tadhana: aurora in her new home and the great computer saga.

after a relatively stress-free night where i thought, "well, that wasn't too bad!" things did not go as smoothly the next day. first of all, the weather was bad - wind and rain, just an altogether nasty day out overall. aurora continued to amaze me with the amount of poop that she could generate! after initially doing her thing on the pad all the time, she started to spread it far and wide. honestly, how could i have thought that it would be THAT easy?? WHAT was i thinking??? and during the day, she was NOT happy about being locked up in the crate and made sure everyone all over the world knew it, too. when the dell tech finally showed up to look at my computer, she was screaming so loud that i finally let her out and kept her with me. that's all she wanted really, and promptly fell asleep. that afternoon, norman came and got us and we went to petco where i got a few more essential things including a cute little harness, barely small enough to fit her, and an indoor potty training system - basically, a plastic tray, an absorbent pad and fake grass - plus some things to chew on. uncle norman held her the whole time so that mommy could have two hands. tom was off with the volvo people, an appointment he had made previously. we had norman over for dinner and things were generally good at home until it was time to go to sleep. aurora screamed all night long in the crate. and i mean, ALL NIGHT! she finally wore herself out. i have been through medical school - i can sleep through anything - but i still had to get up for her potty breaks. needless to say, i have been a bit tired and woke up late the next morning and when jim and talley powell showed up to pick tom up for an MTOA event, i was still in my bathrobe. oh well, right? same thing when norman showed up to give us the keys to his car since he was leaving for VA. i'm sure i was a sight.

in any case, i took aurora out for a little walk that morning and wore her out so she was asleep and not in need of supervision while i tried to get the boat cleaned up. i can't tell you how many loads of laundry i did with those hopital bed pads! it was good to switch over to the fake grass which is supposed to live in the cockpit but for now, it is just inside the aft door. tom got back around 2:30 p.m. and we took her for a walk and another one at 5:00 p.m. we now have a pattern - take her for a long walk, wear her out, she goes to sleep quietly in the crate and we can go do our stuff! she has also been really good about peeing on the fake grass - that has worked out pretty well. poop is still hit or miss though but, come on, she had been with us two days? that has to be REALLY GOOD for an 8-week-old puppy!

the next morning, we left norfolk for deltaville and she also did fine with the engine noise, the boat movement, even wakes. and the only thing that caught her attention was when the radio came on. basically, she is sleeping through everything and that's good as i don't want cruising to be a traumatic experience for her.

okay, that was aurora's first day aboard. and now on to the next saga - my computer. the dell tech finally arrived to switch out the motherboard on my computer and.... a new problem was created. i went from a partially broken computer to a computer i could not use at all! i won't get into details - suffice it to say that on startup, it did not make it any further than the password screen. the tech put back the old motherboard and it did the same thing. he said he had other service calls to make and to call him that afternoon and he would try to fix it then. i called and he said that he had had a difficult day and so could we do it the next morning around 10:30 to 11:00. the next day, i finally called him at 11:30 when i didn't hear from him and he said that he would be over in 15 minutes. when he finally arrived, he switched motherboards again and inserted his disc that he said would fix the problem. it did not. he checked again and said that his disc needed updating. he also said that he was very busy because his daughter was going to the prom but he PROMISED me that he would come back in 2 hours so i expected him at 2:30 p.m. i finally called him at 4:30 p.m. - it went directly to voice mail - and then again at 5:00 p.m. and he texted that he was busy with his daughter's prom preparations and that he would come at 7:30 to 8:00 p.m. if that was okay? he did not arrive until 8:30 p.m. and he did not fix the computer. his explanation was that it had something to do with dell's datasafe software installed on the hard drive and that dell had a department dedicated to that issue and that i should call them the next morning except that the next morning was when we were leaving for deltaville! i can't even begin to say how frustrated i was with the whole situation. i had NO work computer. i don't work means i don't get paid. i tried firing up tom's old computer since i had work software installed on it but it was so messed up (which is why he bought the new one) that it was pointless. i dug up an old inspiron mini that i had and it will have to do for a while but it was so slow that while underway back to deltaville, i used tom's new machine. i called dell in the morning and guess what? we are back at mile 0 here! it was not a special number or a special department or a special anything - it is like nothing ever happened between when i first noted that my computer had issues and now! we are just back to the beginning. anyway, that is where it stands.

i suppose that in a way, it's a blessing. i can't work so i'm going to take a vacation and spend time with aurora because this is such a critical time for her.

link to: video of aurora