I have decided – a little late I admit – but better late than never right? – to take some time throughout January and document my daily experiences and thoughts.  A bit like a diary, or a journal, but public.

I’m doing it because of the thought I caught running through my head on the morning of January 1st which I wrote about here.  I was a little appalled at how easily and quickly I had forgotten to respect and enjoy the blessings of my life and was falling into ‘Not enough’ and ‘Not fair!’ mode.  Negative thoughts are the root of all evil in my opinion and I have spent the last twenty years learning how to recognise, change and adapt my life style to overcome this tendency in myself.

I am also starting a daily art project, a word a day to document my journey through 2014.  Inspired entirely by following a link my blogging pal AJ put up on her blog yesterday.  It will be a challenge for sanguine artist-me to stick to something like this, so I am not aiming high – just one word a day, playing with colour, shape and pattern.

I’m stating it in my blog so that you will keep me to it – I hope – that’s what friends are for, right?  Well, even if you don’t, it’s out there and, being of the Virgo persuasion, I shall feel the need to keep my word to myself and do my best to achieve my goal.

Here is the first installment of my January journal – it covers events that began  prior to Christmas up to yesterday.

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Just before Christmas my fridge, barely four years old, decided it no longer wanted to just be a cooler and overnight became a grown-up freezer.  Being a gal with more dash than cash, and more than a dash of Scarlett O’Hara in me, I thought ‘I’ll think about this tomorrow’ and, being a gal with a positive set of mind  I  also hoped it might get tired of maintaining such a cold life style and would soon revert back to its original and proper state of being.

Alack! I was mistook!

I tossed out two containers containing three trays of freshly grown alfalfa sprouts – frozen and limp – the vegetable drawer full of frozen lettuce, tomatoes, capsicums, carrots and other life affirming fresh foodstuffs – all hard as rocks and speckled with enchanting ice crystals.

Tray after tray of previously good edibles froze solid overnight and became sludgy waste as they unfroze on the counter-top.

I have enjoyed frozen yoghurt on my breakfast cereal as a summer delight accompanied by frozen strawberries and frozen blueberries.  I find if I wait long enough – about an hour – between the making of breakfast and the eating of it, there will be some softening of said ice crystals and the meal becomes somewhat more palatable…..  It makes for a lovely, slow start to the day.

This morning, as I chipped off some frozen milk to add to my first coffee of the day, I realised the freezing rate is increasing rather than abating – a bit like the weather in Canada as I understand it from Linne and Boomdee’s blogs.

Of course here in the Summery Southern Hemisphere, this is exactly the time of year when the entire country closes down for Christmas, followed by New Year, followed by Summer Holidays  There will be nary a tradesman around who will not charge double rates and take six weeks to get back to you.

I curse my naive belief that technology has an inbuilt ability to nurse itself back to health.

But then the unthinkable happens – the freezing, it appears, is contagious!  Esmeralda decides to join in and freezes too.  She doesn’t drip ice everywhere, just plays possum, refuses to move and refuses to shut down so I can restart her.

I do all the things we have all so painstakingly learned to do with our PC’s over the last decade.  I hit ‘control-alt-delete’ once, twice, three times.  Nothing.  I push the power button – nothing.  I turn her over to extract the battery, it’s a non-extractable battery!  I pull out the power cord and wait for the battery to go flat.  She sits and looks at me with her pretty blue desktop screen and refuses to budge.

Half an hour later she turns herself off, then on again.  I open the desktop with a sigh of relief.  She freezes.

For three days, my shiny new laptop froze three times in succession every morning and every  three hours thereafter, refusing to move until I unplugged her and waited for the battery to go a little flat when she would turn herself on and pretend to be good for a bit.

The fridge is a freezer, the laptop freezes what’s going on?

I said to YD “Is it me?”

YD looked at me  thoughtfully and slowly nodded her head.

Sometimes you just get someplace odd in your soul life and affect the running of things that normally just run properly and do what they are supposed to do.  Its a sign….. I’m freezing everything!  It’s always the mother’s fault!

