Driving home on Thursday from Aberdeen through snow flurries -- it feels like we suddenly turned the corner into winter! Here are a few photos of the back garden from Friday morning before all melted.This week has been about nursing the old lap top for long enough to get everything transferred to the back-up computer given to me by friends at home -- a Dell Inspiron Notebook that up until now I've only been using for research. Was soooooooo close -- turns out that while this Inspiron 1100 is faster, it only has a 20 gig of hard drive (my old one had 55) -- so my music files wouldn't transfer! No problem really. Just need to reload my music onto an external hard drive when I'm home in December -- I literally got everything off the old one just in time -- this morning it began sounding like a coffee grinder and won't start up ("unmountable boot volume"). All but 2 albums of the music were CD's downloaded before I left, and the other 2 are on my Nano, so nothing totally lost. And the Inspiron is a wee workhorse!
So that has been my weekend! Re-organizing the computer and also my study corner, notes, files, etc. That feels great -- the space really wasn't usable before -- Now I have a great dedicated space for working that also gives more floor space in the rest of the room. Should have thought of this new arrangement a long time ago, but spatial relations has NEVER been my strong point!
The Wed. night small group with my 20-something friends is going great -- we discussed simplicity this week. So getting down to one computer for everything and simplifying / reorganizing study area does match the theme! And Mary Haddow is home, so unlike the last 3 weeks, I wasn't leading Sunday morning worship at the East Church. Have turned attention back to the Family / Children ministry.
In other news -- I'm doing great. Can't believe in a month from now I'll be home again for Christmas. Am enjoying spending some more time with newer friendships here in Banchory, as well as seeing long time friends (dinner at the Brodies last night along with Audrey and Nigel Bowker just back from Peru). On the research side of things, I'm loving the weekly seminar times with Francis Watson (supervisor) and my fellow 2 students who have also transferred registration to Durham. My own work has felt really, really slow -- so I'm hoping that the re-organizing this weekend will result in a week that feels more productive than the last few have seemed. I've a month to pull together the major argument of my second chapter before I meet with Francis for our next one-to-one supervision. Have hit the point where most of the primary and secondary research is gathered and now it is down to really, really focusing and writing for long stretches without distractions. We don't have seminar again until 10 Dec. so I have a good long stretch to hunker down and produce.
Still up Scolty most days -- the past couple of weeks, this week especially, my back has been in a lot of pain -- so some days require a walk around the hill instead of pounding up and down. Now that the sun is setting at 4pm, I actually have to get up and out in the morning to guarantee light!
Speaking of light -- its 10pm here now, and I need to be up in the a.m. to put this new space to work! Goodnight.
2 comments:
Wow, don't you hate computer troubles? I'm glad you were able to transfer most everything over and didn't lose anything. Glad also to hear that Mary is home. How is she doing?
As for the snow, it seems odd to see winter there when it's still in the 80's most days here. I'm ready for winter to settle in, or at least fall!
Oh my
Makes me cold to think about it. We are all thrilled that we will see you soon. All this will keep you young, that is for sure. I would love a couple days to organize my house and get ready for Thanksgiving. Teresa and Fabrice will be home and they will return for Christmas too. A special time for me. Jamie has 2, yes 2 job interviews. (Edmonds and Concrete) I am hoping one or both come through. She has been accepted in the master's program at Seattle University and is pretty excited about that. It will start in January. God Bless and keep you. I would love to just get you a NEW, high speed, wonderful computer but if wishes were horses beggers would ride. Love you! Aud
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