poor mopsy

Urchin of the Rding Stars was written on Star, a Canon Star Writer, which was very high tech for its time and had a built in printer. My first laptop was Topsy, as in Laptopsy. Then when husband was upgrading his, he suggested that I adopt his old one, which was faster and generally more useful than Topsy. I was going to call this one Turvy, but she didn't answer to it, so she became Mopsy.

Mopsy and I had words in the early stages and I had to get my son to speak severely to her, but after that we got on extremely well until Thursday. I had finished work for the day, saved it, and was closing everything down when she suddenly shrieked at me and flashed migraine-like patterns across the screen. Very cautiously, I woke her up again. This time she didn't swear at me, but the MS I'd just been working on has vanished without trace. No, if you must know, I hadn't backed it up. Everything else was still there, but not the last few days work. Gone.

Advice from those who know about these thins is that Mopsy is failing fast and doesn't need a technician so much as a priest. So today we acquired a new little lappy, Cottontail, and husband is presently training her. I shall let you know how we get on. Oh, I hope she doesn't argue.

This evening, like lots of other people all over the world, we put all the lights off for an hour as a call for more responsible use of energy. I don't know how to square this with working my way through Star, Topsy, and Mopsy and starting on Cottontail all in the last thirteen years, (though older son may well be able to make Topsy fit to pass on, and recycle bits of Mopsy). Anybody else have this problem? It's all too fast. I fondly remember our second hand fridge that lasted us for ten years and finally collapsed under the strain of a hot summer, and my mum's washing machine that must have done twenty years and could still have been painted red and used as a telephone box.

And there's a question. When did you last use a telephone box? I LOVE mobile phones, especially now that Very Small God-Daughter has now worked out how to use her big sister's and, if she manages to get hold of it, can phone me All By Herself.

But she's not getting her hands on Cottontail.