Patience

Any computer gurus out there? My wife purchased a retired computer from her university for a pittance. The hard drive was scrubbed, but it is otherwise apparently in fine shape—or so I thought. I can turn the computer on and let it sit there all day, no problem. However, when I start installing Windows XP, the computer shuts itself off at random times. It doesn’t seem like the computer is on long enough for it to be an overheating problem. I successfully formatted the hard drive through the Windows installation once, and got it to start transferring files a few times, but then it just shuts off without warning or message. From my internet research, I figure it’s probably either a faulty drive or a power supply issue or a loose connection somewhere. I’m getting ready to take it into the shop, but if anyone out there has any suggestions for quick things to try, I’m game.

I received an unexpected royalty check from the MWA agency that represented The Blue Religion. Guess the book must be selling pretty well, as the check was for more than the original advance payment. This puts “Rule Number One” at the top of my list for the amount received for a short story to date.

I was pleased to see Nick and Starr round the corner and reach the mat first on Amazing Race, winning $1 million in the process. Kenny and Tina weren’t that far behind, and were actually ahead of them at one point during the final challenge. Nick and Starr were one of those rare teams that didn’t take out their frustrations on each other during the race. Sure, they got frustrated and vented from time to time, but they were always nice to each other, so far as we were shown. It looks like Toni and Dallas ended up stranded in Moscow because of their lost passports. They didn’t make it to the finale, anyway.

Boston Legal fans take note: the finale is tonight and it starts an hour earlier than usual and last two hours. That makes it 8-10 p.m. Central time. I saw an episode of Shatner’s new talk show, Raw Nerve on the Bio channel this weekend. He interviewed Valerie Bertinelli—it was almost like a therapy session. An interesting format, to be sure. Bertinelli gave as good as she got at times: How’s that working out for you? she challenged him after he admitted to holding grudges.

I got my international holiday mailing done this morning. The local post office opens at 8:00. I’ve discovered the best approach is to show up at around 7:30 with a book and a cup of tea and just wait it out. I’m a pretty patient person, so I don’t mind idling time away like that. I think I inherited my patience from my father, who could work on some of the most tedious tasks without complaint or apparent frustration. (Our patience similarly ends with indecisive drives—we’ve both been known to share unkind words aimed at drivers around us.)

I’m rereading Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons, a book I haven’t read since it came out, so it’s almost like reading it for the first time. Simmons is such an extraordinarily gifted writer. I can’t believe that I was up against him in the Twilight Zone short fiction contest back in the 1980s! He won and judge Peter Straub mercifully has no recollection of my highly laughable entry.

We watched Then She Found Me, directed by and starring Helen Hunt, with Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick and Colin Firth. Hunt plays a 39 year old woman, adopted as a child, who now desperately wants her own baby, and isn’t interested in adopting. Broderick is her man-child husband, who leaves her at the beginning of the movie, and Firth is her new love interest. Salman Rushdie—yes, he of Satanic Verses infamy—plays her ob/gyn, in an interesting piece of casting. And Midler is Hunt’s birth mother, a local TV celebrity who tracks Hunt down after her adoptive other dies, and attempts to atone for four decades of abandonment. Though the movie received lukewarm reviews, we enjoyed it. Midler is a tamed down version of herself, and quite endearing, and Hunt looks gaunt and very much her age. Firth and Broderick play polar opposites: Broderick is the guy who never knows what to say and Firth always knows exactly the right thing to say. Some of his dialog with Hunt is a little too glib, but that’s about the worst thing I have to say about the movie.