spynotes ::
  February 05, 2007
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends

Despite the poor performance of The Bears yesterday, things have improved somewhat in the Harriet Household since the last post, most of all my sense of humor. The situation was ameliorated by the kick-ass roast chicken I managed to pull off yesterday evening, despite the fact that we had no water for a while when cooking. I�m thinking the hand sanitizer I used copiously in lieu of soap and water added to the tenderness and flavor.

We�ve been feeling quite sorry for ourselves, but have also come to realize how ridiculous it is that we can�t live without the things we�ve been living without for the last week. When I was feeling particularly persecuted, we began joking about how pathetic a contemporary retelling of Job would be:

The Lord tooketh his printers, smote them into pieces. But lo, Job began to write. With a pen! And he continued to work hard! Then the Lord tooketh his washing machine and lo, Job carried many pounds of laundry to the Laundromat! And behold! They became clean! And so he tooketh away his computer, rendering him unable to type. And lo, Job repaired an old computer and continued to work. And Job wasted much less time in wasteful pursuits on the internet. Then the Lord tooketh away Job�s television but Job was still not brought low, for he began to read a book. The Lord was mightily impressed. But he still wished to test Job�s patience. But the Lord was not yet finished, for lo, he visited on Job the plague of a flooded basement by breaking his water softener. But despite the fact that Job was forced to take a shower in orange water that made his hair flat, still he continued on. At last, the Lord was satisfied. He called Job to him and told him he was much pleased with his work. And he bought him a brand new car.

Still, when you�re dealing with endless salesmen and repair people, thinking about Job is sort of like listening to people say things like, �Well, at least you have your health.� But then, I never did understand the point of the Job story. It seems to be telling us to be doormats. I�ve never taken to it.

I spent several hours last night trying to restore my computer from my backup. Mostly I was successful � all the important stuff was there. The App1e techs managed to restore most of the software. I had all my Word files. I still haven�t figured out how to load all of my iTunes tunes back in without dragging them in individually � I tried replacing the iTunes file, but it can�t seem to find the tunes unless I put them in manually. I�ll be working on that later this evening when my brain is fried.

The only thing of significance that seems to be missing (other than my last 3 weeks of work) is my email file. I save a lot of email. I had a whole folder of wedding-related messages and another of congratulations for AJ�s birth. I had messages to and from my dissertation committee and messages from my parents. I had all the notes from my fellow panel presenters at my upcoming conference. All gone. I�m a little sad at losing some of them, but honestly, it�s kind of liberating to be starting over with an empty mailbox. The backlog had become overwhelming. I like the idea of zero inbox.

And now, the real panic begins. Three weeks, two papers, an hour�s worth of public presentation to be prepared. AJ�s home today. His school is closed on account of the weather � it was twenty below zero when I got up this morning and the temperature is not expected to make it into the positive end of the scale today. Wednesday is my first day volunteering in AJ�s classroom. I�m looking forward to it, but after all this, it�s hard not to think of it also as time when I won�t be able to work.

7 people said it like they meant it

 
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