I have a 500 GB backup external drive for my antique 2012 MacBook pro (don’t laugh, it still runs like a champ and I loathed the changes Apple made to the MBP until last year). Like any properly paranoid writer I like to leave the external drive plugged in and Time Machine running. That way, everything can be backed up daily in case of lightning strike, cat pee, or what have you knocking out the laptop.

Except that the backup drive stopped working about a month ago. I would plug it in, it would light up, I’d hear the drive start to run, then boom. Nothing. Couldn’t find it as an external drive or anything.

As I’ve been what you might call “busy” for the last month I kept thinking, “Yeah, I really need to take the backup drive to Lyndon and have him troubleshoot it, see if he can get it working again.” And five minutes later an emergency would erupt and the thought would go clear out of my mind for days on end. My laptop, bless its heart, kept putting up reminder messages that I hadn’t backed it up for X amount of days and I really should do that, I’d remember that I needed to ask Lyndon to look at the backup drive, and yet another emergency would crop up and I’d promptly forget about it.

Until today, when I was browsing through a friend’s FB page and she mentioned that she was having problems with her MacBook Air. A number of people offered helpful advice, chief among them, “Back up the machine and take it to a Genius Bar.”

Which reminded me that gosh, I really really really needed to have Lyndon take a look at the backup drive. And then I thought, “Well, hell, I’m a capable techy woman and he’s sleeping right now—why don’t I take a look at it myself?”

So I did. Opened up the case—the connection between the drive proper and the plug was a little loose. Tightened that up, plugged it in … nothing.

While it was connected I opened Disk Utility to see if it could find the drive. Boom, it could, which meant that the mechanics of the drive were functional. I ran First Aid and found out that some of the settings had gotten embuggered in a way that couldn’t be repaired.

I thought about it, decided that there was nothing on the drive that I couldn’t live without, and erased and reformatted it. Set it up as the Time Machine drive for the laptop, told Time Machine to do its thing and voila. Everything is backing up again properly. Techy Woman Skills FTW.

As you know, Bob, I like to use compression socks if I’m going to be sitting for a significant length of time while working. They’re comfy, stop my legs from swelling up, take extra strain off my heart, and now come in some really cool colors and designs.

Except. I am now SWAMPED with ads on Facebook and in email for compression socks. People, I can only wear one pair a day, I have four pairs which are washed regularly, I do not NEED any more compression socks and if I do I shall go to my original seller and buy them there (because they have super cute patterns and the socks fit me well).

Now, I thought this was simply a matter of my email addy being sold to other purveyors of compression socks, which sucks but is par for the course these days. Until I started hearing from other friends that THEY were getting swamped with ads for these socks as well and they hadn’t purchased any. I don’t know if it’s just everyone in Gen X getting hit with the AARP package of ads, or there’s a huge glut of compression socks in China and they’re desperate to sell them to fat old Americans, but it’s getting to the point where I may create a rule in my mail app to automatically delete any email with ‘compression sock’ in the subject line.

I understand the need to promote your stuff, I do. But there is such a thing as market saturation and compression socks are rapidly reaching that point.

Well, that was entertaining. We had quite the loud storm roll through around 4 AM. Neither Lyndon nor I could sleep through it so he went into his office to do a little work while I kept the J Crew company and reassured them that they were safe and the sky was just growling.

Net result: no damage, no hail, some welcome rain but that was about it. Unfortunately, in the process of opening the door to check on things I must have let some mosquitos in because man, I have been bitten in at least six places, all on my right thigh and, ahem, bikini area. I don’t even know how the hell the mosquitos ACCESSED that spot, but they did. Luckily we have a really great anti-itch gel but still, not the most enjoyable area for skeeter bites.

in closing, isn’t the following brilliant? Credit to JohnBeLucky on Reddit:

We were supposed to get thunderstorms this evening, then it was changed to tomorrow. About an hour ago the sky got Very Interesting and I moved the truck behind the garage (car’s already in the garage). Tornado siren’s gone off once, most likely due to the tornado in Lewisville, and I’m keeping an eye on radar for round two which should hit us in a half hour or so.

