I am having a computer crisis at the moment.  And it looks like it may well last into the spring.

My laptop died without any warning or symptoms or anything.  Yesterday, I noticed that it wasn't recognizing that it was plugged in (the battery has an amazing 28 minute life span).  This means I drained the battery and couldn't recharge it.  The little lights that let me know it's got power refused to come on. 

I was unconcerned because Pk is a computer whiz and he said he'd "look at it".  He made no promises but he's so amazing, I had no doubt he'd fix it.  No fixing happened. 

Pk took it apart (the insides of laptops are amazing.  they cram so much stuff in such a small space) and can't find anything overtly wrong.  But it still won't charge and doesn't have enough power in the battery to boot up.  I don't want to buy an expensive battery for a 5 yr old laptop (and find out it's something else and not the battery)  nor do I want to send it to the shop and pay exhorbitant fees.  There are patterns I've paid for stored on the hard drive and some archived emails I wanted to keep.  Since there was no warning, I didn't copy anything onto my flash drive.   Pk took the hard drive out and hopefully, one day when I buy a new machine, I'll be able to hook up this drive and get the info out.  Hope springs eternal.

So, I'll live without one for the time being.  I'm lucky in that I have a computer at work so I can post and can read some blogs.  I can't get my personal email.  I have to call verizon and find out how to do that.  So far, I haven't been able to figure it out.  We have some much needed repairs on the house to take care of before I can think of buying a new machine.  Pk will share his (reluctantly.  it kills him inside when someone touches his baby) and I'll make use of the machine at work as much as I can. 

Sigh.  2009 just keeps getting better and better......