Sure, people in Houston (including my parents) don’t have electricity. And then there are those folks who are losing all sorts of money in the financial market. But I’ve got serious probs over here at Writinggal Headquarters too!
My beautiful laptop—command central for everything WG—crashed last night.
I raced it over to the folks at FireDog (in Circuit City) to see if it could be resuscitated. The computer dude, David, said, “It doesn’t look good.” I petted my computer like it was a sick puppy. “You’ll be okay, little guy. We’ll get you fixed.”
David took the whole thing apart, hit a bunch of buttons and at one point I think he even put those shocker things on it and yelled, “CLEAR!” but it wouldn’t come back to life.
I figured I must have just worked it too hard. Must have written too many stories.
Not so, said David. The mother board was fried. That didn’t sound good. After determining that I was just ten days out of my one-year warranty, he figured out why my MB was dundies. HP had recalled it! And they didn’t bother to tell anyone. “They don’t announce these things,” he said.
My beautiful laptop—command central for everything WG—crashed last night.
I raced it over to the folks at FireDog (in Circuit City) to see if it could be resuscitated. The computer dude, David, said, “It doesn’t look good.” I petted my computer like it was a sick puppy. “You’ll be okay, little guy. We’ll get you fixed.”
David took the whole thing apart, hit a bunch of buttons and at one point I think he even put those shocker things on it and yelled, “CLEAR!” but it wouldn’t come back to life.
I figured I must have just worked it too hard. Must have written too many stories.
Not so, said David. The mother board was fried. That didn’t sound good. After determining that I was just ten days out of my one-year warranty, he figured out why my MB was dundies. HP had recalled it! And they didn’t bother to tell anyone. “They don’t announce these things,” he said.
I’m so glad I found FDD—Fire Dog David. He told me I could send my computer to HP and they would fix it for free. I called HP and they confirmed. And while I was on hold with HP, David saved all my WG files to a DVD for me. Hurray! My story that I just started on school bus commutes? I’ve got it! The piece I just completed on turkey leftovers? In the DVD. The interview with the girl who does Krav Maga that I have to turn in by tomorrow? All mine. And of course I was able to retrieve all my pictures of the first four months of Leo’s life.
So now HP will have my computer for about two weeks. And for a girl who just lost her computer, I sure have a lot of computers lying around here. Neighbor Josh loaned me a monitor so I could use it with my old desktop CPU (takes me back to Writinggal 2003). Big shout out to Josh. Hey, you should meet Fire Dog David.
Then I’ve got Frank’s laptop which is fine but you have to click the mouse 20 times for it to work. I’m serious. Twenty is the magic number.
This morning when I was trying to set up shop again it reminded me of being without electricity. You’re so used to just doing things automatically that you forget what requires power. For instance, I went to go listen to an interview I had done but I didn’t have the right software on these borrowed computers. And then when I did load the software I realized that the monitor I was using didn’t have speakers. I found our speakers but couldn’t figure out how to plug them in. So it’s like when the power is out and you say, “Oh, it’s so dark in here! I guess I don’t really need light to blow dry my hair though…oh, wait.” And then you go around flipping on switches like you’re on electricity autopilot.
So now HP will have my computer for about two weeks. And for a girl who just lost her computer, I sure have a lot of computers lying around here. Neighbor Josh loaned me a monitor so I could use it with my old desktop CPU (takes me back to Writinggal 2003). Big shout out to Josh. Hey, you should meet Fire Dog David.
Then I’ve got Frank’s laptop which is fine but you have to click the mouse 20 times for it to work. I’m serious. Twenty is the magic number.
This morning when I was trying to set up shop again it reminded me of being without electricity. You’re so used to just doing things automatically that you forget what requires power. For instance, I went to go listen to an interview I had done but I didn’t have the right software on these borrowed computers. And then when I did load the software I realized that the monitor I was using didn’t have speakers. I found our speakers but couldn’t figure out how to plug them in. So it’s like when the power is out and you say, “Oh, it’s so dark in here! I guess I don’t really need light to blow dry my hair though…oh, wait.” And then you go around flipping on switches like you’re on electricity autopilot.
I don’t know about you and your disaster but mine has really put things in perspective: I still have my stories and for that I am grateful. Maybe I CAN survive with XP instead of Vista. Maybe it's okay that I only have one USB port on this computer. And at least I can plug in my hair dryer. 
(A View of Ground Zero)
1 comment:
I was wondering why I haven't gotton any new photos of Leo in a whole 3 days or has it been only 2 days?! I'm in withdrawal! But now I understand because you were in crisis mode -- just like all of us in the aftermath of IKE! We're "almost" back to normal with power restored at home and Frank's counseling practice -- but still no power at my work. I can't wait to read the turkey leftovers recipe article.
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