The Panasonic W 1000 Personal Word Processor sat in the basement for many years. Supplanted by the personal computer, it had been close to a decade since I had used it. I had little hope of it working. When I touched the power button, the LCD came on strong.
 

I wrote my first book on this machine, as well as many stories, journal entries, resumes, letters to friends and landlords and insurance companies, grocery lists, etc. Slim hopes turned into eager curiosity as I popped in the floppy disk.
 

Nothing. Zero. Nada. Disk not found. Not even a sickly whirring noise. The floppy drive was dead, taking with it everything stored on the single sided, proprietary formatted disks. Those words are trapped in dead bit technology.
 

There are potential remedies. I could take apart the machine and try to solder in a new floppy drive. I could send the disks away to be converted in exchange for a princely sum of money. While it would have been interesting to dig through those old writings, I had already made peace with letting them go.
 

Besides, I had a hard copy of that first novel (don't worry - it is safely hidden away where it will not harm anyone). A paper backup copy, in fact. This reminded me of boxes tucked away in the attic, full of paper. I dragged the boxes out into the light and started to dig through the treasures.
 

To be continued ...
 

Next weekend I'll be attending Boskone, the largest SF/F convention in New England. I don't have anything fancy like a reading or panel sessions; just hanging about and meeting people.
 

If you happen to be going, send me a message (todd at todd-wheeler dot com), let's get together, I'll buy you a beer (or coffee, or vodka, or water - wait the water's free).

Thanks everyone for your votes. Unfortunately, CLiF did not win the grant, but your efforts were appreciated.
 

In the theme of kids literacy, below is a video from the PBS show Electric Company. "Bossy r" is work safe, unless you aren't allowed to dance in the office. It is one toe-tapping tune.