Musings Over Coffee: I’m a Hot Mess

Another hot day here in Southern California and I’m still a hot mess without a Macbook to work with. I’d ordered a used iMac from a third party but it arrived damaged and so I had to return it and I’m still waiting for my refund to show up on my bank account. In the meantime, my MacBook is supposed to be ready to be picked up today. They’re just doing more tests on it to make sure everything is back to normal.

I guess I must have downloaded a virus or some kind of malware because they said the solid state drive was wiped clean so whatever I didn’t back up to the cloud is gone. I figured if I don’t remember what it was then I don’t need it (crossing my fingers). But it is what it is. I would love to get a brand new MacBook but I hate that all new Apple devices from what I’ve heard are designed to be tossed away. And given the state of affairs of the world where we have enough trash to contend with, I’m not a fan of that. No way you can simply upgrade stuff inside it like you used to (unless you go only to a certified Apple technician), and that’s why I’m not buying a brand new one yet. They’re also over a thousand dollars and with my book income on life support, even with a healthy credit limit, I just couldn’t push that Buy button.

But I’m still here. I’m surviving #firstworldproblems

I do have the HP Stream laptop I bought two years ago when DH needed to practice with Excel but never did and so it’s been sitting around with its barely there memory (32g) that you can’t even upgrade the operating system without first deleting everything. Well, I did just that and inserted an SD card as was recommended and almost bricked the thing. But luckily I was able to restore it to its system settings without all the bloatware that HP had included when I originally purchased it and so far, so good.

So, yes, I’ve had a crash course in Windows after switching exclusively to Apple products since 2006. And I still can’t write with the thing because my stories are ALL written in iOS apps like Ulysses and so I end up writing them on my iPad. It can be done and I have been writing but there are still a few limitations. I’ve also started uploading my files directly to Google Docs so that my editor can take a look at my WIP since I’m really behind everything.

How behind? According to TimeandDate.com, it’s been 163 days since I last published. That’s four months. Yikes!

But you know what?! The LilDude goes back to school in TWO DAYS!!!!

By the way, if you’ve read this far, Everything She Ever Wanted is $0.99 this week. It’s also part of a $0.99 weekend sale that ends today! Check out other books that go from sweet to steamy!