The long, slow death of my laptop

My cursed Dell laptop died its final death today.

It has been a long time coming - since the moment it arrived over 4 years ago. I bought it, and three months later, the hard drive failed. Dell's answer was sending a new blank one for ME to reinstall everything on to. A couple months later, that hard drive died. Dell did the same thing (so much for "Gold service" eh?). Then, when the parts/labor (?) aspect of the service plan expired, the mother board fried.

I finally got them to take it back and replace that. But I never trusted it again - I have not kept a bit of data on it other than programs to open the data since. I store what is important on my desktop in the office, and access it via the wireless network.

The Lithium Ion battery died at about 3 years of age - so I could only use it with the AC adapter. Just 2 months ago, I stupidly replaced the battery for $150 or so, to try to keep the whole set up running. It was worth it because I managed to finish writing Shades of Success with it.

Last night, I was just buried with virtual memory errors and system freezes, reminiscent of the first hard drive death. By morning it was dead... no booting up, even with systems CDs and a whole host of other efforts (I've got some experience with applying CPR to computers at this point).

Besides a momentary need to wallow in my loss, I'm telling you readers this because not having a laptop will significantly impact my ability to write. You see, after spending 5-9 hours a day in the office, sitting upright and typing, I get terribly tired of that position - and usually spend a few hours each day horizontal or at least, partially so, with the laptop. This allows me to see Ron, Oscar the Cat and the rest of my apartment. It lets me go outside on the deck in the summer. It is the time when I write my newsletters, articles and blog posts.

So bear with me. I am going to have to juggle some finances and figure out how to get a new laptop this summer. I am sure that when I do, you'll probably see a flurry of new writing :)