Seems like in my last entry, I said, "I'm tired, and I still have a headache." Portentous words. Thursday, I woke up feeling rotten. And very depressed since I'd just been out for several days. I stayed home and went in at noon. But my headache only got worse. And I noticed that when I typed about every third word was wrong.

So around 3:30, I left for the clinic, AGAIN. The waiting room was packed. At least the tv was not too loud. So I sat there until after 5:30 reading and re-reading "The New Yorker." Finally, my name was called. In the examining room, the nurse took my temp, and it was over 100.

The doctor and I talked, and he wondered if it was the flu. He said he'd seen hundreds of cases in the past few weeks. But he said usually the temp was higher. So he gave me a batch of sample decongestants and antibiotics. And a new nasal spray. As I walked through the still crowded waiting room, I noticed it was after 6.

I stopped on the way home and had a quick din din. Once home, I felt so lousy, I took two leftover antinausea pills and went to sleep.

I had added some new software including Norton Security, Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Reader, an FTP utility and an updated Netscape. I'd also tried to remove AOL, Compuserve and some other annoying crap that came pre-installed. My guess is that the attempted removal process was the culprit.

I next bought and installed Norton Utilities. But it said everything was peachy keen. Windows XP has a feature that allows you to restore everything to a previous point. So I tried to go back to January, but it said such a restore was not possible. I called the 1-800 number and waited and waited. At last, a nice man came on with a very thick Indian accent. (I always confused by the languages of India since there are many. So it might be more accurate to say a thick Hindi accent. But I don't know if that's right.)

Wired magazine had an article several months ago about the use of call centers in India by major vendors. So I asked where he was, and he confirmed my suspicion. Alas, he was very nice, but the accent was so thick, I couldn't understand him.

In desperation, I considered the restore CD that came with the computer. But decided I'd wait. Friday morning, I woke up at 4 feeling wretched. I thought I'd go ahead and send an email saying I'd be out. But now the laptop would not connect to my ISP. What a pain! In a moment of frustration, I opted to try the restore CD.

I inserted the CD and re-started the computer. Up popped a message saying I was going to wipe out my hard disc. Did I want to continue? So I tapped "Enter," and off we went. Around 5, a message came up that told me to remove the CD, re-start the computer, and it would complete the installation. Carefully I removed the CD and re-started. Onto the screen came a single dreaded line: "Operating system can not be found."

At this point, I realized I had a piece of equipment with an IQ less than a toaster. But I did not panic. I calmly turned off the computer and went back to bed. When will I learn not to do stuff when I'm sick AND/OR at 4 in the morning!!!

Late Friday AM, my head and I got out of bed. And we attacked the laptop again. And it worked flawlessly! Fucking amazing! All the little cute little icons were back. The Microsoft theme sounded ok. Of course, the software I'd loaded was gone. And it took me a while to realize I hadn't backed up the email or bookmarks. And I had to re-set my various preferences. Then, I remembered I had an old backup of the bookmarks. And more than anything, I had a computer that actually worked.

The other good news is that my headache is much better. Although I still feel feverish and flush. Now if I can just be careful what I do.

PAX!