Computer woes

It’s a love-hate relationship.

I hate this old computer, but yet, I love it and can’t live without it.

The truth is, we have an ancient computer. It’s a Windows 98…and, up until recently, it has worked all of these years with no problems what-so-ever. And then suddenly it started locking up at the most inopportune times. It started turning itself off, and even re-starting itself, with no prompting at all. Like it was possessed. The "blue-screen-of-death" will flash at us for no reason. It will tell us that we are performing an "illegal operation", dozens of times in a matter of minutes. Some days it will allow us to retrieve mail while other days it will not even connect to the internet. Some days it will just ‘think’ and ‘think’, making that awful, hateful, grinding noise that I have grown so weary of, and then onto the screen will pop these immortal words, "Microsoft internet explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience" freezing up the page, mouse, and the computer into stillness, causing us to lose every thing that we had currently been working on. (And, more often than not, causing us to pound a little harder on the keyboard and sometimes use some rather colorful language and fling insults at the offending box that we call modern technology.) We have deleted some of our seldom used files to make more memory room…we have installed anti-spyware programs…and we often run a scan for any viruses or other threats that may be slowing down our system…all to no avail.

I kind of liken the computer’s behavior to a teenager…I love it to pieces, but have no clue as to why it’s acting like it does. Even though we are the ones in charge, "it" thinks it has all the answers and continues to provoke and taunt us on a daily basis. On some days it will be sweet and cooperative while other days we don’t dare look at it without some sort of repercussion hurled in our direction. I keep hoping to wake up one morning and it will begin exhibiting less rebellious behavior, but in all honesty I think it’s just dying a s-l-o-w death. And it gives me pains. Not only do the kids use the computer for school, but I use it as my "mommy-sanity" time. I need that connection to the outside world. Really, I do

Wayne assures me that when the time is right we can upgrade to an even bigger and better system…but until then, hopefully, the computer will continue to limp along and not die too sudden of a death.

Oh, and if you don’t see a new blog entry in awhile…well, then you’ll know that we have been defeated.