Remember me? I used to write a “daily” journal right around here somewhere. Then I went on an unannounced (and unplanned) hiatus. It’s been only a month, but it seems like longer. I don’t make any promises, but there’s a reason I might feel like writing again. No, it’s not that. I have a new computer.

This is not the reason I haven’t been writing: My old computer blew up on me a couple of weeks ago. That’s a sort of hyperbolic way of saying that it overheated and shut down after running all day with the fan not working. Now, I know I could have installed a new fan, and all would been well. But I saw this as an excuse opportunity to go to the Boss and let him know how unhappy the old machine has been making me, for months. So I told him it blew up. He knows I sometimes exaggerate for effect, or at least he should, so it wasn’t a lie.

My old computer was slow and sluggish for a long time before it blew up. I didn’t try to tell the Boss that I couldn’t run it at all, just that I had to shut it off after about 45 minutes, and then let it rest for an hour and ten minutes, to be sure it wouldn’t blow up again. He was fine with that, even though I made up those numbers in my imagination. It gave me time to get the essential work done, but it was just right to keep him from asking me to do anything extra. It was almost like the mini-vacation I never had this year. Or last year.

Now that I have the new machine, and now that I’ve found ways to transfer files and settings from the old one, I’m back up and running, with no excuses. It’s a good thing, too, because this is going to be a tough month, as the company positions itself for the end of the year. I don’t have to make any decisions in that regard, but I do have to put them into effect, and now that I have a computer that doesn’t shudder, sputter and shut down, it’ll be a lot easier.

So earlier this week, before the new computer arrived, I got a call from my workers’ compensation auditor. He wanted to come around on Tuesday of next week, and I just laughed. Without a computer, there’s no way I could get the records and documents ready for him, so I asked for a couple of extra weeks. Luckily, this is the same auditor I’ve had for the last two years, so he knew I wasn’t playing for time without a good reason. Still, I now have almost exactly two weeks to get ready for him. It’s a good thing I have a machine with some speed to do it with.