Moving forward, but glancing back
Sunday, I locked the door to the Portsmouth apartment for the last time, and turned the keys in to the main office. It’s weird, looking at the place all empty and echoey. That apartment was home for 18 months; having spent most of the first 30 years of my life in one dwelling, I always find it strange to leave.
We’re having folks over on Saturday night, so the new place has to be presentable. That’s an interesting task, as our five rooms of this ‘n’ that have to be shuffled into a house which still has plenty of Starr’s parents’ stuff in it. Of course, since some of that stuff includes objects such as big flat-panel TVs, I can accept the challenge, but it’s still a lot like trying to work the new expansion cards into your favorite CCG deck without going over the card count.
In other words, I’m still exhausted. There’s a bright side when I pass my old exit every day and remember that I don’t have to stop at the apartment for anything, but with the work we still have before us, I predict that Sunday will be chock full of slacking.
Anyway, let me tell you about the awesome computer I set up in the study this week. 8 MHz processor – 4 megs of RAM – 20 meg hard drive! The 9″ screen will display images in a palette of two colors (black or white), and the entire operating system fits neatly on an 800K floppy.
I love that old Macintosh SE; it was a much-appreciated gift from rattrap back in (I think) 1991 or so, and I got a lot of Starfleet paperwork, creative writing, and Hypercard gaming done on it. Eventually, my dad bought me a Mac LC III which introduced me to the amazing world of color graphics; the LC III is long gone, but the SE booted up happily on my shelf and is right now running MacWrite II, A Mess O’ Trouble, and the Dark Side of the Mac screensaver. Very decorative and retro. (The clock battery inside is long dead, and I’m not sure it’s worth cracking the case just so I don’t have to fix the time on every reboot. Otherwise, it’s humming along nicely.)
And may I also wish a Happy Birthday to shrewlet, who may well have found the Answer to the Ultimate Question…
