Geezer Spends $40 Loses New Computer

The other night with a loud pop much like the adolescents next door setting off a firecracker at midnight four days after the Fourth of July and with the acrid odor of burned electronics not much at all like scorched clam chowder forgotten on the stove with the burner on high but similarly unpleasant the home desktop PC suddenly and unexpectedly powered down and died. Sensing fortuitous opportunity, the geezer grabbed up the Sunday ad from BestBuy to check current prices on the latest greatest killer PC’s. Hmm, not all that much! Pretty cheap, actually. Ah, but the ol’ home PC had been such a faithful workhorse for so many years. So, the geezer unhooked the gazillion wires and cables, opened up the case, and had a look. Nope, no visible scorch marks. Ehhhhhhhyeaaah, probably power supply, and those were pretty cheap, he recalled, notwithstanding a recent computer magazine article exhorting readers that a new PC was a better choice than a new power supply. But, on the other hand, no telling what else got jolted into electronic oblivion when the power supply fried itself. Geezer decides to put off the decision and try to get some actual work done at the office for a couple days where, due to circumstances both within and without his control, he has fallen precariously behind in discharging duties and promises to clients who still love him, anyway but, he knows, there’s a limit to everything, including patience and loyalty, and he’s getting damned close to finding it. By week’s end, due to further circumstances both within and without his control, but not due to spending time trying fix a computer, he’s no nearer caught up than he was the same time a week earlier. Maybe he’ll have better luck with the power supply although, he knows, if he’s due for a rare dose of good luck he should probably buy a lottery ticket instead of a power supply. He thinks about that and wonders, if he really thought hard, whether he’d be able to recall when it was that the first sign of dementia manifested itself, and just what it was. Maybe this was it, he thought, hopefully, knowing full well it was wishful thinking.

Anyhow, geezer buys $40 power supply at friendly local computer store, slaps it in after supper and voila, good as new. Well, not quite. The CPU fan is going to be the next thing to go, and the knowledgeable young tech fellow at the friendly local computer store shook his head at the inquiry about replacing it. “Not gonna find one to fit that old CPU,” he pronounced without hesitation. “What about duct tape?” asked the geezer. The kid had no answer.