Could be so much worse—looks like Richardson and south Dallas got hammered. Late spring in Texas, whee!

In the meantime I decided I also wanted to relax a bit, so I watched the theatrical release version of EARTHQUAKE on Netflix. Up until now the only version I’d ever seen was the one edited for TV. The animated blood zooming out at the screen when an elevator plummets to the bottom of its shaft was particularly hilarious. Equally hilarious was the idea that Lorne Greene (born in 1915) could play the father of Ava Gardner (born in 1922). I understand the need for suspension of disbelief, but that stretched it to the snapping point. Also, if someone could explain why Geneviève Bujold was hired as the young widowed love interest I would really appreciate it.

This popped up on my FB memories and I had to share it with all of ‘yall, considering how TFG is currently in the news again. Enjoy.

Yesterday on Twitter, Lou Diamond Phillips tweeted to Randy Rainbow that he hoped Randy would do something savage about the Comey hearing to the tune of “Let It Go.” Since I can’t pass up a musical parody cue, I grabbed it and ran with it. You’re welcome.

“Let It Blow”

The pols sit tight in committee tonight,
While the Cheeto thumbs a tweet.
A swampland with links to Russia,
Yeah, Vlad had it pretty sweet.
But then Don fired me,
and trashed me to my peeps.
Testify? Oh yeah.
This shit’s getting deep.
You know about Sessions and Flynn?
Don’s in it up to his double chin.
Back channels, servers, hacks, you’ll see.
Then there’s the pee.
Let it blow
Let it blow
Won’t cover up anymore.
Let it blow
Let it blow
If you think this is bad, there’s more.
I don’t care
What Trump’s gonna say.
Imma tell the truth.
I didn’t want another scoop anyway.
It’s funny how some distance
Makes Donny’s grip look small.
And the rules that once constrained me
Can’t stop me now at all.
It’s time to spill all that I know.
I’ll give the senators a show.
You want the facts? I’ll tell ‘em all.
He’ll fall.
Let it blow
Let it blow
He wanted me to back down.
Let it blow
Let it blow
Kiss my ass, you sad orange clown.
Swear me in,
And hear my tale.
Imma make my case.
*musical interlude*
Look up the definition
of obstruction, please.
He tried to get me to submit
to all his dumb decrees.
And though I’m out,
I can still throw my weight around.
No matter what it takes,
The Donald’s going down.
Let it blow
Let it blow
I am one with Old Glory now.
Let it blow
Let it blow
Jim Comey’s making a vow.
I don’t care
If Don pops a vein.
Imma tell the truth
And laugh as his empire goes down the drain.

Yeah, yeah, I know I’m supposed to be apolitical and all that, but today’s news does amuse me greatly, and the Supreme Court telling Alabama to redraw their election map to put back a district that is primarily Black is frankly astounding. I also think that somewhere in the afterlife a very uncomfortable intake interview is being conducted, which is well and truly deserved.

I’m currently prepping a Nic episode to be posted on Vella, and after that I need to continue formatting books and putting them wide. Which all should have been done earlier but Life™ has a habit of getting in the way. At least it’s happening, which is something.

There’s been some improvement on the leg pain, and I’ve found a really weird position that will stop the knee from throbbing and let me let at least a couple hours of sleep, so I’ve got that going for me. Plus I’m wearing my compression socks, which adds another layer of comfort.

If this continues for much longer, however, I’m going back into my surgeon and ask that we start the gel injections that will be a holding action on the left knee until it gets replaced (and it will need to be replaced—it’s already bone-on-bone—but we both would like to hold off until I’m in my sixties to do that). I’ve been hoping that I wouldn’t have to do that for a couple of years, but apparently with my right knee being so much better and giving me such an increase in mobility it has ironically increased the wear and tear on my left knee.

Poor Lyndon keeps asking me how I’m doing and if there’s anything he can do to help. It’s good to have someone like that as your spouse.