Right, so if you go to Canada for a weekend you are advised not to leave your laptop on top of your car overnight, especially if it’s going pour down rain for a brief period of time. After an array of panic-inducing STOP blue screens of death that boded very ill for my laptop, my season preview, and my sanity, I have managed to extract the most critical bits of information from my PC and get them onto an external hard drive. I have learned a very valuable lesson about backups and making them extremely convenient so you don’t fall off the wagon after a while.

A new laptop is being lovingly assembled in Malaysia. In the meantime, which is unfortunately scheduled to last a week into the season, I am using all-purpose backup PC, which is old and slow. It also needs to be whipped into usable shape after a long layoff. Also I’m behind after three days sans internet and a three-hour delay on my plane flight back from New York. Upshot for readers: slow day today. Bear with me as I put the gun back in the drawer.

BLOGPOLL NOTE: Due to this and a number of login issues I wasn’t able to address for obvious reasons the poll will be delayed until Wednesday.

SIDE NOTE: the laptop currently in a hospital bed with an extremely erratic pulse has not only been on for basically two straight years but it’s suffered a vast array of indignities. The fan’s been tetchy for a while. When I took it to New York I dropped it, hard, shattering a hinge but leaving the functionality of the thing uncompromised. Now it’s gamely whispering all my data onto its will after being rained on and almost dying. I’m thinking of nicknaming Junior Hemingway “Dell Vostro 1500.”