The last 24 hours have been spent in an orgy of cleaning interspersed with bouts of Photoshop, in preparation for a new arrival. Yes, I finally bought more memory for the computer. You would not believe how hard it is to do anything with just 24MB. Okay, sure, I still use a 14.4 modem, but I'm taking it one step at a time. I crashed my Mac 12 times trying to install, use, and debug Norton Utilities. I attempted to defragment the hard drive and ended up zapping several important applications. I got sick to death of error messages about "unimplemented traps" and "corrupt trees" (sounds like the golf course from hell, doesn't it?). Remember, I'm a bit of a technodork. I don't know a lot about my computer, but I knew by 5pm yesterday that two things had to happen. One, I had to completely reinstall all the software from the CD-ROM, and two, I had to buy more memory or run mad through the streets.
The memory has been installed, the software reinstalled, 250 megs of unsightly .tif files have been jettisoned, and the streets are safe once more. The computer is working like a dream again. I cleaned up the enormous pile of manuals, disks, books, and assorted useful stuff into recognisable order. I FEEL GOOD! JUMP BACK! KISS MYSELF! (ob.James Brown). I really ought to give in to my instincts more often and just get what I need for the computer instead of creating arbitrary reasons why I ought not to spend money. Really, the frustration level was far worse than the $200 out of pocket. Next time it takes too long to fire up the browser I'm gonna run for the MacZone catalog and phone in an order for that modem. Trust me.