Technology Dependent

So, when we got back from the cruise and I settled in with the plan of getting all the holiday photos edited and posted in a timely manner - say, before *next* Christmas - I was disappointed to discover my laptop battery had died during its weeks in storage. Not, "doesn't hold much charge." Flat out dead.

A laptop with a dead battery isn't really a laptop any more.

First, need to stay near an outlet. One that the toddler can't reach because when she sees that pretty white power cord, she wants to play with it. And the lovely magnetic catch on my PowerBook means that at least the plug won't be damaged as it goes flying out.

But that leads to the second problem: rebooting, constantly. Even a momentary power loss - say, picking the laptop up off the table and moving it to my lap on the couch but, oh no! the cord wasn't quite long enough and oops! fell out - means that it completely turns off and needs to start up from scratch. While informing me that since it was not shut down properly, some data may be lost or need to be recovered. This happened A LOT with iPhoto especially. Having it scan and repair those thousands of vacation photos I was trying to edit a couple of times a day got old, fast.

Problem Three is that it's transfer week. And my laptop, even when it's working, no longer makes the cut for airport luggage. It goes in the luggage truck, to keep my luggage lighter and hands freer to deal with a toddler and all her stuff at the airport. Which means it was packed up and sent away this week, and I won't get it, or all those photos, back until the truck is unpacked in Melbourne two weeks from now.

So, no new pictures today. Someday, soon, I hope.