August 3, 2006
Dear Everyone:
I finally got my computer back last Monday. Normally, I would have written this Letter last night, but the Time Vampire struck and I didn’t get home in time.
My laptop computer had started out running slower than the computer it was replacing, which struck me as odd. But then I remembered that “Jeannie”’s laptop, the one she uses for eBay and the Internet, came from the same manufacturer. When she contacted their Help Desk, they told her the computer had a worm and to go to this site to download the cure. When she protested that she hadn’t downloaded anything to cause a worm, they informed her that the computer was infected when it left the factory.
That’s right. It had a factory-loaded bug. So I suspected the same might be true of my laptop. Over time, it got so slow that I had to turn it on and wait ten minutes before I could do anything. I finally decided to do something about it.
So I did an Internet search for computer repair shops near San Ramon. It turns out, there’s on office in the very building I pass every morning on my way to work and every evening on my way home. So I called their phone number and explained that my laptop needed work and could I just bring it in, as opposed to their coming to my place to work on it.
The man on the phone said someone would be there between 4:00 and 5:00 the next Monday. So, on Monday, I put the laptop, along with it’s power pack and cord, into a canvas tote bag that I’d got at the cosmetic counter (“Spend $25 and we’ll give you this bag for free!”) and took it to work with me. After work, I found the entrance to the building and found the office.
The door was locked. There was a sign on the door informing anyone delivering a package to leave it at another office down the hall. In fact, I saw more than one notice on other office doors directing deliveries to this other office. I used my cell phone to call the repair office. After a couple of rings, someone answered.
“So no one’s in your office?”
“Oh, yeah. We had to go out on an emergency call. Just leave it with (the other office) and I’ll look at it in the morning.”
So I went to the other office, which turned out to be a mortgage broker. It was almost the only office that seemed to have anyone in it, although I did see someone leaving the massage therapist’s office. I explained that I wanted to leave the laptop for the repair place. I borrowed some tape to fasten my business card to the laptop. Then the guy working for the mortgage broker placed the bag behind his desk with a note to someone to give it to the repair place the next day.
I know what you’re thinking: You just left it there, no receipt, no nothing!!! This is San Ramon. I pointed out to the broker guy that the computer wasn’t working very well to begin with.
On Tuesday, I got a call from “Tony”. There was nothing really wrong with the computer. No virus, no worm, no factory-installed bug of any kind. It turns out the manufacturer had skimped on the RAM (Random Access Memory) and that was why things ran slowly. In addition, every time I had installed a new application, for some reason, it was loaded into the Startup, so every application had to load before the computer was ready to operate. “Tony” had already removed unnecessary stuff from the Startup.
I told him to go ahead and add some more RAM.
That would take another day or so for the part to arrive.
I waited a couple of days before calling to ask as to the status.
On Thursday evening, I got a call from “Tony”.
He was calling from
I told him to call me when he got back from
On Saturday, I called and told him to forget about
Sunday if he could just bring the laptop to my office on Monday.
On Monday, he called and I gave him directions to Company
Because of the delay in getting it to me, he only charged me for one hour of work, so I got a deal on it. For less than $170, I got double the RAM and a much happier machine.
In other news…
Before I gave my laptop to a complete stranger, “Jeannie” and I had tried to go to a movie to beat the heat. Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones with that idea and the movie was sold out by the time we got there. (When I got home that Saturday my patio thermometer read 120 degrees, simply because that was as high as it could go.) So last Saturday we decided to try again. This time, we had more time and less competition. We saw The Lake House.
The most important character in this movie is Jack,
the dog. Jack has the innate
ability to move, effortlessly, across the barrier between two parallel
universes. We first see Jack
when she (yes, “she”) and Kate (Sandra
Bullock) are moving out of the
A few scenes later, Alex (Keanu
Reeves) arrives at the
Before you know it, Kate and Alex are time-traveling pen pals. They place notes in the mailbox which magically moves them from one universe to the other. And, naturally, they fall in love with each other. And there’s always Jack to suddenly run off, leading one character to meet another, when they don’t know who each other is. It helps that Kate’s hair changes each year, so you know “when” you are.
It’s important to check reality at the door.
There are holes in the logic that you could drive a truck
through. Also,
Christopher
Plummer is wasted as Alex’s estranged father, who originally built
the
In all, it’s almost a perfect “air-conditioning” movie; light romance with enough plot to pick apart later.
Love, as always,
Pete
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