Stuff Happens

AAARRGGH! I'm not even going to attempt to upload any photos today. I'll feel lucky to be able to post anything.

I took Kasey to day care this morning and took my HP laptop to Wise's to be sent back for repair.

Then I came home and turned on my Dell desktop, just purchased last July. It was just dragging, and I couldn't load some internet pages, so I turned it off. I think sometimes Centurytel forgets to turn on all their switches, or something.

When I tured it on later, itwouldn't boot up. All I got was a diagnostic test screen. I let it do its tests, and it restarted itself and came up with the same screen. I tried several different things and finally called Dell. I know what Dell is pushing right now - they want all their employees to sell the extended warranty plan. I talked to three different people, all of whom went through the sales pitch. Then they got my service tag number, my name, computer model, phone number, then would connect me with another person, who went through the same routine.

And wouldn't you know it, the last person I talked to, the one who was really gong to give me technical advice, could barely speak English. I kept askig him to speak slowly. The things he had me do were things I had already done. Then he would say "I'll be back in 3 minutes." I think he was going to check with someone else to see what he should say next.

Then he told me to unplug all the cables, that "we" were going to take the case cover off so "we" could get to the hard drive. There's got to be dozens of cables plugged into the back of th CPU - two printers, a scanner, the speakers, the modem the monitor, etc. etc. There's no way I was unplugging all those. It took me all day to get them all plugged in when I set up the computer. Besides, the CPU is hard to get to. I have to pull it out from the wall, and it is big, bulky and too heavy for me.

I told him to forget it. When I came upstairs and turned on the old HP laptop (presently the only computer in the house that works), I couldn't get on the internet. I had to go through setting up a network connection again.

Do you think it's possible for your ISP to screw up your computers that badly? Or do you think someone is sneaking around my house in the middle of the night screwing up the computers?

The gas company filled my propane tank yesterday. That gas smelled so strong! Now can't keep my gas log stove going.

I'm going back to bed now.