Defrag Me!

I’m a responsible adult. Not just an adult, mind you, but a highly responsible one. I just spent the whole day doing awful, but highly needed, things.

First off, there was the 8:30 a.m. trip to the dentist to have not one, not two, but THREE fillings. I think that pretty much proves I’m not a procrastinator -- just dive right in and get the worst of it out of the way. I know what you’re thinking -- if I’m not a procrastinator, how did I get to the point of needing three teeth fixed at once? Only one was a bad cavity...the rest were mere surface things to be plugged now instead of allowing them to get worse. But we’re not here to talk about Brian and his root canal.

No, I got my teeth done by 10 a.m. By noon, I got my lips back.

Surprised that I wasn’t in more pain (only mild feeling that someone was rootin’ around in my mouth all morning) I decided to get a few errands done. So I went to the bank, off to buy dog food, and ultimately to the truly happiest place on earth: The Line at the car emissions place.

So, well over an hour and $25 later, my 1995 Subaru with 182,000 miles on it (it has now become a sporting thing to see just how many miles I can put on this thing without throwing a rod, or whatever it is cars do when they die). Whatever it is, Brian says it’s going to happen soon. I just hope I’m not doing 75 on I-70 when it happens!

On to Chore #3 today. There’s not a lot of “yours” and “mine” talk in my house anymore... most things we’ve bought together over the bliss-filled five years of marriage, but when it comes to the computers, Brian’s is Brian’s and mine is mine. Two HPs born about 6 months apart, both run Windows 98 and are in desperate need of replacement. Brian’s ‘puter is used for the Internet and games, for the most part, mine is housed in the back room and holds all the software and fun stuff for my photos and CD burning, etc.

Well, Brian’s computer is dying, but you can’t tell him that. He’s fried the hard drive a couple of times due to viruses, and always takes it to the computer doctor and has them bring it back to life. For this reason, I am concerned that Living Will or not, Brian is not going to let ME die even if the doctors say there isn’t any hope, insisting they reboot me.

But I digress.

So today, after it freezing while only running one program for the fifth time (and having to hard start it because it won’t shut down), I finally decided to scan the disk and defrag the bugger.

Now, only 3 hours later, the Internet is loading pages faster, and I’m able to type without the computer lagging behind me or skipping letters all together.

Days like this make me think that I’m at least making some use out of my time off, taking care of all that ucky stuff. I just hope tomorrow’s more like one of those unemployed days everyone dreams of -- those days that defrag the soul, like going to a museum, out to lunch, or to the country for a long drive. I’ll have to try that.