PC Power

My PC lap top is on life support this week. I was all ready to write its eulogy because I thought for sure it was a goner. It has been touch-and-go for quite a while now. But today it’s showing signs of life, now that it’s recharging and seems to be feeling much more like its old self again. Slow and cranky. Good old PC!

Some people are quick to replace recalcitrant or outdated devices. Others can’t resist the lure of the latest electronic gizmos which somehow compel them to line up all night outside the Apple store to make sure they get the latest release. Not me. I tend to form attachments to machines and other inanimate objects. I find it hard to say good-bye.

It was close with my lap top. The guys at the Geek Squad were not very encouraging when I rushed it to their emergency room after it crashed a couple of weeks ago. “Oh, wow!” the triage Geek said when he examined it, “2011! I haven’t seen one this old in a long time!”

“It’s only 3 years old!” I cried, “Please! You must be able to do something to save it!”

“Huh. Looks like your tech support contract expired a year ago. Not sure what we can do to help, Ma’am,” he said, shaking his head and taking a little flashlight from his pocket protector to check inside the battery housing. “You could try a new battery. But we don’t carry anything this old. You could go over to Batteries’R’Us.”

The guy at Batteries’R’Us looked it up in inventory. “We don’t have one, but I might be able to get it from another store. Can you leave it with me?”

I drove home with that helpless feeling that comes from leaving fate in someone else’s hands.

I tried to make friends with the iPad, the other lap top computer that lives at our house. Tearfully, I began to write my PC’s obituary. It didn’t go well. My hand reached out for the mouse that wasn’t there. My fingers stabbed at the screen to highlight edits — and missed every time. I began to feel repetitive strain injury flaring up in my index finger. The keyboard was so small! Oh, how I missed my PC!

I was filled with remorse for swearing at it for being so slow. But being slow only meant that its memory was so full! Full of all the emails and Facebook posts and online purchases and documents and photo memories that we shared together!

I missed its quirky keyboard with the letters worn away because of its ever faithful service for lo, these three years. Who needs to see the white painted lettering on the keys anyway?!? It might not have the E, R, T, Y, U, I, A, S, H, L, N and most of the C, but I taught myself to be a touch typist because of it! I would have learned to touch type in high school, but I was in Art instead and even when I took a three week summer program in typing, I had mononucleosis on the second week and when I got back to class they had gone from “AAAA” “SSSSS” “LLLLL” “KKKKKK” right to “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.” And I was lost! But, my dear PC, with you I was found! All those years of feeling like a steno school drop-out, erased because of you and your clever teaching methods!

I rejoiced when I got the call from Batteries’R’Us. They had a battery for my PC! Oh, joy! I drove like fury out to get it. With its battery transplant in place my lap top sputtered and started up again! Huzzah! I sent emails and checked Facebook. Oh, so good to have it back with me. I tucked it in at bedtime, but it took a turn for the worse overnight. Even though it was plugged in, the new battery was failing! Aw! No!

I unplugged it and said some quiet good-byes. I began again to write my eulogy on the iPad, but I needed an image stored on my PC. It was a last chance, but I said, “OK, old friend. Let’s power up one last time to see if you have enough charge to give me that photo.”

I couldn’t believe my eyes! The battery icon fired up again! To full charge! It’s a miracle! My lap top is alive! And I will never take my PC for granted again.