In spite of knowing that their purpose is to provide security for users of Microsoft Windows, I do not like the annoyance of having to wait for my computer to download, restart, and install them. I don’t like to wait at all, but I particularly find it annoying to be robbed of the use of my computer during the time in which I’ve set aside to write.

What I discovered this week, is that there are worse things than Windows updates. And that, would be windows updates that fail to install. Because then, the system goes through the long, drawn-out process of reverting back to the way it was. This happened Wednesday night, and took more than two hours to complete. It happened again yesterday. The exact same update insisted on installing, and of course, it failed. And had to revert. I turned to my secondary laptop, and the exact same thing happened. Determined not to deal with this every three days for the rest of my life, I did some research and tried the various fixes suggested, none of which worked. And, after each one, it was necessary to try installing the update again, which then failed, and reverted, etc.  Five and a half hours later, I discovered it’s possible to hide updates. I’d rather annihilate that particular one, but that’s the best I could do. I also turned off automatic updates. I’m sick of that little screen with the countdown, that hides behind the file I’m working on, then automatically restarts my machine, losing whatever I haven’t yet saved. So I better never have that problem again.

I’m going to give myself credit here, and point out that the only way the rest of the household knew I was very, very angry, is because I told them. I didn’t bite Brad’s head off for him, either, when he said he didn’t know how to help because he’s “not a windows dude” and suggested that I wouldn’t have these problems if I would just switch to Linux. After yesterday, I seriously considered it (switching, that is), but, the digital form of my books must be submitted in Word. It’s hard enough to get the formatting right when converting from one version of Word, to another. I have a headache imagining what Word would do if I tried to convert from another program, entirely.

In spite of it all, I did get eight pages written in Disengaged, came up with two new plots, added to 423 Apprehensive Avenue‘s notes, cooked green enchiladas for dinner, and did a rough family tree for my various characters. A number of them are related, and it wouldn’t do to lose track of which ones. My world’s population is growing, and if I don’t have it in writing, I will. Eventually I’ll do a map too, one that looks nicer than the several Post-Its that it’s currently recorded on.

Amber Fields, Disengaged, is the cousin of Jack Ryland, the PI with his own series. So is her sister, Samantha, but it’s Amber that sometimes bears a resemblance to Jack. If I didn’t know they were cousins, I would suspect that they were, after a particular conversation she had with a possible villain this morning. She told no outlandish stories, and she was truthful, unlike Jack, who has said (truthfully enough) that he and the truth are often strangers. She led the conversation exactly the way she wanted it to go, and had the possible villain off-balance in less time than it took to say “hello”. I enjoyed that. She’s still in the middle of that conversation, as a matter of fact, and I’m curious to hear what happens next.

So happy reading, and I’m going to go find out!