One day late, again because of a flaky internet connection at home. I have two ISPs (for the moment), but suddenly can’t connect to either at anything faster than 28.8. I suspect hardware, perhaps my replacement modem needs replacing.

A friend suggested I get a “new computer.” I kind of thought that was an oxymoron, but apparently all these used computers and discarded computers were once “new computers.” Outside of a couple of XTs (if you’re not familiar with the term, it’s nothing to do with XP, you might need to ask your parents what XTs were), the only new computer I’ve ever bought was my (now ancient) iMac.

But nice desktop computers, with enough speed and hard drive space for any of my purposes, are available for under $200 these days. If I bought one, and installed Linux, I’d be back with an operating system that actually works, which would be nice.

In fact (thinking a bit further), I could even install the hard drive from my current (old, slow, small, creaky) Linux box as a second hard drive, and have all of my files available without any copying.

Hmmm.

Anyway, in other news, I’m working on the next chapter (it’s called “Marshall” — guess who narrates it), writing some scenes from later chapters, and beginning to think about rewrites. I just thought of something which, according to the logic of the situation in what I’ve written so far, would have happened about three or four chapters earlier than where I am now, so when I rewrite I have to put it in.

I went into a bookstore this weekend, all excited to buy the new Thomas Pynchon novel, but, once I had spelled “Pynchon” for the person behind the information desk, I found out that it doesn’t come out until Tuesday.

Meanwhile, I’m eagerly awaiting delivery of my Merriam-Webster Collegiate dictionary (the dictionary recommended by the Chicago Manual of Style). It’s a good deal, you get the dictionary, a CD-ROM of the dictionary, and a subscription to the online version, all for one price.

What could be better?