Roads to Joy

Well, that was a trying morning! Opened my laptop to begin the daily routine, and the screen jumped and jiggled around before my eyes. It looked like there was something behind the frenzy, but I couldn’t be sure.

After rather a lot of trial and error, which included the classic powering off and back on, as well as a new operating system installation, we determined that the screen was suffering a hardware glitch that would probably mean a brand new assembly. Everything about the computer itself was working well, as I could demonstrate by hooking up a remote monitor. Whew!

So my current strategy, while I work along to get my last words completed, and then the cover art sorted, so as to be ready for next month’s self-publishing whirl, is to use the little pico-projector as monitor while I protect my eyes from the dancing laptop screen. In the meantime, as a second work-around and safety, I’ve added appropriate software for the wordsmithery into an older laptop. So I should be covered, with any luck.

There’s a quiet joy in having work-arounds for protection. Perhaps that was why I was so distraught, back when we lost power up in these high fells for nine days, and the geriatric generator gave up its power delivery only a couple of hours into its job. When the work-around fails, what then? But acquiring new gennies brought the work-around safety back into position and my emotional equilibrium was restored.

The closer I get to completion of my self-imposed writing task, though, the more nervous I get. With only three, maybe three and a half thousand words yet to go, I’m chewing my fingers to keep myself going! The last scene now, the worry over that is beginning to keep me awake. I must tell myself: relax, there will be another strategy, another take, if the scene doesn’t go according to plan.

And with that admonition, I feel more able to finish my daily task this morning, and to look forward to those final three scenes.

The joy of quiet hope, and the strength of back-up work-arounds, keeps me going.