March Winds Blow in Change
Withdrawal is mentally and physically painful. “Lack of computer” withdrawal, is the worst type of pain. My five year old laptop died several weeks ago and the jolt was inconvenient to say the least. My daily schedule for writing was thrown into a deep pit and lack of easy access to online research made me feel as if I’d been locked in a padded room. Add to the misery I had to start a search for the “best lap top” within my price range.
On the bright side all my writing is kept on a “fob” and I didn’t lose any work. My computer genius helped me make a wise decision to buy a 17” Toshiba and set it all up for me!!! I am back in business. The time I was without the computer forced me to finish a number of housekeeping chores I’d been avoiding. The biggest was organizing all the research books, magazines, and articles I’d accumulated for this manuscript I’m working on. I tend to build a nest around me of sticky notes pasted to articles in magazines, books stacked three and four deep on whatever flat surface is within easy reach.
Yes, I know writers who are neat freaks, who have organizational skills they could market and sell to those of us less inclined; however, I find a type of warm comfort building a bower surrounded by words, literally surrounded by them. Makes me wonder what family of birds I come from. :D
And here is a little advice for serious writers out there. If by chance I couldn’t easily purchase a computer I have an emergency plan in place. Years ago I purchased a brand new portable * manual typewriter. Yep, the old fashioned machine which uses an ink ribbon and plain white sheets of paper. It’s tucked away “in case.”
Of course the last failsafe plan is to regress to pen and paper. However, my keyboard skills have taken over the neural connections between my brain and my fingertips. This makes physically writing pages and pages of words a challenge of eye hand coordination, not to mention it’s a pain (literally). Funny how that used to be just the reverse!
Hurray for a new beginning with this portable electronic tablet. Even the birds have returned to the Northwest and are singing out their expectations of a new spring. And the little Pugs are glad the cold white stuff on the ground is gone!
