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I may have already mentioned in passing that my main desktop PC in my basement home office, a form that has served me very well as my main work PC in all the years prior, now serves predominantly utilitarian duties while I clickety-clack away on my “new” laptop upstairs.

The laptop’s now my workhorse? Yes, I guess it is.

Although the desktop PC is a far superior machine in many respects (particularly in areas that involve human factors engineering), for my needs, and those of other writers’ I suppose, much of the laptop’s benefits just can’t be deskop-beat.

Here, add another reason to the list of why’s. Something small-ish that never would have occured to me had it not happened to me just this morning.

I got up early (my habit… late to bed and early to rise, that’s just the way I’m built I guess), and there I was, pecking away on my laptop in the artificial light with the sunrise not due for another hour or so, when — whngggggg — the lights went off.

There was a power outage, for some reason. Very rare in this part of the world (and I know, having grown up somewhere where they aren’t), but they do happen.

No power. No light… save for the one coming from my laptop’s screen. I was plugged into the wall since I was at home, but the laptop’s battery kicked in automatically when the wall juice disappeared.

Thanks to the laptop, I didn’t miss a beat.

Yeah, it was dark, making it difficult to type even if one’s a touch typist — what with a laptop’s keys in combination often serving double, triple or even quadruple duty. You can, however, angle the laptop’s monitor a certain way to make its light illuminate the keyboard. And if you happen to have a Net connection or a backup one that will work during an outage (such as a dial-up), there are lots of things to do online that don’t need much use of the keyboard (such as research).

Yeah, I could get a somewhat pricey UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) for my desktop PC… but why bother, since I already have the laptop?

The outage didn’t last very long. And again, this will be a rare benefit, but as usual with these sorts of rarities, it’s something you’ll appreciate when you need it.

Food for thought if you’re shopping… lots of excellent Black Friday sales!

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