Computer Woes and Triumphs

On Thursday, just as I was about to meet 14 kids online to discuss their writing assignments with them, my laptop staged a dramatic coup. The battery had been slowly wearing out over the past six months, but I didn't do anything about it because I just figured I would always keep it plugged in.

Good plan, right?

But no: about a week ago, the laptop's cord started periodically registering as not being plugged in, when in fact it was. Couple that with a battery not holding its charge....

Anyway.

Figuring that the computer would fix itself if I just ignored the cord problem, because computers are known to spontaneously heal themselves, I continued plugging away with my laptop, fiddling with the chord when it needed fiddling with, and optimistically assuming that everything would be ok.

Which brings me to Thursday, and the laptop's dramatic refusal to keep living.

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I sat in front of my completely dead laptop. It would not turn on because the battery had no charge left; on top of that the power cord was not delivering any juice. For about 20 minutes I sat there staring at it, completely blown away by the fact that the dumb ass thing would not bow down to my mighty will and just START DAMN IT.

I can not emphasize enough how surreal I found it, that the computer's will would not bow down to mine.

Finally, I had to admit defeat and, after batting around a few ideas, marched myself down to my landlord's house and told him my predicament. He told me I needed to take my butt into Kalamata, go to Kotsovolos the computer store, and that they would be able to provide me with a new cord.

He drew me a map of how to get to the store from the bus station, his wife told me the place I had to go for lunch, and I ended up back at my cottage, staring at a map, hyperventilating.

I can't read maps. I can barely find Italy on the globe.

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Which ends up with me getting off the bus in Kalamata, an hour and a half after leaving Harakopio, staring at a scrap of paper with a few lines and completely illegible handwriting scrawled in various places.

I headed in what I assumed was the right direction and said a prayer. About an hour later (the shop is about a 15 minute walk from the bus station), with the assistance of a nice girl I befriended who walked me to Kotsovolos, I snagged a vaguely English speaking clerk and showed him the cord that needed replacing.

He didn't have what I needed, and so drew me another squiggly map and sent me to another store.

I got lost.

But, instead, found yet ANOTHER computer store, which had the cord I needed, but revealed that there was also something wrong with the pluggy in part where the cord goes in, which meant that the laptop was probably overheating before it killed the cord. Which meant that I did not just need a cord.

Right....so that's why it burned my lap the other day, and has been making noises like a cow in labor.

It was probably fixable, they told me. I just had to bring my laptop back mid-week, and then collect it about 4 or 5 days after that. Or maybe more. They would let me know.

There were two things wrong that scenario: a) I needed a workable laptop, Monday by 3:00 pm at the latest, and b) that meant I had to treck back into Kalamata twice in one week.

Hell to the NO.

I stress ate my way through a piece of spanokopita, at the lovely place my landlady suggested to me, while I decided what to do.

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Tending to think of all electronics as complicated, unfathomable beasts with highly intelligent minds of their own, I have always succeeded in shoving off the decision of "what to buy?" on someone I deemed worthy of understanding the mind of the beast.

Hi, Tom.

In that moment, covered in crumbs from my spanokopita, if I had had Tom's phone number on me, I would have called him. At 2am his time. And I probably would not even have felt bad about it.

But, as I brushed the crumbs from my lap, I knew I was ready to purchase my fourth laptop in eight years (Yes, that is one laptop every two years. Like clockwork.), with no one's help but my own.

And so I did. And here I am. And I even remembered to install AVG.

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The End

(But wait until I tell you about my Gangster!)