Day 35 - Wednesday 8/3/2005 -  Losing sleep to the virus...

I generally do not sleep a lot, but 3 hours is still below my norm.  I finally got to bed about 5 am after spending the entire night downloading software patches and installing diagnostic tools.  My night was a steady loop of hope, failure, cursing: repeat.  The laptop was gradually getting better, but then I downloaded a windows patch that seemed to kill the laptop altogether.  I rebooted the system several times, and finally it booted and actually seemed better.  By 5 am, I was tired, and sick of working on it.  "Worst case", I thought, "is no more web updates".

After a bit of sleep, I went back to work on the laptop.  By noon, I had windows working, and we were able to get the GPS software functional.  We were not planning to go far today, just move a little closer to Phoenix.  We grabbed some lunch and started off through the Mojave Desert.  The GPS told us to track south through LA, and pick up I-10.  Given the suspected traffic, I decided to drive to Needles, CA and then head south.

The trip was uneventful (though the car ran a little warm up and down the hills in the desert), and we made it into Blythe, CA in the late afternoon.  We had to drive around a bit in search of a motel that had Internet access, but we finally found a place.  After checking in, I continued to work on the sick patient while Hunter went for a swim.  

In the morning we head off for Phoenix to hook up with my friend of over 25 years, Craig.