Well, we’re back from delivering our busted hard drive to a data recovery house somewhere in the Watchung Mountains.

Great Caesar’s ghost, it was a nightmare! Neither Patty nor I had been up there in years, and the whole area is unrecognizable. The route we were given was tricky and complicated, and when we had to stop for directions, a couple of the people we asked gave us bum steers.

Even worse than that was the traffic. It was as if someone had turned a gigantic tap and cars and trucks came out instead of water. And all those other drivers, they were flyin’! I wouldn’t have thought my car’s exhaust pipe could have been so fascinating to so many people.

We got a bit lost coming back, too, but it wasn’t as bad as going there. Eventually we found Park Avenue in Plainfield and it brought us home.

And where, I ask, has this day gone?

Somehow we’ve got to get our regular computer back and running before this laptop keyboard causes my head to explode. But I’ve also got to take our old hard drive to some data recovery place which looks like it’ll be real hard to find; and we’re out of Robbie’s ear gel medicine and have to get more, and we gotta take Peep to the vet, and there’s a doctor appointment for me…

Aaaaaghh!!! Do you see that? This monster refuses to type the letter “m”! You have to stop and stab the key decisively with one finger, or you don’t get no letter “m”. I can’t imagine how I’m going to be able to compose a Newswithviews column this week.

Please pray for my sanity.

It’s raining, the neighborhood resounds to the sullen roar of the mulching machine, and Adam the tech guy is here to see if he can fix our computer, which may not be possible. And guess what? We might have lost all our data!

Anyhow, the cats are upstairs under the bed and it’s hellzapoppin ’round here, and I’m still trying to type on this laptop keyboard which was designed by fairies from a distant galaxy.

Hmmm… it might have stopped raining. I wonder if I can sneak out with a cigar and my book, which I couldn’t work on yesterday. If I go outside, I won’t hear any computer talk unless the birds and squirrels start it.

I haven’t looked at any news yet today. Maybe I won’t.

PS–The verdict: hard drive is dead, gone, must either be replaced or we gotta buy a new computer. Enter infinite turmoil.

So how was your day?

Typing on this keyboard, which was surely designed for some other form of life, murdered me. But we also had to do our grocery shopping. When we finished buying our supplies, we discovered that Patty had locked her keys inside her car. With the engine running. No problem, said the auto club: they could get there in just an hour and a half.

At this point the Lord provided a good Samaritan who offered to drive me home so I could fetch the spare key. Thank you, Father; and thank you, most benevolent stranger.

After that, all I had to do was type my Newswithviews column on this infernal keyboard.

We have to get a new computer. And if that means I will have to learn a whole new system, after it’s taken me ten years to get this far with Windows 7… Well, that ought to just about finish me off.