EASY AS A, B, C . . . from BB
OK—yes, I’m moaning. Again. My computer has completely gone nuts. But like any good home-machine, now that I’m writing about it ON THE COMPUTER, it will no doubt behave itself.
In other instances, it will take me to WordPerfect’s “help” site, if I hit a “b” . . . see? I’m still here! Imagine, if you will, how difficult that is with my initials.
After I get out of the “help” site, I start typing again, only to find that it has switched me to all caps. Another short stop to my writing effort.
If I need an “r,” it won’t print. If I hit it two or three times I might get a “qer” in place of the single letter “r”—but, hey, I can always just delete the unwanted letters.
When it gets bored with causing me all the above problems, it just freezes. So I turn it off, wait a few, and turn it back on. I am rewarded with little lights coming on all over my laptop keyboard. Yet nothing but blackness on screen. I wait. Patiently. (Or maybe that’s just exhaustion.) Nothing happens AGAIN. Or STILL. Now I decide to turn it off. It won’t go off. I try “control-alt-delete.” Lights stay on. Screen stays black. I push the on/off button. Lights on. Screen off. I begin to shake with tension, angst, nerves, etc. My husband takes over.
He turns the computer off.
First try.
He turns it back on.
It lights up.
Both keyboard and screen.
“There,” he says triumphantly. “Now try it.”
I tell you, this computer has a “traitor” button hidden somewhere, and I keep hitting it.
See you day-after-tomorrow for “Wednesday’s WIPs”
The ABC Writers Guild 