The laptop I couldn't take to San Francisco is now officially out of commission. After we got back, I picked the laptop up from the shop that hadn't had it ready for me to take along for a working vacation. I brought it home, turned it on and it booted up. Everything looked fine until I logged on. I caught sight of my desktop only to see it replaced with an error message. Being used to the vagaries of technology, I tried again. Same result.

Back to the shop. They tried installing the original memory, but couldn't get a consistent successful boot-up and log on. Conclusion: Motherboard going bad. Now if only it had been the fatherboard--another thing to blame on mothers--oh, don't get me started.

Bottom line. A trusted techie friend advised me on what new laptop I should purchase and I've ordered it, leaving myself a grand poorer. Really makes me regret the uncollectable two grand I had to write off on an editing job. (Another topic not to get me started on.) I just have to keep reminding myself, "Some days are like that, even in Australia." 

There's a reason Alexander and the No Good, Really Bad, Terrible, Horrible Day is one of my all time favorite books. But the other thing a half-century has taught me is that this will pass.

I've been reading lately, but haven't found anything I've really fallen in love with. I finished Anita Shreve's Light on Snow, which had it's moments and wasn't bad, but didn't really inspire me to rush out and tell everyone about it. I've got hopes for the second book in the Dreamhunter series. It's on my reading pile. Cany anyone out there tell me if it lives up to the first?