Matt to the rescue. Again.

It hardly seems worth commenting on the obvious challenges in writing a dissertation. Finding the right way to summarize large data sets, find the right word to give nuance to my conclusions, organizing a giant file- I think we all expected this to be challenging. It's the unexpected challenges that I think are worth commenting on- they make me both glad I am keeping up on my writing schedule and also that I live with Matt. Let me explain.

On Sunday night while I was writing (finally writing, I enjoyed the sunny part of the day), Noel Skyped me for a quick Nana & Tyler adorableness update. And my computer kept dropping their call/turning itself off. While this didn't hinder my laser focus on the adorableness of my best nephew, one symptom I noticed was that while the battery was dying, my power cable was burning hot. When I showed Matt, who got apprehensive about continued long term use. Once I was all but done for the night (let's say 11pm), he took another look. The kind of look that requires taking a flashlight to the garage to dig out tools. He assured me that while there would be a part in this where my power cord would absolutely NOT work, he was confident he could get it to work again, and if not, we'd buy a new one first thing in the morning. I think you know where this is going.

On the adhoc workspace, Matt razored open the end of my power cable, which was predictably frayed and damaged. While I had no expectation about what he would find in there, he was surprised by the arrangement of the wire. After some finagling with his voltimeter, he was able to figure out how the tangled fragments of wires SHOULD power my computer. He approached this with a cool, objective confidence- this stoic bedside manner kept me from panicking. From my perspective, he performed minor surgery on a MAJOR component of my writing process, unleashed some microscopic bundle of medusa hair which was carefully reconstructed by soldering and wrapping into a non-electrifying, working power cord again. I am sure you can recognize several aspects there where panic or hysteria would have seemed appropriate. Who even knew you could take apart a plug?? Who takes a writing break to rework their electronics? If I didn't have Matt on all forms of technical support, my choices would have been watch for fire, or drop loads of money - both with panic and hysteria.

Thanks to Matt, writing continues at an efficient clip, right on schedule.