Zoomie Casualty

Butter Wouldn’t Melt In Their Mouths – Photo: L. Weikel

That didn’t take long, did it? I wrote about the ‘zoomies’ but two short nights ago and have already sustained a zoomie casualty. What’s that oft-used phrase popular in the vernacular? “F*#% around and find out?” Yep. That’s it.

Well, the pups did – and we found out.

It happened so quickly it was akin to a lightning strike. Our eyes met. Karl and I, although on opposite sides of the room, both knew immediately what that thud meant. It meant that the pups, in the midst of their zoomies (which we were only just starting to realize might be a normal thing and not some dietary anomaly) had tangled with the charger cord to my laptop and whisked the machine from its esteemed perch on a tray table and crashed it to the floor.

“I’m not going to look,” I said to Karl as I picked the laptop up off the floor. “Broken or not, there’s nothing I can do about it tonight. So whatever its status, it’ll hold until tomorrow. Truth be told, though? I could see the charger cord light was still on, so I took that as a good sign. I told myself the laptop was unscathed and I’d be pleasantly surprised in the morning.

Sadly, that turned out to be wishful thinking.

Could’ve Been Worse

The next morning revealed a disappointing fact: while the charger obviously was still getting juice from the wall, it was no longer effectively transmitting it to the machine. The black screen remained unresponsive, even when I pressed the power button. A brief (oh-so-brief) flicker of life appeared in the form of a light underneath the power button, but it faded with but a whimper of effort.

I checked my warranty – the super duper extended version had expired in January of this year. My only recourse was to take it to a local repair shop.

Enter D’town Tech. It turned out that the zoomie casualty was indeed the charger. This was confirmed by Taylor, who kindly recharged my battery long enough to properly close everything down. After that, I went on a hunt for a charger and discovered they are not as easy to find as one might think – yet another victim of the dreaded Covid shortages.

Just More Fun

After more running around than I would’ve liked, I ended up ordering it off Amazon. But that left me with the dilemma of giving a Wagon (a group journey as part of my ongoing Shamanic Caravan) with a totally different machine.

Those of you who’ve been reading my blog throughout this 1111 Devotion know that technological wizardry is not my forté. Initially I ran into the same problems I’d had in the beginning of this project, which was the machine deliberately ‘canceling’ the ‘noise’ of the rattle.

But I’m delighted to report that I figured it out. I didn’t panic. And the Wagon went off without a hitch.

Well, no. That’s not entirely true. I forgot – 7:00 p.m. (the Wagon’s start time), is also the ‘witching’ time for Pacha and Brutus to begin their crazy-antic running around ritual.

Let’s just say tonight’s journeyers received an extra layer of practice in conducting their work with – and without – distractions.