It’s official, Spring has sprung. To be sure, the aspen have sprouted their gloriously green leaves, adding light in the midst of the dark green of the pine forest covering the mountains. Another bright, sunny day….four or five in a row now. Not a cloud in the sky (at least till later today!).

I’ve been painting and it’s had the usual effect of calming and focusing me. Which I’m sure is good news for Dell, since the saga that I thought was over, continues. I received the “new identical configuration” I was promised only to discover that it was not identical. Indeed, it came loaded with Vista, not XP Pro, and noticeably missing the software I ordered pre installed on the troublesome machine…and paid for. Yet more calls. Yet more “I’ll check on that and call you back”….yeah right. Not so much. I haven’t even taken the machine out of the box…the packing slip told the whole story. Vista, no Office. Since then I’ve discovered that there is only one program I have that will run under Vista. I can’t even begin to load it because nothing I have (save the quicken 2007 I just upgraded to) will work. I’m supposed to have this machine back to them within 7 days from the day I received the new one (two days ago). I have to upgrade 1/2 a dozen packages before I can even begin restoring data…and who knows how I’ll do that since my Ghost backups won’t be readable unless I upgrade that too….a program I bought in early December…buy it again in June. Sigh. Already up to $400 which would have been much higher had Corel not worked with me and honored the loyal customer I have been (which is great since three of the most expensive packages I have come from Corel…..thank you, Corel). The biggy will be Quickbooks. ouch. Almost $1000 total that I did not intend to spend this year. Not to mention my time. I’ve lost countless hours in rebooting, restoring, reinstalling and on the phone with Dell for so many hours at a time I broke down and bought a headset to save my neck. I’ll have to find some other way to do my email, because my email client won’t run on Vista and they don’t have a new version out yet. I’m beyond the anger and frustration. I just want a reliable machine. I don’t want to see another blue screen…ever (though that’s unlikely).

While I wait for the call that is unlikely to come, I’m going back to painting. I’ll move on while Dell ponders whether or not they are going to get me the copy of Office, and how they are going to help me through the transition that they arbitrarily forced me into. I have enough on my plate as summer approaches and all the activities and events of Angel Fire Mountain Theatre and the Arts Council loom, demanding my attention.

As I finish new works, you won’t see them here till after ArtsFest
This is the first time in several years that I have participated as an exhibitor. It’s alot to manage, between the gallery, and the Mountain Theatre, but I’m gonna go for it, so I’ll keep the work out of the public eye till then. While on the subject, if you haven’t picked up a copy of Enchantment yet, do so. They published a very nice article about the arts and my role in it. Page 16. I’m honored.

Better get to it…Ciao.