My DELL was (and maybe still is) dying.... so the "fix it" DELL technician came to the house - no charge of course because of that expensive $450 warranty I purchased 4 years ago on the 25th of this month (when it is no longer valid).
Well he showed up. Young little guy but he looked like any computer guru I've ever known and he came into my new kitchen, smiled, and "opened his bag and went straight to his work." And I asked if it would bother him if I watched. After all, I think my soul is somewhere in the guts of this machine, and I'd like to see where.
No problem. It was fascinating. Didn't take long on Monday at noon for me to realize that he was taking out everything and reinstalling new everything (except the brain and it was ok - what?? not fried?? Nope - protected and perfectly alright.) Alright.
He mused that DELL had sent HIM a keyboard for my computer yet I had a new one they had just sent to me here at the house. He said that sometimes they do that, and I should just keep it. If he were sure of this, I'd just save it for a rainy day, please show me how to install a keyboard. He did and doggone it looked easy.
Here we are two days later. I am up at 6:00 today knowing that "today is paint day". Jonathan and I would be painting the guest bedroom to set back up this weekend. I was sitting at my make-shift desk in the bedroom answering some email. Had just eaten a biscuit and had JUST opened a Diet Pep*si.
Miss Friendly was looking awfully friendly and the next thing I knew, she had jumped up onto the desk and my "full-can-of-Diet-Pepsi-minus-one-sip" was going, "glub, glub, glub" right into my laptop computer. My NEW computer keyboard, 60 hours old.
I instinctively grabbed the cat and put her on the floor before getting the can off the computer. I lost half a can of drink in the keyboard. Yanked it up and turned the computer upside down and nearly a cup of liquid poured out. I knew we were in trouble. I'm sitting here at 6:15 A.M. wondering if I just possibly could go back to bed and start over.
Knew I was under warranty but my keyboard suddenly went crazy, doing its own thing. I'd type an "o" but a string of letters (and not one of them an "o" )would appear. Finally it took off running the letter "t" across the page. Then other weird characters all doing their thing.
I tried all kinds of things. Jason showed up for work. "Ga, Linda, I've never knowed - uh known anyone who spilled a whole diet pe*psi in their computer." Thank you Jason. I needed that affirmation. The new dishwasher is calling your name. It needs to be installed.
Decided to try to get a message on my blog (for my Mother's sake. She's a blog policewoman maniac. Ya don't go a day without blogging for Pete's sake!) So MOM had to have a "word" from her oldest.
Carolyn was wondering what was going on in a comment and Mom wrote asking if I were on drugs. Then Carmen wrote and interpreted the mismash to mean I volunteered to baby sit for the rest of my life. Dream on, chick.
Called DELL. When I reveal WHO I am (they KNOW me) ... (((you're supposed to laugh right now))).... I got put on hold several times and finally he came back and told me I was STILL under full warranty, they were sending a box tomorrow, I am to pack the computer up and it will go to Memphis..... again..... for an overhaul. Forth time to Memphis in 4 years. Pretty good record there, Linda.
Then panic...My PICTURES!!!!!!! We went through this 13 months ago when Donald, the school system computer guru retrieved my pictures (if you who have read here will remember) BEFORE the computer went to Memphis. THAT was a lot of trauma. I hadn't backed anything up. Trouble is, I have not learned my lesson and didn't have anything backed up from January a year ago... so I tried pulling pictures to CD... and it worked, so frantically I began saving pics to cds.
That's when the electricity went off. My computer battery was dead by then and I hadn't even scratched the surface. I was out of business. A huge tree had blown over up the road from the house.
Time to paint. I needed therapy.
