step.away.from.the.computer. NOW.

Because I can just feel myself fossilizing. If I’ve done anything today that didn’t involve being online, I can’t think of what it could possibly have been. Oh, well, everyone needs one day to just lie back and fossilize! At least that’s what I’m saying.  And it’s just way way way too exciting to have this unlimited fast access, no dial-up, speedy zippo time to surf the net.  I was also hanging around the house hoping to get a call from the Mortgage Woman, because we have got to close by the 2nd in order to get our rate. Her voicemail message said she’d be back today, but apparently she was not. I left two messages, the other mortgage person at the main office in Greensboro left three and emailed her (I don’t know why we have two mortgage people, especially since they keep asking me for the same things) and the lawyer’s office called and emailed her several times, since we were at one time closing tomorrow. Not now. The inspector still has to come take pictures of our french drain and the plastered up cracks in the wall. Which I was hoping would happen today, which was why I kept calling Mortgage Woman.

I am trying not to panic about this. All we have to do is get pictures and have the appraiser approve them. Then go close by the 2nd. No hurry, no hurry at all!!!

So I’ve distracted myself today by setting up Baker B’s shiny new computer, which he kept not setting up because he really really really hates doing things like that. And he is a most unpleasant person to be around when he’s doing something he hates to do, so I decided to see if I couldn’t just do it myself while he was out hiking today. Out with my cellphone, which kept me from going anywhere because I didn’t want to miss Mortgage Woman’s call. Why did he have my cellphone? I really couldn’t say, other than it did make sense when he took it. Not so much later in the day when I couldn’t leave the house because he had my phone, although he would have left it in the car while hiking and also has no idea how to check voicemail if she called while the phone was in the car, so it wasn’t doing a bit of good for him to have it and not me, but whatever!

The computer was a breeze to set up and the DSL was a breeze to set up and the wireless router which Kim gave us six months ago was a breeze to set up, until I had to move it so my laptop could get the signal because I didn’t think about that when I originally sat it between the two towers on the top of the computer desk (the old PC tower and the new PC tower) and then it wouldn’t connect at all so I tried re-loading it with the CD and it started acting like I needed to tell it things about my connection that it had previously known without being told so I wasn’t too sure why it was asking me all this – but it all worked out pretty quickly and once again was a breeze.

And I am now able to be on my laptop with NO WIRES!!!! While Baker B is on his desktop AT THE SAME TIME!!!!, and we’re just speeding along like lightening itself!!!! It’s, like, the COOLEST THING EVER!!!

And thinking I’d please Baker B even further while he was out hiking, I downloaded Google Earth for him, as he is a total Google Earth Addict and that’s one thing he’s been looking forward to – being able to fly around on Google Earth at home. And I spent quite some time playing with Google Earth myself because I can’t play with it at work very easily, and it IS fun.

So of course when Baker B comes home he is initially very pleased that I’ve set the computer up and even more pleased that I’ve downloaded Google Earth for him, but being Baker B, his pleasure soon turns to whining because the desktop is different and he doesn’t like it and the monitor is stretching things out  and the earth is flat now and wahhh wahhhh wahhhhh, and Google Earth freezes up on him and what did I do to it and he doesn’t know where anything is now and wahhhh wahhhh wahhh!!!!

One of the things that I just do not understand about Baker B is that he HATES new things. He hates change. He hates his comfort zone being violated. He was all excited about a new computer, but he hates that it’s not just exactly like his ten year old Gateway with Windows 98. I liked the new cool desktop stuff – he whined and complained until he figured out how to set it to "classic" so it looks like the old one.

When I buy something to replace an old something that’s worn out, I want the new one to be different. I want it to be NEW. He wants it to be exactly the same. He wore the blender out recently and I had to find one just like the old one – when if it was just up to me, I’d have bought a new one that was as different from the old one as I could get, just because I want it to be NEW. Not the same old thing. He hates getting used to new things. I love finding out how the new things are different from the old things. Different and hopefully better – I think I believe I’ll be getting something better with a new thing.

He is a fast learner, so in the event that he is forced to learn how to use a totally new and different thing, he’s okay once he’s gotten the hang of it. But until he gets the hang of it, he whines and complains and bitches about how he hates the new thing and he wants the old thing back and the new thing is vastly inferior to the old thing and it just sucks having to have a new thing instead of the old thing.

But I think we’re okay with the New Computer Thing now. He did something to the monitor – or maybe the Google Earth settings – to make the earth all round again and not flat, and he figured out what was causing it to lock up. And then he was very happy with the nice new monitor and the zippy DSL.

SO, here’s a question for you all – do you like new things, or do you prefer the old things? If you have to replace your old thing, do you want the replacement thing to be exactly like the old thing, or do you want it to be all new and different? I’m sure there’s all sorts of interesting psychological meanings to these sorts of preferences.