My old computer fades to blackCopyright 2009 Lydia Hinshaw
ORMOND BEACH, FL -- The image above was created with the flash of a point-and-shoot, and it somewhat over-dramatizes what happened to my computer Sunday night.
As I perused a web page, the screen simply went dark. It's not the first time this has happened to me, just the first time with a computer I paid for myself. And the first time with a computer I wasn't depending upon to earn a living. This time, therefore, I wasn't angry. Just sad, and more than a little worried about how much this was going to cost.
I can no longer do without a computer. It's about as necessary as air.
My computer was about two months short of four years old, had crossed the country with me four times. It had spent a summer in Montana, two in Alaska and another in California. It had been to the Rockies, the Sierra, the desert, the Keys. Northern California and North Carolina.
It had been packed and unpacked countless times, used in coffee shops and public parks and motel rooms and parked cars. It had several hairline cracks in its case, all of which appeared quietly, without any memorable mishaps. I had been expecting the computer to fail any day now for at least the past year.
Sunday night I tried what little computer CPR I know, got it functioning again three or four times, but never for more than a few minutes.
The techie I consulted said it was either the display or a connection. It could be fixed in a week for $280. The hard drive was intact, and all my data could be rescued and put on a brand new computer. I weighed the possibility that the hard drive would last much longer after another cross-country trip to a repair center.
And so I picked out a new one Monday and picked it up Tuesday. After a bit more than 24 hours, I have my printer working and hope soon to understand the new, improved and baffling photo program.
It will be a challenge and a struggle for a while.
Posting this blog, if I succeed in doing so, has taken far longer that it would have with the old machine. Nothing worked quite the way I expected.
Later this week I will look up my credit card bill on the Internet and pay it. I have gone above and beyond the call to stimulate the economy.
As I perused a web page, the screen simply went dark. It's not the first time this has happened to me, just the first time with a computer I paid for myself. And the first time with a computer I wasn't depending upon to earn a living. This time, therefore, I wasn't angry. Just sad, and more than a little worried about how much this was going to cost.
I can no longer do without a computer. It's about as necessary as air.
My computer was about two months short of four years old, had crossed the country with me four times. It had spent a summer in Montana, two in Alaska and another in California. It had been to the Rockies, the Sierra, the desert, the Keys. Northern California and North Carolina.
It had been packed and unpacked countless times, used in coffee shops and public parks and motel rooms and parked cars. It had several hairline cracks in its case, all of which appeared quietly, without any memorable mishaps. I had been expecting the computer to fail any day now for at least the past year.
Sunday night I tried what little computer CPR I know, got it functioning again three or four times, but never for more than a few minutes.
The techie I consulted said it was either the display or a connection. It could be fixed in a week for $280. The hard drive was intact, and all my data could be rescued and put on a brand new computer. I weighed the possibility that the hard drive would last much longer after another cross-country trip to a repair center.
And so I picked out a new one Monday and picked it up Tuesday. After a bit more than 24 hours, I have my printer working and hope soon to understand the new, improved and baffling photo program.
It will be a challenge and a struggle for a while.
Posting this blog, if I succeed in doing so, has taken far longer that it would have with the old machine. Nothing worked quite the way I expected.
Later this week I will look up my credit card bill on the Internet and pay it. I have gone above and beyond the call to stimulate the economy.
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