To Blog or Not To Blog

just when i thought i was ready and motivated to my toes into the blogging stream once again i was led astray.

this time my muse did not go missing. i did not fall into a funk. my well did not run dry. no it was none of the usual excuses/rationalizations for not posting.

the cold hard truth is that my computer ate my homework.

i know, i know you are reading this shaking head, maybe chuckling to yourself. but that is what really happened.

it is sad to. i raised this pc from a pup. i bought all its parts and i built it myself. every card, every memory stick, every connection lovingly assembled by my own two hands.

we had some good years together to. chasing viruses and spyware. meeting new and interesting people from around the world. playing warcraft, solitaire, gin. blogging, writing poetry and stories. researching my ancestors.

good times. really good times.

and what thanks do i get. the computer turns around and bites me in the ass.

it started out so simply.

a little over a week ago i was cleaning the room where my computer is located. periodically when cleaning i will disconnect the cables, remove the cover from my computer and blow out the accumulated dust. i have done this a hundred and one times at least. and every time the pc has purred like a cat getting a belly rub when i reassemble it.

not this time.

nothing. not a sound. not a light. not a click. not a beep. not a whir. just stone cold silence.

i check all the connections.

everything appears to be good. i disconnect and reconnect the hard drive. this time there is a spark of life. the hard drive begins to whir than nothing.

i tried another hard drive: nothing.

i tried my hard drive in another computer: nothing.

i tried a hard drive from another computer that i know is good and there was a brief ray of hope. the boot up cycle began. it ran for a few moments and boom it began again.

all i know for sure at this point is that either my motherboard or my hard drive are bad. i am praying for the hard drive to be salvageable because as my nickname indicates i always find trouble and i have not backed up my hard drive in a long, long time.

i have a friend who is testing my hard drive for me. so time will tell what failed.

meanwhile it took me a week to build a new computer out of whatever pieces i could cobble together. so i can at least get back into blogger.

i have a linux boot disc that allows me to boot from the cd rom of my old computer and i was able to get online but any program that was large would not work since apparently only part of my motherboard was responding.

with that being said i should be back to posting on a fairly regular basis unless this mutt i am using now decides to also bite me on the ass.

translucent boxer man

there are some visions that just are not meant for the human eye. i was exposed, and i do mean exposed, to one of those visions this evening.

i was roaming the back roads of my neighborhood, walking off the stress of the day. my mind was elsewhere or i might have been able to spare myself and prevent the permanent scarring my eyes no doubt suffered.

the roads run behind the townhouses where i live so each garage door faces the street. at that hour they were all closed except for the one at the end of the block. i thought nothing of it. usually someone is saying goodbye to company. a dinner guest, girlfriend, you get the picture. or they are like me and either leaving on a walk or returning from one.

boy was i wrong.

as i came even with the garage i happened to turn my head to the left and there he was in all his glory: translucent boxer man.

he was standing with his back to me (thank god for small favors) wearing nothing but white translucent boxers, rolled down socks and hiking boots. and this man was so pale he must have been a vampire or at least a model for the cover of some gothic vampire romance novel.

trust me it was not a pretty site.

and then just when i thought i was safe, things went from bad to worse, translucent boxer man turned to close his garage door and there reflected in the moonlight barely hidden by the boxers was his "package" for the world to see.

i scooted out of there as fast as my tired lungs could move me. i walked for a few minutes and came to a wall where i usually sit and catch my breath. it is located next to a post box for outgoing mail.

so i sit down, minding my own business and you guessed it. translucent boxer man pulls up in his car. he gets out of the car still in boxers and hiking boots and walks past me to the mailbox. he drops off his letters turns, gets back in his car and drives back to his house. which mind you was no more than two hundred feet from the mailbox.

if i did not already have insomnia the visions trapped in my skull of translucent boxer man would give it to me.

i think i am going to find some listerine to wash my eyes with.