JOAN’S BLOG- THURSDAY/FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25/26, 2008 – JOAN AND SID TACKLE A SICK COMPUTER

Here’s how it always worked in my house. We were a team. Sid, who worked for 40 years in the retail electronics business, and graduated from an electronics technical school, was the hardware man. I was the software woman. He labeled every single wire that ran from the computer into whatever devices we had attached to it - printer, monitor, mouse, router, scanner; and anything else we could squeeze onto my desk space. He hooked them up; he unhooked them; he hooked them back up, using the labeled wires, and sometimes a complex schematic he had drawn.  I then took over and handled whatever software needed to be installed, updated, and tweaked.

Well, now I have a sick computer that needs to go to the computer hospital for diagnostic tests Friday morning. Since we did NOT label any wires when we moved the computer into the new house, I am sitting here with unlabeled blue, black, and gray wires coming out of everywhere. And the knowledge that Thursday night, when I finish working on my website, and am dead tired, we will have to tackle this project together. To be fair, he is still able to assemble some things – a recent computer desk comes to mind – it just takes twice as long as it used to for him to figure out and follow the directions. So Thursday night, one of us (that would be me) is going to be on the floor pulling on and labeling wires, while the other one (that would be Sid) will be sitting at the desk, telling me which wire I am pulling so I can label it properly. He’s on Celexa; I’m on Zoloft. We should be able to get through this calmly, don’t you think? 

Then there will be the homecoming. Once this pesky machine is fixed ( The possibility of its illness being terminal is not something I wish to ponder), we (he?) are/is going to have to follow those labeled wires and hook it all up again. Now that I think about it, the photo journalist who is doing the documentary on us is always asking if she can come over and “watch us” in our normal routine. This little scenario may be something she may want to tape.

Wish us luck.

 ©Copyright 2008 Joan Gershman

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