One Wing

These past two days have been ruff.  I finished my interviews only to discover on yesterday that the second digital recorder I had purchased didn't have a USB outlet which would allow me to send my interviews to Sharon, the lady who would be doing the transcribing.  When I told Sharon what I had discovered you would have thought this was her dissertation that was on the line.  We brainstormed for about an hour before I came up with the bright idea to purchase another recorder and place them together to transfer the interviews.  So with a frown on my face and a major headache I took another field trip to Best Buy and purchased my third digital recorder.  I decided to stay with the Sony family because I had finally figured out how to work the one that I used to record the interviews and my brain couldn't take too much more learning.  This "fancier" one is a Sony ICD-PX333, a cute little black gadget.  After my trip to Best Buy I returned to my office where I spent two hours sitting on the floor transferring the interviews (pressed record on the new recorder and play on the old one, genius I know).  It was emotional listening to the interviews of my former students because I began to realize just how much I missed teaching social work and how much of an impact they believed I had made as a professor.  It was also amazing to see how a few words from others could transform your research.  Once I finished the transfers I honestly didn't have the energy to try and figure out how to get them from the recorder to my computer, so I called it a day.  As I was headed home from my office my SUV decided that it didn't want to act right, WTH?!  Some light came on indicating that my engine was running low on power! My temple started to throb.  All I wanted to do was get home.  Sitting on the side of the road was not an option, especially not at night.  It was dark, the temperature had dropped and I was about to have a nervous break down.  I called my brother who stayed on the phone with me until I got home. I think I finally cried around 8pm. I had been flying with one wing.
This morning I got up around 5:30 with a little more energy and hope than I had on yesterday.  I spent approximately two hours teaching myself how to transfer the interviews, and setting up an account with Dropbox so I could email them (I discovered that regular email can't handle the large files).  I felt anxious as I pressed send, with my finger crossed I was hoping that I had did everything right and they would arrive to Sharon okay.  I got teary eyed when she emailed me back and told me she had received them.  I wrote for an hour and then decided that 3 hours was all I could muster today in dissertation stuff.  These past two days I felt every bit of 45.  The fight with technology and now my truck, I'm getting to old for this crap! But on the bright side I think I'm finally starting to understand why some people who have a PhD are a little weird or "off."  It's stuff like this that can make or break you emotionally, but me and my one wing are holding on... 
So to answer the question that I know you're thinking.  Yes, my truck is still freaking broke, but that's a good excuse to sit in my house and do absolutely nothing for the rest of the day.  So with my feet propped up, I'm going to watch this Little People marathon on TLC (interesting show and yes, I have a thing for reality t.v.) while surfing the internet looking for another vehicle.  And in the meantime I'm going to try very hard not to lose it or worst, cry.