Attila says I am an incredibly patient person, with a few striking exceptions. One of the exceptions he is talking about is deliveries. He is talking about toys. He is talking about technology. He is correct. Yesterday, today and every day until that UPS van arrives in the driveway I will be mentally pacing the floors.

Let me explain, from the beginning.

Attila has begun to use the computer for various recreational activities. We need two computers online simultaneously. We need a second computer to wirelessly share the dialup connection.

The reliable old computer we use has two issues. Issue one is age; it cannot burn DVDs and it cannot economically support wireless software routing. I can buy a card to accommodate wireless software routing, but it would be an antique and no cheaper than new equipment. It isn't worth the investment; buying parts for really old computers to bring them up to today's technological standards.

The second issue is security. I recently received this information on an email list:

"Virus from China the gift that keeps on giving
Deborah Gage, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, February 14, 2008|
An insidious computer virus recently discovered on digital photo frames has been identified as a powerful new Trojan Horse from China that collects passwords for online games - and its designers might have larger targets in mind."

Now, hoax or fact, it matters not. It is possible that this sort of attack could take place. So, Attila and I have decided to devote a computer to online purchases, no additional software installs, no email, no web browsing, no games, and no peripherals. The G4 is perfect for such an endeavor. I propose to backup the hard drive, wipe it clean, reinstall the OS and vital software that has been downloaded from reliable sites over a period of years and run everything through the latest anti-virus software.

So, at last I come to the crucial core of my impatience. I am waiting for a new Macintosh computer to arrive, and a new printer/fax/scanner. It is a bottom-of-the-line iMac. It will be at least twice as fast as the G4, and it will give me a chance to have a peek at the newest Macintosh operating system, currently OS X 10.5.2, Leopard. The G4 is running OS X 10.3.9, which does everything we need.

The new printer shipped on Monday and I am still waiting for it to reach us here in the bush. As soon as it arrives I will send in a rebate coupon for a reimbursement that will bring the price of the printer down to $19.95.

The computer is not due to ship until Thursday at the earliest, so I will have to wait up to two weeks for it to arrive.

And this is when impatience enters stage left! The child in me thinks, "Two weeks, OK, BUT really it could be here any day now, any time that truck might pull up in the driveway. I don't want to miss the delivery. I will have to watch carefully to make sure the delivery person doesn't drive away and claim no one was home, without even getting out of the vehicle to knock on the door." (This happened ONCE with a delivery company, the child in me never forgot about it.)

And so I wait; Attila watches; and the world of commerce trundles along unaware of the private drama unfolding in the deep woods of Canada.

See what Attila means? When it comes to toys I am the epitome of impatience and I don't even try to contain it! After a decision is carefully considered and made, to make a purchase, I can completely indulge the immediacy of my desire. This is where I can afford to be childlike, to ignore common sense, to let my feelings take complete control over reason. However, as the days pass the anticipation will wane until it disappears completely... then the computer will arrive with a flourish and I'll be off on the new adventure, having completely forgotten these days of impatience.

The purchase of a new computer brings our Eight Weeks of Winter Tour de Force to an abrupt end. We are now in the third week of the Tour de Force, having purchased the chrysanthemums in the first week, episodes of Northern Exposure in the second week and now a computer in the third week. Attila and I feel that we had better stop the Tour de Force, before we end up with investment property in Florida!

Luckily, with a new computer on the way I am well occupied, collecting compatible software versions and mapping out where the computers will sit and how they will be used. Then the computer will arrive and I will be busy for a few days getting all the software installed and checking it all out for bugs. And after that I will spend week’s bopping all over the Mac web sites to look at interesting software packages, that up until now I have ignored, as they won't run on the G4.

In addition, my current projects are largely incomplete. I have not converted a record album from analog to digital in weeks. I have not worked on my genealogy database in weeks. I have been plodding away revising the code on this site, and still have quite a bit to accomplish in that department. The only task I have completed is the move to a new domain host, which was quite time consuming. Well, on second thought there are still a few loose ends there too...

The universe approves. The sun shone off and on yesterday and is out in full force this morning. The sky is a brilliant blue. Mist is sleeping in the sun by the window and by golly I think I'll grab the laptop and get over there in the chair beside her and get going on the code revisions for this site.