There was hope. Then, “50% transferred!” he said. Good, but I was still holding my breath. “Well, it's about 80% done now.” He looked optimistic. Then HIGH FIVE, “Done” he said, and we ordered another pizza, one for us, cheese and peperoni for him, olives and anchovies for me, and diet root beers. I smiled for the first time all day.

It's over. (Will computer problems ever be 'over?') I've saved the last six months; the rough draft, and the two rewrites. One more rewrite and it should be something with potential, something MAYBE an editor will give five minutes to. Then, “I'd like to read more of this.” Heaven to my ears! (YES!!).

Tomorrow's plan. Make sure what we've saved, I should say, my son saved will print?

Thanks for putting up with me and my computer struggles. To be continued tomorrow.

Cornelius Butterfield