I never thought I’d be more disappointed when my computer died than when a plant died, but it has happened.
My 7-year-old IBM has officially bit the dust. It has been very good to me over the years; drafting three book manuscripts, hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, and holding what seems like a million digital images of my garden.
How sad to see that dreaded ‘blue screen of death’ pop up repeatedly—I feel like an old friend has left me.
The good news, of course, is that I’m getting a new one—and a Mac to boot. Not sure how that transition will go (I’m writing this post on my husband’s Mac as practice!). Learning curves get steeper with age, don’t you think?
So the ‘death’ of my computer has actually made for a surprisingly pleasant few days. Without Facebook, the internet, email or access to my work files for the hours while my husband is working on his computer, I have had a bit of extra time in the garden. No excuse for not weeding when work can’t call me away.
So, I spent a few hours yesterday in the garden planting some perennial divisions that I nabbed from my mother’s garden on a visit there last week and moving some stuff around.
These are chores I usually save for autumn or early spring, but when you have the time, there’s no time as good as right now. I also deadheaded nearly everything and have finally removed the fortress fencing from around the strawberries and blueberries. Still so much to do, but it felt good.
And so, I am left with a few more days of computerless-ness. I’ll be in the garden pulling out the peas, weeding and harvesting. See ya.
