Journal of a Sabbatical

February 23, 2001

dreams, nightmares, power supplies

Today's Reading: The Paul Street Boys by Ferenc Molnar

Botanical Department, Hungarian Museum of Natural History - Budapest - February 23, 2001

I read a little more of The Paul Street Boys before I fell asleep last night so am now more than half way through it. It's charming and sweet and all about loss of innocence.

I had to get up early this morning to meet István so we could take the computer to an Apple repair place in Buda, across the river. We had to cross the Chain Bridge. The shop is in an old building on a narrow street. We sat all morning while the expert tech ran various tests. István read the paper. I stared out the window at a dance class or rehearsal in the building across the street. I could just see one dancer, sometimes two, through the other window. The dance involved lots of bobbing up and down very fast and sometimes whirling in a tight circle while bobbing up and down very fast. Without the music, the dance seemed bizarre and alien. I could hear the clock ticking second by second, an occasional weird electrical noise from the computer, and sometimes a phone ringing. I fell asleep and dreamed I was in Zsolt's mother's apartment and she was stuffing my suitcases with salami. Salami, the nightmare continues.

The computer service guy told us it was the power supply and it would take several days to get one. Then he decided to borrow one from another computer while the new one is on order. So he was taking a long time installing the borrowed power supply and István asked him what was going on. The power supply is fine but it's making a noise. Not a good noise. A bad noise.

The computer service guy tests all the voltages, the power supply, everything electrical. It all works fine. Everything is fine but the computer won't turn on. We pack it up to bring it back to the botanical department with heavy hearts. I am hungry and cranky besides being totally bummed out about the computer.

The weather today is gray and damp. No more snow or thunder and lightning, just dampness. I'm sure the weather is making me gloomier.

We got some lunch from a little deli in the metro station and ate it in the office. Netscape on his PC keeps running out of memory. I don't know what Hungarian for "clear cache" is. Note to self, next time memorize all Netscape menus in Hungarian. Ditto for Eudora.