SERIOUS COMPUTER PROBLEMS (your 2 cents please?)

My laptop computer is dying. I've had a lot of trouble with it over the past year, but it's really, really bad now. I'm surprised that I can even write and post this right now.

We're getting ready to head north in a few days, so I'll be busy cleaning and packing things up, but I'll keep trying to use this thing whenever it lets me.

I'll be shopping for a new laptop as soon as we get back home. Not sure which brand yet, but it MUST have tons of memory for my photos, be fast, have great sound, great picture, a fairly large screen (this old (2006) DELL has a 17.4" screen...and NO, I will NOT buy another DELL...nothing but problems, and horrible, horrible customer service)...and not cost an arm and a leg. Was considering a MAC, but they're expensive (between 1900.00 and 2400.00 for what I want) and technology is moving along SO fast......so, I'm thinking HP or maybe Toshiba? Most people suggest that I'll be happy with HP (Hewlitt-Packard). I would love to hear YOUR opinions and advice!

Thank you ahead of time for your input!
- Mary Ann

NIGHT MARINA (Aransas Pass, Texas)

DARK INDUSTRY (Ingleside and Portland, Texas)

Driving through the Ingleside/Portland area one evening...

MEANDERING CAMERA

(within 1/4 mile of our current location)

RATTLESNAKE?! Remnants of old oil company docks, cactus and jellyfish at Lighthouse Trail Park (Aransas Pass, Texas)

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Cactus skeleton



































It was just around the corner there from the dock remnants, (see where the green grass and brush is?), that I think I encountered a rattlesnake. YIKES! Luckily, (or maybe not...because I would have enjoyed taking it's picture...I think) I did not see it, but I certainly did hear it. I was walking on the sand, but the grassy area was about chest height to me (kind of a cliff area...the terrain, not my chest...LOL).

I was holding my camera to take another shot of something when I heard what sounded like a cross between a rattle and a buzz. At first I thought it was broken bits of shells beneath my feet, but when I looked down there were hardly any where I was standing, so I stood perfectly still then I heard it again!

I was only about a foot and a half in front of the "cliff" facing it, trying to see if I could see something (bees or wasps maybe?) when I heard a sharp "HISS" and then another sharp "hisssss" quickly followed! Not to worry though, I had already been very slowly and quietly backing away from that area to resume my picture taking farther on down.

A couple of days later when mentioning this little episode to a guy who lives full-time in our RV Park (he's a native Texan and works and lives in this area for many years)...he told us that the whole Lighthouse Trail Park area used to be a shipping area full of docks for an oil company years ago and that the area was then and still is infested with rattlesnakes and that he wouldn't set foot over there, not even to go fishing (which many people do).

So, will I go back sometime? Sure I will!
I'll just be more cautious next time. ;-)

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Lighthouse Trail Park - Jan.19,2011