“Ahhh, crap!”  I said ………..I don’t know what to do about that at the moment .

So yesterday morning Esmeralda found herself stuffed into a nicely padded and very comfortable computer bag with all her cords and bits and was briskly marched back to the shop.  Where not one, but two Geeks – or Nerds – I’m never sure which is which – set about trying to see what the issue was.

Ignoring my offer of cords and bits she was set up on the desk, turned on and ran splendidly.  I talked them through the things I would be doing when she froze and the Head Geek pushed the right buttons, opening and closing programmes, zipping through the internet and Esmeralda sparkled along happily with them.

Just as the two bemused geeks were trying to find a polite way of telling me there appeared to be nothing wrong with my bright and shiny and ever so clever new laptop, YD wandered up.

“Why don’t you try it with the cord plugged in, that seems to be the issue to me”  The Geeks, or Nerds, looked at her with their mouths open and glazed eyes.  “You said,”  she said to me “that when you unplug it, it starts working again – therefore, surely the cord has something to do with it.”

I nodded, bemused.

The geeks, also looking bemused, but ever so polite, agreed that was worth a shot.

Out came the cords and Esmeralda was plugged in, turned back on – and froze!

I jumped up and down and clapped my hands.  I patted Esmeralda fondly “Good girl!” I said.  The Geeks smiled painfully at me.

‘How did you know?” they clamoured to YD – I could see she had just been elevated from eye candy to extremely smart Geek/Nerd Heroine status and at any minute they were going to do the “I’m not worthy” bow to her and possibly hoist her on their shoulders and parade around Harvey Normans proclaiming her Geeky Goddess Incredibleness.

YD made a hasty escape back into the furniture department where she had found a wonderful lamp and an amazing chair neither of which she needs, has room for or can afford…. but which sure were pretty!

I stuck it out with the Geeks and Esmeralda, who was now plugged in and extraordinarily helpful.  She froze at the slightest command.  The Geeks ended up scratching their heads and pulling faces at each other and saying things like “Did you twiddle the whatsit and the wheresit?”  “I checked the farflung and the diddly and they seem good”  “Try turning off the heresit or even maybe the doanythingbit and see what happens”  “Perhaps the fezidge isn’t connecting the bletherybit with the togmeister……..”

They both suddenly turned and looked at me and said in unison “It ‘s a restore I’m afraid.”

I surprised them by being prepared for such an eventuality.  Will over at Technoblog had already prepared me for just this moment.  I’d done the backup of all the files on my trusty USB and they were free to do whatever they needed to do.

I could see that momentarily I too had been elevated from ‘Horrendously Non-Geek’ to ‘Almost There’.  I felt quite proud – thanks Will!

The restore took much longer than expected and Esmeralda is still in the hospital while I write this post on my newly respected aged laptop who is behaving rather nicely as if to say ‘See, you shouldn’t have been so quick to write me off – I may be slow to start up and I may be hopeless at the spin games but I get there in the end!’

‘Like you’ve never frozen!’ I say in a stern voice and Flat and Shiny becomes quiet.  Oh, yes we remember those days – she didn’t just freeze, she crashed and took everything down with her….

I’m looking forward to Esmeralda’s return.  I’m hoping her issues with her cord have been resolved and that the damage is not long lasting…… I am hoping we can find an amicable way for them to co-exist together that will not involve freezing, crashing, slowing or any of the other ills PC’s are vulnerable to.

Next I’m going to see if there is a cure for my wayward fridge – YD is convinced it’s  ‘just a sensor’ whatever that means……….. but she is to be listened to in these technology issues apparently.

And I’m certainly going into therapy immediately to attend to my issues around coldness!

What an interesting year it is already!  And I haven’t even begun my year long art project or my daily yoga practise yet….. Must start, must start, must start!

Have you entered the Give-Away yet?  Three days to go!

Thanks for dropping by today, I’m so happy that you did!  🙂