Well, this has been a helluva coupla days computer-wise. I've become wiser, although many would have thought that impossible...
So OK, here's what happened: The C: drive on the main machine was going out. I bought a new one and installed it. The installation software didn't work, though. Well, my intention was to load WIN98 on it, do a restore from the backup, then load WIN2K and go from there. Everything should be hunky-dory.
But I couldn't get WIN98 to realize that there was a new disk drive. I fiddled with that for a coupla hours, then I decided to go with WIN2K, knowing that it would do the dirty work with the disk. And it did. Got it set up and started loading programs... did the restore from backup on the outlook files, so I didn't lose any mail. Everything looked wonderful indeed.
But... I couldn't use the video-in card... or the printer, or the scanner.
Well, OK, I can do without them for now. But I really need to use the CD burner. And there is a program that I really like, that I've been using for a while. And I had heard that it worked on W2K... so I started loading it up.
Well, I got an error, either from the program, or from W2K, I can't remember which... saying that the program might not run using that OS. Well, OK, I thought, it can't hurt to try...
Famous last words. It can hurt, and hurt quite badly.
Sucker locked up. Well, OK, reboot... it is a Windows OS, after all, even though it is touted to be extra-special...
Damned thing wouldn't boot. Again and again I tried, pounding on the keyboard. It would get just so far then stop.
Well, OK again. It's got some fancy stuff that it can do vis-a-vis recovery... I'll try that.
To make a long story short, it didn't work. And I had to go to bed.
The next day, I went into DOS and formatted the new disk. Then loaded WIN98, then WIN98SE. and I thought that was all good, I would just stay with that.
But wait! I couldn't see anything but the new disk! So I tried all of the various things to make drives show up, all to no avail.
Aw, the hell with it. I put on W2K again, and everything is again hunky-dory, except for the above-mentioned faults. O'yeah, and the fact that I can't see the internal network any more... which I need to do to get some necessary software on here. I'll work on that later, though...
So OK. No more about the machines. Life. Life sucks sometimes, and sometimes it don't. Yeah, bad usage there. Forgive me, it doesn't sound the way it should when it's correct.
Let's see... work. Work has been OK, generally, except for the lack of sleep thing brought about by the afore-mentioned troubles. Nights haven't been too busy, just about right, in fact. Able to get all of my work done, no hard running, no nasty patients... well, almost none, anyway...
Tyler. Haven't seen him lately, although I know that he's been here. I started getting worried about him when I came home this morning and saw that his truck was still here... it was here all day yesterday too, and I assumed that he was downstairs sleeping.
I got a really sickening feeling in my stomach when I went down the stairs to see him. I've never known him to say anything that indicated that he's suicidal, but I shuddered thinking what I might find. And he wasn't there. However, his CDs were... which is very unusual, he takes them everywhere with him... I don't think that I've ever seen him leave the house without them.
So I'm gonna make the assumption that he's somewhere with his friends and OK. I'm sure that he'll call me if he needs to.
Damn, I wish that I knew what he was thinking. I just feel like I have no connection with him whatsoever, and that is really saddening. We know that we love each other, but beyond that...
Rita Cline, the County Treasurer that I talked about last week, is not backing down from the ACLU on the poster issue... she has posters reading "In God We Trust" in her offices and at the collection points. She is, I believe, trying to get publicity for running for a different office, or maybe just running to get re-elected...
Anyway, as an elected county official, she is bound to uphold the constitution of the United States... not just the parts of it that she likes. However, she is correct in saying that it's the country's motto... and that is just as wrong as she is. As a private citizen, I can scratch the offensive words off of my paper money... but she is an elected official, not a private citizen. And she is trying to push her religion by using her elected office. And that is just plain wrong... but it is appealing to a large number of people.
And appalling to me.
What bought this up was a conversation at dinner, when one of the lab guys congratulated me on writing a letter to the editor. He was sure that it was me, and that I had signed it, but a Sunday paper was found, and it was some other guy named Doug... but it did express views similar to mine. The lab guy was very disappointed.
And I'm very tired. I didn't get to sleep until like about 15:30 yesterday, and I need to get in eight hours today, so I'd better hurry.
And no, I still don't have Tuesday's entry up...