ISOLATION TANKS

I once heard someone talk about how you should never take into your ownership a rental car or a hooker because “You don’t want something ridden that hard by that many people for that long.” We can now add “Computers Owned By My Predecessor” to said list of things ridden too hard for too long. When I got my loaner computer (the PC laptop owned by the school that connects to the internet) it had crumbs and garbage stuck under the keyboard. The “H” and “T” keys regularly did not work while, depending on what I was able to shake or blow out from beneath the computer, other keys at random would not work. The hard drive had never been defragmented. The computer had never been checked for bugs, spamware or spyware. She had too many memory-sucking, superfluous programs installed. It was one sad, abused little thing. Even for a PC, the operating system was remarkably unstable and I did my best to rehabilitate her from the damage her one previous owner had done. However, “Damnit Jim, I’m a doctor, not a miracle worker” and she died, effectively cutting me off completely from home.

The system now needs to be rebooted from a disk I not only don’t possess, I have no idea how to get and when I tried to explain the disk, in simple English, the techies were at an utter loss. I have been told that the “super computer expert” will have a look at my computer and see what he can do. The earliest I will have my computer back is late next week, if ever.

And, I just found out (10/11) that “another plane crashed into another building” in Manhattan on the Upper East Side (where my Michi, my older brother and his pregnant wife all live) at some point “yesterday morning.” I hate being isolated from home.
I have no way to call home as my phone does not allow it or phone card calls and now I have no internet. And, I live in a country that is fast becoming a Global Super Power (make no mistake about it, once their currency becomes competitive with the dollar, China will have no need for the USA) with no need to be monumentally swayed by news of my home.

This sucks.

A lot.