I get tons of notifications from my computer. I was getting so many notifications I finally turned them off. Now, I only get “urgent” notifications. Apparently the minor detail that my hard drive is full was not considered urgent because for this, there was no notification. They did alert me that my OneDrive was full and did I want to pay them more money to get more space? But nothing to remind me that my 1TB hard drive is so full that adding a week of photographs wouldn’t fit on the drive anymore.
This explains a lot of problems and also reminds me that this computer isn’t no longer new. I think of it as new, but actually, it’s three-and-a-half-years old and it gets a pretty heavy workout from me.
I knew that my hard drive was going to sink under the weight of my 150,000 (it might be more by now) photographs, but I haven’t been looking. Between trying to not get COVID, finding a vaccination, pay off a butt-load of money to repair and replace critical infrastructure in this house, I have been pre-occupied.
I should have seen this coming, but I didn’t. My computer could have warned me. It warns me of everything else. But still, I could have taken a look without a warning. I know better.
If I had the money, I’d buy a new computer but I can’t afford one like this and this is what I need. It’s fast, powerful and there ‘s nothing wrong with it except that I’ve worn the letters of some of the keys and one of them isn’t firmly on the keyboard anymore. I could probably get it fixed, but for some reason, I’m too tired to think about it. I think what was left of my energy left home right around the time I got my second vaccination for the Moderna vaccine. I think I used up all my last energy getting Garry them me vaccinated.
Getting the boiler replaced, doors and windows replaced, new gutters, new shower, new toilets, new sinks and all the things that go with it. Did I forget the new water heater? The well and pump? We’ve put more money into fixing up this house over the past few years than we put into it when we first moved in. Most of it was a repeat of things we did years ago.
It turns out that just because you replaced your siding in 1990, it doesn’t mean it won’t need to be replaced or substantially repaired in 2020. Or that over the course of years, you will need three new water heaters, each more expensive than the last. Or three washing machines, four dryers, three refrigerators, two ranges, I don’t know how many coffee machines, countertop ovens, slow cookers, mixers. The roof still looks okay.
I can’t count the computers, cameras, and lenses. Or, for that matter, cars. And surgeries. Replacement body parts. Medications. Doctors. Cardiologists. Oncologists. I get tired just thinking about it, so is it any wonder I didn’t check my hard drive? Now I suppose I should check my other hard drive (this computer has two).
I finally bought one 4TB G-Technology standard but very fast external that will hold everything plus a 2TB WD SSD which will be for photographs and is 10 times faster than a standard hard drive. I’d have gotten a big SSD too, but the numbers started to get too big. I’m going to have to backup photos and documents to the new drives, then delete about four years of photographs and a few big and unused applications.
I spend just as much time cooking and cleaning as I used to, though I get a lot less done because it takes me much longer to do the work. I probably spend more time cooking because we don’t eat out much. Not at all for the past year — COVID and all that — and rarely because there aren’t a lot of great restaurants in this area. The extra cooking is because we are suffering from cuisine ennui. Total boredom with eating the same foods all the time.
I get exhausted thinking about it. I get even more tired writing about it.
It never ends. You retire and you think “Hey, I’m going to have time for everything now,” but you don’t. For inexplicable reasons, you find that you are as busy as you were when you were working. You wonder how you ever found time to go to work.