My computer is old and cranky, like me. Most days, when I open her up, ready to work, she sits, frozen on whatever screen I was on when I closed her the night before. I try waiting, but I know it’s no good, and I force her to shut down, reboot, and try again.

I’m just following the advice every IT guy ever gave me when something went wrong. “Did you turn it off and turn it back on?”

But, my computer is old and cranky, like me. She’s not fond of rebooting and drags her feet, taking her sweet time before I’m allowed to start anything. Then there’s that little box: “Your computer didn’t shut down normally. Would you like to open the pages you were on or go to your start-up page?”

No! All those open pages are probably what made her freeze in the first place. Isn’t the point of rebooting to have a fresh start? The whole process makes me tired and nothing about rebooting makes this old computer faster or fresher or any different from the day before.

This week, I feel old and cranky, like my computer. And frozen. Every morning my mind pulls up what I was focused on the night before. My cursor is stuck, mid-page. Moving my mouse has no effect on it. Clicking the X to close the page does nothing. I must wait. Or reboot. Again.