Computer Withdrawal, Day Three

Day One

12:00 noon: Wake up, press the power button. Nothing happens. Press it again. And again. Examine back of computer--notice faint burning smell coming out of power supply. Unplugs power supply. Go on with day.

1:00pm: Attempt again to turn on computer, to no avail. Bike down to Wal-mart to see if Wal-mart has power supplies on sale. When I ask one of the salespeople in the electronics department if they have a power supply, and they first take me to a surge protector, then to a hard drive and ask if the hard drive is what I'm looking for, I realize that Wal-mart does not have any power supplies. The Wal-mart employees suggest Staples, at the other end of town, might have what I need.

2:00pm: After once again trying the power button, I call up a friend for a ride to Staples. Friend is not there, but wife says he'll be back in an hour. He will call me back when he gets home.

2:30pm: Begin searching phone book for computer stores. After several phone calls, there are two stores in Walla Walla that sell power supplies. One is a little computer store that has one for $45. The other is Staples, which has one for $90. This is why I shop around.

3:30pm: After not getting a phone call back, I take my bike and head downtown. I pick up the power supply for $45, stop at Home Depot and buy a screwdriver (necessary to install the supply), and head home.

5:00pm: I install new power supply, test it out, and it doesn't work. After hitting the power button about three or four more times... voila! the computer boots. I get online to discover the friend I had called had written me an email saying that he doesn't have my number, and that I should call him. Ah, the joys of email communication!

However, the new power supply is cheap and doesn't have enough plugs to connect to all my hard drives. Thus, I decide to give the old power supply one last whirl, in case it really isn't broken.

6:30pm: After reinstalling the old power supply and plugging it in, I notice the optical mouse light start okay... then start to flicker and die. I quickly unplug the old power supply, then take it into the kitchen and plug it in. After about three minutes, I notice smoke begin to pour out of the device. I unplug it and move it to the stove, where if it catches fire, at least it won't be on somewhere flammable.

7:00pm: I plug in the new power supply once again, and hit the power button. Nothing. I open the computer, check all the connections, and try again. Nothing. I uninstall the new power suppply, then install it again, this time being extremely careful that all the connections are all the way in, except that one large connection to the motherboard that everyone always has trouble getting all the way in, and which wasn't all the way in the one time it worked. Nothing.

7:45pm: I theorize that the 3V battery on the motherboard is dead and needs replacing. However, it is now too late to go shopping.

8:00pm: I lay on the floor beside my computer, yelling, "Why? Why? Why?" and pushing the power button every five minutes for the next two hours and randomly plugging and unplugging the power supply.

10:00pm: I give up and go to sleep.

Midnight: I can't sleep, so I try the power button one more time. Then I go to the living room, with all the windows to my house open, and play my oboe for about half an hour. I end up playing the entire Poulenc Sonata, which is actually a requiem.

Day Two

11:30am: I get up and immediately try the power button. Nothing.

12:30pm: After a few more attempts, I give up and finally move on to all the things I had been procrastinating on. I begin cutting out the felts for the teacher I promised I would cut out the felts for three weeks ago.

3:00pm: I go to sleep on the floor, catching up on all those sleep deprived nights of playing online games until two in the morning. Or try to, at least. I end up beginning to ponder all those things I had been trying not to ponder for the last four months but had drowned out, like whether or not the March Break camping disaster was really God's fault, or whether or not the romance failure one week later was really my fault. (Short answer: no, and yes.)

5:00pm: I once again try the power button. I hear the fans jump on for a second, then shut off again. I blame myself for not holding the power button down longer and press the power button again and again for the next 15 minutes, to no avail.

5:30pm: I begin washing the dishes in the sink, which have been sitting there for a week.

6:15pm: I make myself some dinner. First real dinner in a few days.

7:00pm: I return to cutting felts.

8:30pm: It's too dark to continue cutting felts, so I pull out the old Nintendo DS that I haven't touched in months and try to beat Pokemon Pearl all over again.

10:30pm: The final four is once again vanquished. Wow, that was boring. Once again try to sleep.

Day Three

11:00am: Wake up. Try the power button. Nothing.

12:00noon: Travel to school computer lab to catch up on the internet. Amazingly, nothing noteworthy has happened, except for missing a few more emails.

2:00pm: I begin typing this blog as a sort of therapy over being torn away from my computer...