Working – sort of, Victoria, almost

I came in to the office today. I am not feeling much better, but it is more convenient to work from the office than from home. As I was working from the house over the last two days, I had a thought to backup the laptop I was using to one of the two external hard drives I have at the house, but I did not do so. It turns out that I should have taken the time to do so – even if it infringes very slightly on company information. When I tried to log into my laptop this morning, it flashed a message that it would start after updates were installed. I had postponed those updates at the house. Not wanting to use the internet at the house if I could wait until I got to work. After the updates were done, the computer restarted and the hard drive on my laptop gave up the electronic ghost. It would flash eight times, stop for two seconds and flash eight times. Over and over.

The technician at work as able to thwart the repeated flashing and do a diagnostic which let him know for certain that my hard drive was finished. I will not be able to recover any of the information I stored there. It can all eventually be replaced – with a lot of effort. Some of that information will be lost forever. I have no backups for it. Not that I know of. Oh, well. I was given a temporary computer to work from until I can get my repaired laptop back. The problem is that all the websites, all the saved passwords, all the images, all the documents I kept there for personal reference will not be replaced. And now, I have to go to each website and remember my login information. No small feat.

Mama and Victoria are working at the house today. It is Victoria’s birthday. By either a fluke or a deliberate assignment from her boss, she has the day off. They started to put together a meal plan for the week. I have always been in favor of doing so. The issue is that Mama is not necessarily imaginative when it comes to meal prep. She knows some meals very well. The kind of meals we do not eat very often. When it comes to long-term goals of planning meals, we have erred towards the “what sounds good to you” type of preparation. That, in and of itself, is not conducive to purchasing groceries in advance. When a meal plan is made, and groceries are purchased, it by necessity, limits the types of meals than can be prepared. We will see how the plan works this time, but I am secretly not enthusiastically celebrating the effort. On my lunch break I met Mama and Victoria at Walmart to help them shop. I have not gotten to spend much time with Mama in the past several days. So, I enjoyed the half hour shopping.

Cori contacted me this morning. She texted an image of a screenshot of a plane ticked purchase page. The ticket was for a flight to Honduras next week. Cori asked if I would be willing to come down next week to help translate for the large number of individuals (they are calling it a medical brigade) coming to set up the clinic next week. Oh, how I would love to. But I cannot. It is a little too spontaneous for me and Mama. I do not see how I should make the trip without Mama and even though Cori offered to help with the ticket price, I cannot afford for the two of us to go. I certainly considered it for a few minutes. It is something I have always wanted to do. I am just not available yet. Mama and I are hoping that will soon change.

I called Mama to confirm that she was in on the conversation Cori and I were having. I assumed Mama and Cori had finished discussing it before I was contacted. That proved true. Even still it was a great thought.

We may actually be able to follow through on it at some point in the near future.