Computer woes and old ladies

Today is a gloomy winter day. I looked at the mountains when we went to the grocery store and they didn't look happy either. They looked kind of like an old lady with a bad hair day. You know the kind I mean, where you can see the scalp with the cloud of hair hovering above it. The snow has melted off the trees but not the ground, so I see humps of sad white mountain with bare trees hovering above. Ugly. Anyway, I have been attempting to work on multiple things. Every time I start, not only does it take 5 times longer but I am ultimately stopped by the simple tasks. I can't get my documents on the mac to open up. If I could open them, then I could paste the contents into an email to send to myself so I could copy & paste into the pc word '03. I can't actually change anything on the external hard drive and all the documents are saved in mac formats. None of it matters if I can't get the documents to even open. I used to love my mac. My happy friendly mac. Now I am working on this loud, clacking evil vista from 2005. (I think) I guess I should stop whining and just start over. With all these stupid cords going every where, to external drives and printers and multiple computers, and of course, to the power source since the battery doesn't hold a charge,I am trapped in my seat. Each computer or device has its own idiosyncrasy - K's computer turns off if it is not kept flat, my mac has no working screen and has to be hooked to K's, the stupid vista won't connect to either of those and to print from it I have to connect it directly to the printer, if I access the external drive through the computer from hell, I can't actually view any thing because its all mac based. grrrrr. I am going in circles. So, start over. Right? I just don't want to. It should start snowing soon. Maybe I'll just take a break and watch the flakes falling on the logging trucks as they speed past my house.