I am still annoyed by life. The start to 2024 has not been the best, but it hasn’t been the worst, either. I wrote yesterday about how the small things seem much worse because I can’t actually talk to a human being. Let me talk to a real human, and I’m much more patient–even if things go south.
For example. My phone. My annoyance that it wasn’t working was outsized because I couldn’t actually talk to someone. I talked to an AI and did the best I could with the limited choices I was given. They gave me an appointment for between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Which, I mean, that’s not really an appointment time, is it?
The day they were supposed to come, I got up at 7:30 a.m. Not two minutes later, I get a message from CenturyLink that my appointment will be between 1:40 p.m. and 5:40 p.m. I could have slept an extra two hours if I had known this the night before! But, no. They set the schedule in the morning, so I had to wake up at an ungodly hour for me just in case I was the first appointment.
Side note: Can we please put to rest for good the notion that people who are night owls are lazy? I have tried to adjust my sleep schedule, and I cannot go to bed before one or two in the morning for the life of me*.
I have tried. And I have tried. I have told myself sternly to go to bed earlier. I have pushed it back in increments. I was going to wake up an hour earlier every day until the appointment day. Yeah, that didn’t happen. I just set the alarm for 7:30 a.m. and went to bed at 1 a.m. I did not fall asleep until after 1:30 a.m., and I did not sleep well.
That’s the other issue when I have to get up at any given time. I just can’t sleep well. I wake up every few hours or don’t really sleep. I nearly slept through my alarm. I woke up to NPR talking about whatever, and that was really bizarre. Not that th e person from NPR was talking–that’s what NPR does. They talk. But because I was only half awake and thought it was something happening in real life. I mean, in my actual home and not just the radio. Yes, I still use a radio alarm. I’m old school like that. It’s worked for over three decades, and I’m using it until it actually breaks.
It took me two minutes to wake up. I am on the end of the spectrum that I wake up in a flash. It’s not because I want to; I think it’s a trauma response. Part of flight when I can’t fight.
Anyway. My brother came over at 1:30 p.m. to look at my car. Let’s not talk about that right now. I’m not happy about it in part becasue I just had to get four new tires for it. What’s wrong with it is both my fault and just the fact that I live in Minnesota with brutal winters. We are having an expectially cold winter, which my brother says does not help. He has also said that I do not drive enough to engage the battery, which means it doesn’t stay lubed. Not his word, but that was what he meant. He said I should drive it at least once a week for twenty consecutive minutes. I have not done this.
Also, my laptop is dying. It’s been dying for quite some time, but it’s been really bad in the last few months. It’s chugging soooooooo slowly and the graphic card is busted. It flashes pink once in a while, and when I’m playing games, the whole screen blurs.
My brother buys really high-end professional laptops than last for decades. Literally. The first one he bought (this is Dell) was in 2009 and it still works. Very slowly and his kid dropped it, which cracked the screen, but it runs. The next one he bought is being used by another of his kids. Well, it was. It still runs, but it’s slow. This was 2013. The third one he bought in 2016 is now being used by his ex-wife. It runs fine. He bought his last one in 2019 at the same time as when I bought this one–so I’ve been really lucky. My laptops usually only last three years. This one limped along for nearly five.
Oh, and my brother’s never faltered–he just moved onto the next iteration as soon as it came out. He is an early adaptor and he buys with an eye for the future.
I get too wound up in all the choices that I have. I want to get by with the least that I need. My brother is the opposite in that he wants to trick everything out as best as he can. He wants all the tech toys possible whereas I view them as tools to be used prudently.
My point with the laptop is that I don’t need much for it. I just use it for trawling the web and doing my writing. While watching YouTube videos. I don’t need much power for any of that. Oh, and my brother is going to put me on his Office 360 license because I work for him and he has one free spot. The reason why is because they are no longer supporting non-subscription versions of Office/Word, which annoys the hell out of me.
I dithered about it back and forth until I finally just said to myself that my brother’s laptop will be fine. It is a 1050 which this is as well, but it has a TB of storage and room to put up to 12 TB (I think). 32 GB of memory. All that jazz. And it’s sturdy so I can drop it! Which, knowing me, could happen. I just have to be more careful about eating and drinking around it. I’m really bad at that.
*Yes, I went to bed at 10 p.m. after my medical crisis, but that was me dying twice. I would say that’s an extraordinary circumstance. I did it faithfully, and then it began to creep back again. Forward? Back. Now, I’m back to bed by 2 a.m. and up by 10 a.m., which is not a big deal on the main. I work from home and don’t have to be anywhere at any time. In other words, there is no reason for me to get up at ungodly o’clock in the morning.