RIP Compaq nx9010

Yep, I lost an old friend at work today. Recently, it had not been able to keep up with me so well. It would take longer than ever to obey some command I'd give it. And, as with most of us as we age, its memory was faltering. I'd gently touch it and gaze at it hoping for some sign, some indication that it was still following me. But, alas, it looked blue. Blue with messages you don't want to hear or see. You could tell, the poor thing had lost its drive - a hard pill to swallow.

Yep, the ol' Compaq laptop gave up the ghost, and there I was at my desk, fumbling for something to do or say. The IT guy swooped in like an orderly, taking it away to his lair, promising nothing, hoping against hope. He'd call me. I waited.

He tried to revive the Compaq. Failing that, he tried a transplant, swapping the hard drive with one from another computer. I hear he gave it his best shot. Heroic efforts. But there I was in my office, staring at a patch of desk that had not seen daylight since 2001, and somewhere in a dank IT office, surrounded by its peers in various states of disarray, the ol' Compaq was flatlining.

I found little things to do, managing some paperwork, making some phone calls, filing things away, answering some questions. At one point the AA asked me about something, and I said I'd go Google it, and she said "no you won't; you can't". Wow. Powerless and resourceless in my own little domain. Stuck in a prehistoric world of books and notes on legal paper, suffering from "lefty's knuckle" - you know, those ink stains we used to get from writing southpaw.

Eventually the call came. The other computer that matched mine had been loaded with new software to make do for me until a new laptop could be ordered and obtained. I could be up and running, but alas, the hard drive in the ol' Compaq was probably not salvageable. Good thing I had learned not to save anything exclusively on that thing - aside from some pictures that are embedded in some documents on the server, anyway. I am left with the memory of its memory.

So now I can click away on an imitation of my ol' Compaq. I know it's not the same because I can read all the letters on the keypad, and don't have to guess at m and n and a few other well-worn ones like I did before.

Spending most of the day without the computer was an interesting experience. I had to guess at what emails may be floating around there in cyberspace. I had to call and actually talk to people. I had to think about the order of files in physical space in my office. Dragging files to new locations involved opening drawers rather than moving a mouse around. And deleting files involved a real trashcan or recycling box.

I'll miss the ol' Compaq, but maybe I will try to not get quite as attached to the next one - I'll try to take my eyes off Windows on occasion to gaze out a real window.