My poor ole’  iBook has been on its last nodes for many months. I’d been losing various capabilities, one by one, kinda like Tom Hank’s raft in Castaway. First I lost youtube, then, my camera for skype was next to go. Last week I lost my printer. Maybe it’s time, my friends and family said, gently and compassionate. I can still write on it! I exclaimed. But that little grey rectangle message, the one in multiple languages, telling me to turn off the power and restart…. Ohhhh, that little message felt like the beginning of the end. Maybe I’ll write a letter to the Public Relations department at Apple, I told my friends. They must have programs where they send refurbished laptops to school classrooms as a charitable act. I will write them a letter and ask them very nicely for a refurbished laptop so that I can continue writing my novels. It’s not that I think I “deserve” one– only that I truly need one and I’m not too proud to ask! Also, what if they say, “yes!” ?! The worst they can do is say, “no”, and I wouldn’t have lost anything. My Wilson is almost gone, anyway….

Do you know how to use a PC, my sister asked. I’ve worked on them at the last three wirs, I said. I don’t do anything special. Just write stories, look at photos, go to youtube, and Skype. I’m a simple online creature…. My sister and brother-in-law have sent me a new Dell! It is so sleek and blue and the letters aren’t faded off the keyboard! I am deeply grateful and so touched. You can use it until you’ve saved enough money for a new Apple, they said. I’m gonna use it until the letters have faded off the keyboard like Wilson! Now I can do research at various sites and it won’t freeze. (My daughter informed me, when I told her that she shouldn’t go to dubious sites because it’s gonna pick up bugs, that the toad-licking site I went to was the worse kind of place possible. <teehee>) (Note: licking the toad will not make you high.)

I wonder if writing on a PC will affect subject matter and content? Who knows? I mean, a road trip in a camper trailer is gonna be different from a trip taken in a convertible. (And I’m not saying which is which, either! (~__^)

Thank you, sister and brother-in-law!

Note to folks who are considering writing as their career: even with numerous books and lovely gigs like writer-in-residencies, you might not be earning enough income to easily go out and buy a new laptop when the old one bites it. This is not a sob story– it’s just real. But if you have friends and family who support you, who are cheering you as you keep on reaching, you will be able to make the long haul…. I mean, it’s not like I go drop by friends’ houses right before dinner time in order to score a free meal…. Heeheeeheee. (Tho I would if I had to. Okay, maybe not! I dunno!). You gotta really love the work that you do for it to be “worth it” (how one measures is subjective). And, if you’re blessed with family and friends who also believe in the work that you do, ohhhh, how amazing. A gift immeasurable.