Hey everyone! Taking a short break from The Murder Hobo stories. We’re still playing, and I’ll have a new episode posted tomorrow that should bring everyone current to where we’ll start the game on Saturday.

Let’s face a simple fact. March sucked. It was full of things that NO ONE truly expected, some of which was mishandled to a huge degree and cost people their lives. Schools closed down, conventions and sporting events were cancelled or postponed, the retailer I work for closed all locations (we’re being paid through 4/11 at least!), social distancing became a thing, and Governor Jay Inslee shut down the entire state.

I made a joke on Twitter that the month took an entire century to get through and we should all check that our calendar now said April 1, 2120. It felt that long.

At some point yesterday (4/1), after I got The Murder Hobos episode posted, my laptop went wonky. We’re talking it didn’t even recognize that there was an operating system! I have a desktop, as well. All the really important stuff (like my writing) is saved to my Dropbox anyway, so I wasn’t overly panicking. Not until I remembered that I needed a webcam and mic to play D&D on Saturday. To run the game.

Shit.

Our son helped set up a really old, cheap webcam to the desktop. We discussed a work around for the mic. I went to bed, slightly depressed, because I liked the laptop more than I thought I did. And for more than just writing.

Could we replace it? Yes. But it wouldn’t be financially responsible of us. We’ve got 1 kid in college, the other heading there. I’ve been off work (though getting paid) for 2 weeks now, and at least 1 more to go. After that, who knows. The Governor might reopen the state (doubtful). The company may decide to start laying us off over paying us. We’ve got another 3 years of paying off my car, and at least another decade on the house. Spoiling me means ordering 4 bags of coffee from Harry & David (coming on Sunday!!!), not spending $500 plus on a new laptop.

So, yeah. I was not thrilled.

When I woke up this morning, I decided to give it another shot. It started right up! Everything was there and working! Seems the son couldn’t sleep, took it into his room, opened up the back and cleaned the insides.

Before you start about warranty, etc…we bought this 3 1/2 years ago. The warranty is long expired.

Whatever got in there (possibly cat hair – they’re shedding like mad right now) hit against something and made everything go wonky. Son got it cleaned up, put the back on, rebooted it, and got it to recognize the operating system.

I was back in business!

I ran a ton of diagnostics and anti-virus software this morning, just to make sure it was clean. I added the ‘not quite as important but still important’ files to my Dropbox, just in case.

Then I braved the outdoors and got gas in my car. Went grocery shopping for the week. And took the son on a short road trip to the closest Dutch Bros. for coffee.

Now to go back to plotting….

BB