Buying a new computer

 (Note:  This was part of my personal newsletter about the year 2021.)

      My Toshiba laptop was not going to last much longer: it worked more and more slowly, or just gave out at times.  I expect machines (and shoes and love affairs) to last forever, but as you know, they just don’t, and this one was 11 years old, which means it had lasted longer than any of my shoes or love affairs.  So one day in March of 2021 I trekked out to the Best Buy at Arden Fair Mall.  By “trek” I mean a half mile walk, a short bus ride over the river, and a walk the equivalent of two or three blocks to the Best Buy store at the far east end of the mall.  Normally, I bicycle to the bus stop and lock up there, but in this case, I actually felt my computer would be safer with me carrying it.  As it happened, I had the perfect carrier:  a stylish black shoulder bag meant, I think, for carrying art portfolios.   

          As so often happens, the computers I liked were too expensive.  In fact, everything was.  A nice young sales clerk (they are all young now, to me) found me an “out of the box” laptop.  These are returns that are discounted.  Why returned?  He believed that the purchaser had found it too small.  It is small and very lightweight; perhaps the purchaser missed having a CD drive included, although I now read that they are considered obsolete.  Anyhow the HP Laptop (with Athlon Silver! With AMD Radeon graphics! With “eye-catching design”!) is tiny and cute, although it is black.  (I always wanted a pink computer, and evidently many others do, as well.  You can find many images of them online, and even specific websites, to wit:

https://www.amazon.com/pink-computer/s?k=pink+computer)     😊  

          Anyhow, the Geek Squad techs kept both machines for a few days in order to transfer all my documents and photos from the old to the new, the latter complete with Windows 10 and MS Office 2019 (the old machine was clomping along with Windows 7 and Office 2007), plus I paid for a year of pricey tech support.  I also bought—finally!—an external keyboard and mouse.   As someone who learned to type in junior-year typing class, I have always liked the feel of real typewriter keys and just hate the flat keys of a laptop.  Getting accustomed to using a mouse had taken some effort (that was over twenty years ago!) but then I found that I missed that gadget.  I found out that man people feel the same, and a keyboard and mouse that one can use with one’s laptop, on a desk, are quite inexpensive.  I was nervous about getting things hooked up properly. 

“Aren’t we missing a cord?” I asked the Geek Squad lassie in the store.

 “You won’t need that one,” she replied.  “You’ll be using your Wi-Fi.” 

“I will?” 

“You have a Wi-Fi password, don’t you?”

Well, in fact, I did, and felt quite competent for a change!

          Note:  Schlepping all this equipment home was somewhat exhausting.  Stores don’t keep your old computer; you’d have to pay to get rid of it.  

        P.S.  The new machine and accessories worked perfectly, especially after I bought, from Target, a little wooden stand (the kind meant for pantries) to place the laptop on.  However, I became disenchanted with the "Total Tech" insurance.  Whenever something goes wrong and I call Geek Squad, the agent takes over the computer and after a while announces that it's all fixed.  Except that...it happens again.  I either have to find a work-around for the problem or figure out what went wrong in the first place.  I did not renew.