Jinxed!

Boy, let me tell you: I have had techno woes verging on the absurd over the past couple of days. I suspect an astrologer would tell me that I had Mercury or some other planet in retrograde because over the last couple of days, technology has not been my friend!

It started with my computer a few days ago, which happens to be a fairly new [four months] high-end laptop. It had been giving me mild grief since I bought it, mainly in that the fan took to running at high speed and for extended periods. I took it into the shop before Christmas and was met by some tech guy who ‘surmised’ that it had to do with spyware running in the background. He did, however, kindly offer to check it for me, but if it were a software problem, the mere check-up would set me back ISK 7.500 [USD 120/GBP 70]. Tempted as I was by his offer, I politely declined.

Then last week, suddenly it didn’t want to find the WiFi connection at startup. Craftily I found a way to counteract the problem by fiddling with settings etc. each time I started it, but two days ago it decided to further test my patience by beginning to display strange graphics onscreen just prior to freezing and/or shutting down altogether. Repeatedly.

YT was not amused. And if I do say so myself, it is a testament to my Zen-like serenity that I was not RELEASING MY FRUSTRATION BY BLOGGING ABOUT IT ON A DAILY FRIGGING BASIS! but instead delivering up blithe posts about Eurovision and Sylvía Nótt, as though nothing were amiss.

Yesterday morning, in the midst of extreme frustration, I decided to do some laundry in an effort to soothe my frazzled metabolism. After all, housework can have quite a calming effect at times, right? – Alas, not in this case. About five minutes into the load, the washer decided to go on the blink. It just – stopped. Half-filled with water and soggy clothes. Nice. Meanwhile, back in my little home office the laptop was performing its own brand of pyrotechnics onscreen, blinking on and off and displaying all sorts of grids and things in various shades. Different variations of this continued during the day, as YT liased with the dealer and tried her best to rectify the problem via a recovery disk and such. To no avail. In fact it was all I could do to back up all my stuff in between the thing freezing and/or going blank.

So today I carted the laptop off to the dealers’. There a techie person determined that this was, indeed, not a software problem but a bona fide hardware problem and needed to be dealt with accordingly, i.e. by me leaving the laptop with them for some hardcore repair work. Relieved to know that the problem – which certainly seemed serious – was covered by the warranty, I got back in my car, turned the key, and – nothing.

Can you believe it?

I just sat there in stunned disbelief at the absurdity of the situation – having just been told that my computer needed major work, in a rush to get home because the washing machine repairman was on his way, and my car – which had been running quite normally just a few minutes before – refused to start. I mean, how bad can things get in one day??

The silver lining to all this was that I happened to be sitting right outside a car dealership. How absolutely poetic! This dealership even had a garage staffed by at least one exceedingly kind and helpful man who accompanied me to the car and determined instantly that my battery had died. As it happened, my car used the same type of battery as their cars, and he offered to replace it – only charging me for the battery, no charge for putting it in. I mean, how nice is that?

I don’t know – back in Canada where I used to live, mechanics were notorious for jacking up the price of repairs when women brought their cars in. Here in Iceland, it is generally the opposite – women are catered to like damsels in distress and usually get much better treatment than men. I certainly got kid-glove treatment at the Suzuki dealership today, even making it home in time to let in the washing machine repairman.

[Addendum: EPI has just informed me that free installation of batteries is standard. Oh well. Nice illusion while it lasted…]

AS FOR THE WEATHER…
Snow on the ground this morning – first time in a few weeks. It’s stayed pretty cool today and everything is white right now and very pretty – particularly the sky with its varying shades of blue and pink. Slight breezes, winds from the north, getting colder before it gets warmer later in the week. Currently –2°C, sunrise was at 09.49 and sunset at 17.35.