Well, I've been back up and running again. The laptop was not wanting to run on electric...something inside was going bad. I'd been nursing it along by placing something under the cord at the connection. That's worked for several weeks, but two nights ago that wasn't even working.
If you've read my post in Wrecked and Bonkers, you'll know I had a stressful day at the V.A. And since it was Thursday, I had to take my brother-in-law to the weekly dinner at a local bar/grill. Needless to say, when I got home, I wasn't in the mood to futz with my desktop. I pleaded and prayed for the laptop to work off electricity just long enough to check e-mail and, of course, this forum. IT DID!!!! (The battery runs down so fast so I didn't want to rely just on it.)
Took the task of getting my desktop set up in my living room. I'd had it in my spare bedroom, but never liked working on it in there. I made room for the processor where it's not really noticeable. However, my monitor is sitting on the stool that matches my easy chair. One cool thing about this setup is that I can actually read the forum from a bit of a distance (the monitor is a nice sized one.)
Naturally, the move wasn't a piece of cake. For some reason, I couldn't connect to the internet. First call went to my service provider and my modem was working correctly. Second (and several redials) were to the computer manufacturer...no answer. So, I bit the bullet...saved pics and the like on a portable drive...and reformatted and reloaded the PC. It's a good thing my career was as a technical writer for software applications, because these things still aren't made for the average person!!!!!
Maybe now that I'm back in biz, I can calm down a little
P.S. My brother-in-law ordered me a glass of wine last night since I was so keyed up. Good thing we were having dinner because I don't drink often...last drink was probably 8 months ago...because I got a buzz right away!!!