To Set Everyone's Mind at Ease...

I'm very much alive and am OK, except for going through a major dose of computer withdrawal. My laptop's battery and AC adapter both died last Saturday, which has restricted my online activities to those moments when my wife isn't on her desktop.

As a result, I'm not doing much of anything, except to try and keep up with my email, and some of that even is limited, because I don't have access to many of the files stored on my laptop. Without that access, I'm generally out of luck in providing any attachments to emails.

I figured I'd better get some kind of explanation on the street, when Charlie emailed me earlier today, asking if I had run out of things to write about on my blog. If it helps, I'm supposed to receive a new battery for my laptop on Monday. I already have a new AC adapter. So, if nothing else fried last Saturday, it shouldn't take me long to start catching up on overdue business, once the new battery arrives at my door. If I find any other problems, I'll be taking the computer to some experts to sort it all out for me.

Y'all probably remember my mentioning in an earlier post that I had had to call some repairmen to work on my heating system. Well, that issue went south quickly, and I had no choice but to throw in the towel and call 'em back to install a whole new system. That happened this past Tuesday, and now everything is once again nice and toasty around the Testorff household.

The best part of all is that, for the next 10 years, I don't have to worry about any heating or air-conditioning difficulties. I purchased a maintenance plan at the same time I had the new system installed, which guarantees service techs will be at my beckon call--night or day, 7 days a week--if anything breaks down. Regardless of whatever should be wrong, they will take care of it--up to and including replacement of the whole system with another new one, if necessary--and it won't cost me  a dime. That's a good thing--seein' as how I don't have any more dimes left in my pocket. This is one of those moments when it really sucks being on a fixed income.

Thank God I learned how to live on a tight budget many years ago, 'cause, otherwise, I'd probably be running around a bit panicky right now. Maybe I also ought to go the route of some friends and acquaintances and try to get some disability on the basis of my hearing loss from an incident that happened during my Navy career, coupled with the diagnosis I received a few months ago for spinal stenosis.

In any event, I'm still kickin' and hopin' that it continues this way for a good while to come.