Drenched Notebooks

I feel great being back online after a month without a computer. I appreciate all of the kind words you folks wrote while I was gone—and I thank Tiffany for updating the blog to let you know what was going on.

Here’s the story of the drenched notebook:

The day after my EMS trip to hospital for smoke inhalation, I had more energy than I have had in years! Of course, that energy was, as an asthmatic friend says, “false energy” created by the steroids I had been prescribed at the hospital.

With all of that bogus energy I did things I should not have done, such as cut the grass, hang some pictures, etc. By the early afternoon I decided to do some writing and opened up my notebook computer. I had been drinking a small—4 oz.—bottle of Dr. Pepper and sat it to the right of the notebook. At some point I left my desk to locate a reference book and my housemate, Alex the cat, jumped up on me desk, overturning the Dr. Pepper on the notebook. That was the end of the notebook!

That was not the first time I had experienced a notebook being drenched by a liquid. A couple of years ago my “friend” “C,” who had been living with a 60-year-old disabled Vietnam vet, came by my house to tell me that she was moving in with a dude who promised her $5,000.00 if she would marry him. I now believe that the primary reason she came by was to use my telephone make a long distance call to her family and let them know that she was now going to be living in a brand new house beside a golf course in Indiana.

She made the call while I was working on my laptop. Unfortunately, her sister, with whom she shared no sisterly love, answered the phone. A shouting match ensued and C’s sister hung up on her. C. then insisted that I telephone her sister and tell her that the new circumstances were real. I called, but her sister didn’t answer the phone. C. then literally went berserk and began screaming at me. I decided I didn’t have to put up with her foolishness and told her I had to go out: she could wait at my house for her new dude to pick her up. When I returned home an hour later, I found that C. had departed. I also discovered that half a bottle of Mr. Clean had been poured on my notebook computer. That was the end of the notebook!

Back to notebook number 2. It seems that the Dr. Pepper did less damage than the Mr. Clean. However, it did destroy my hard disk and some other internal organs of the notebook. So, the next day I took notebook number 2 to the Geek Squad at Best Buy. They kept it for a bit over three weeks before letting me know the damage, which was less than I expected but more than I could afford. It took me a week to come up with the funds so that I could again have a computer. That’s now past history and I am again back on line, missing the data and programs that were on my notebook, but online.

Tomorrow I’ll write about the unique experience of being computerless for a month.

In case you’re interested, Alex is doing fine—and I have resolved to place no liquids near my notebook!