Computers and sourdough

I've lived enough years that I'm able to clearly see trends in my life. One thing I have noticed for many a long year is that when things are going too smoothly, watch out! Because something is going to come along to put in kink in the smooth ride. I'd actually not thought about that during the recent smooth ride.

Then yesterday, my computer up and died. Supposedly a display driver issue, but all in all it wasn't something I felt able to handle on my own so I called a tech place and someone came here at 3pm. Poor guy spent an hour and a half working at it, but nothing he did helped. Windows was confused and stubborn, which didn't help. It crashes because 'a problem has been detected and the computer shut down to prevent damage' and specifically refers to a display driver issue. And the screen is all messed up.  But when you get into the display driver to upgrade, it says no upgrade is needed, that I'm running the latest version (not true!), and that there are no problems. He managed to download the newest version but good old Windows wouldn't let him install it because it said again that I was running the latest version. And on and on. To make a long story short, it was going to take a good bit of time for someone (not him, seemingly) to dig inside and see if the card might be bad, or what was going on. And other issues. Even he agreed that buying a new computer would be a better use of money than putting it into tech repair time. And possibly expensive components. So he left, and being a good guy who bases his charges on performance, he didn't charge me a penny because he didn't solve the problem.

So anyway. By this morning I did some digging and ended up with a Dell that looks to work just fine for my minimal needs, at a reasonable price. I let it sit on the screen for a few hours, thinking about it, before finally pulling the trigger. It's a desktop, which is all I need now. Should arrive next week sometime. But I really didn't want to spend money on a computer right now.

In the meantime, I'm using this 14-year-old Dell laptop that I keep as a backup. It's slow, and runs XP, but I'm glad to have it. And it keeps on working.....

I've been itching to make something yummy with my sourdough starter, so last night I mixed up some dough for a focaccia and let it ferment overnight. By 4am I was awake, as usual, decided to get up and check it out, see if it was ready to bake or could last awhile longer. Decided it was ready to go and I didn't want to over-ferment and have it flop. Had to run out to my garden spot at 4:30am to pick some rosemary for the topping. Got it baked and it is so good! Have given about half of it to a friend, have eaten a good bit of it myself. It's addictive. Rosemary, garlic, olive oil and salt. What's not to like?