R.I.P.

My lap top died on Monday. It was a very sad day. We'd been through so much over the past 4 years, lap top and me. I bought it with the money I made freelancing, and I was so proud that I was making enough money with my side work to splurge on my own computer. When I moved to freelancing full time, lap top was right there with me, separating my work from my family computer. I had the freedom to work on the back porch, to sit on the couch, or to work from anywhere. When I got my office situated, it sat proudly on my desk.

We were comfortable together. I knew its quirks. I knew how to coax it into doing things it didn't want to do.

But it was getting slower. I didn't have the patience to wait for it at times and I'd get frustrated. Then the new desk top came to live in my office. It was shiny and new and fast and fun. It got the prime spot in my work space. Lap top was pushed to the side, still used every day, but it became secondary to my work life. We'd still have our evening rendevous but that was short and sweet, an hour maybe, until the battery gave out.

On Sunday I got a web cam. I wanted the lap top to handle it, but it refused. Said I didn't have the right stuff. I put it on the desk top. Worked perfectly. On Monday, I tried to make the lap top compatible with the camera. But I pushed too hard. The hard drive began to sputter and a few minutes later, it was dead.

I rushed it to the Geek ER, but the Geek Squad said, no it was dead. It would cost hundreds of dollars to revive it long enough to restore its brain function. Was the life support worth it for personal email addresses and my accounting spread sheet? Everything else of major importance had been saved recently.

The husband has a computer guy who said he'll give it a shot at one last gasp of revival. A chance for me to say good bye. But I know the time has come to move on. A new lap top arrived yesterday to take its place. Faster than the desk top. Newest software. I fell in love. But I learned. I'm not making it my true love. I'm not risking making the desk top cranky. Hell, desk top has already sputtered at me this morning, something it has never done before. Like I said, I learned. I know how fickle the hard drives of computers are, especially when competition arrives.

I backed up everything on the desk top.