$$$

So I finally got my iBook, my precious, my money-maker back. They fixed everything, and even put new feets on it. The jury is still out regarding wether or not this is actually a feature, because I find that I was used to being able to slide and spin it around freely. Maybe I shouldn't be so flip about it; for all I know, the minor logic board blowout that led to my LCD backlight problems might have happened because I let the machine's underside go unventilated.

Boy, I could use some money now. Grunt. Learned this morning that I'm half a thou poorer than I thought I was, and since I now count my bank account in three digits, friends, this is not a happy thing. I can throw my seldom-used credit card at the baying hounds of car and utility bills, but paying Rick, my sub-lessor, for rent is unfortunately going to be tight... I'll have to do it in halves, and trust that he'll be happier seeing something from me than nothing at all. (Based on my interactions with him so far, I do believe this will be the case. He seems an amicable and understanding fellow.)

The first advance from Macnut will be sweet if my chapters are deemed worthy, of course. And if they're not? Then, hell, I'll get a job, I will. That'll show em. Meantime, hey, look, I have an iBook, which means I can write them columns. And I can do work for Arcus again... Andy called on Monday to coo promises of jobs a-plenty into mine ear, but he hasn't written to me since, probably in no hurry since he knew I was without computer. So, I'll fix that piece of perception, I will.

(Allow me to make a public thank-you to ddl and Jayess for the use of their iMac for a couple of days this week, when I needed to take some Mac OS X screenshots. Yay!)

In the interim, I can borrow from my parents if I need to; they are starting to see some net income from their current house project in Fairfield, and they're making a tidy bundle from the sale of the Hartland camp, their first really winning property sale in a long time. I gauge both their success and their continued willingness to help me by the fact they insistently thrust twenties at me (for gas, they say) when I visit them lately. Nevertheless, I would really rather not, for reasons more personal than financial. Well, maybe I can scrape by on what I have until one of the many aforementioend sources pays out. Heck, with iBook again, I can post stuff on eBay again. Hi-ho.

Speaking of parents, I say har har at the fact that they spoke last weekend about buying another house. Understand that they've been saying "Hoo boy, this is the last one, we're gonna settle down after this, yessir," for about four or five purchases, now. I guess they must feel naked unless they're managing at least two properties, even if one of them is already a let-out apartment house with all the responsibilities that entails.

So much for the baying hounds

Two of the three entities I really want to give my credit card information to have websites that barf Javascript errors at me when I attempt to do so, and the third doesn't even offer any kind of online payment options. Hello, we are Toyota Financial Services, where it is always 1994. Then again, I have a sinking feeling that they don't take credit cards in any case, for some reason. In which case I'll need to call them up to tell them I won't be able to pay them at all. La.