Associated Laptops

Tonight, I get online and work some before falling asleep quite easily. But, as I slept my toe began to ache and grow. It became more insistent, awakening me to its pain. The sonofabitch had me in amazing pain. The more I tried to ignore it the more it swelled. Soon, upon waking up in the morning, I was faced with a hugely swollen foot and extended bunion. Fuck! It was painful. And I had the SHOUT OUT today too. I tried walking about on it, and found that it was possible. That was a good sign. They had virtually nothing for breakfast this morning at the Box so I instead decided to get brunch outside.

I sat down on the edge of my bed and saw my dilemma before facing it. There was no way that I could get my foot into my shoe. I put on the right one with no problem, but the left one! The pain was tremendous. I worked it into my boot an inch at a time, and after much squirming and crying, I was in! I tied it tightly to keep it from moving around much inside, and then hoisted my gear on my back and headed out. Outside, there was a huge block party that shut down the streets in the area. People were riding bicycles and walking in the middle of the streets. It was like entering a completely different New York.

I hobbled poorly down the street and around the corner, entering the street traffic down the next block, a snarl of cars and busses filling the road. Further down, I met with my destination, the Associated Food Market. Here I bought a sandwich from its deli section and a slice of pie. Something that I had been dreaming about for some time. A slice of blueberry pie. I sat and ate and felt my toe throb even more urgently. It was not going to subside. Not in a million years. And this was only a march of some three blocks. What about the twenty blocks that I had to cover to get to OTTO'S Shrunken Head? Now that should be humorous.

No, not so funny at all. After brunch, I headed back to the Box, and took my shoes off and put my foot up. There was no call for all of this pain, and no need for me to inflict more on myself. I set up my computer and blogged until an email came in. It was time for me to do email. As I worked, an IM window popped up on my screen. It was Big K. She was at OTTO's and playing a set. Wow! Damn, I was missing everything! She conveyed my predicament to my brother who was there. And then we started IMing, non stop. So, being the swift typist that I am, I did both. I wrote email and kept up with K simultaneously.

Next, my bed mates, many of whom were blasted out of their minds on something or another, kept coming up to me, asking computer questions and the basic: "What are you doing now?" question. I fielded all of these from these wandering stoners until Angel arrived, all wide eyed and excited. "My man!" He runs up to me. "My dude, I found a computer." He drops a laptop bag on the bed next to me. This is my que, I guess, to get off my laptop and to attend to his situation. I do not. I instead do both. Answer Big K when she replies, go through the case when she doesn't. Yes, he did find a computer. A perfect one. I'm looking for a Dell Inspirion to repair Electra's laptop underneath my bed. Yes, it is perfect. My dilemma. The fucker works somewhat. It comes on, and acts like a computer for about five minutes, and then turns off abruptly. I've seen this in systems before. After something called a 'heat event'. Inside computers, there is a little thermal monitor called a thermostat that turns off a system when it overheats. Sometimes, when these things are thrown, they become hypersensitive, and turn off the system if there is ANY heat.

I check the underside of the laptop and find the fan not working. There, that makes my estimation of the problem even more sure. A heat event did actually occur and now the insides of the poor thing was more like slag than integrated circuitry. I mean, if I had a replacement thermostat, I would try to fix it, but I don't. I'm not a Dell repair station. "Well, what can you do, my dude?" Angel asks. "If you fix it, I'll pay you." Sorry Angel, you'll have to go to a Dell Service Center somewhere. "A what?" A place that fixes Dell computers. "Well you fix it and I'll give you something for it." I can't do that without parts, Angel. I don't have the replacement parts. "Well sell it then." I could but it wouldn't be worth the effort for me. Besides, I want it for parts. "How much do you want for it?" I see his thinking now. Dollar signs can be seen in his eyes.

He wants me to pay for a working computer, which this is barely one. He's thinking three hundred, four hundred dollars. I'm thinking all that I need is the LCD monitor, which is Seventy dollars on a good day. Seventy dollars. "Oh, my dude!" He exclaims. "You just want to take it apart and take away one piece. What if I sold it?" As long as you can fool people that it works. You'd better sell it on a very cold day. "How much would it cost me to fix?" A few hundred dollars. "More than a hundred?" Most likely.

He is in a financial quandary. He found a working computer and now he would have to sell it for pennies. Look Angel, you take it and figure out what you want to do with it and get back to me. I had emails and IM's to deal with. He takes the laptop and puts it under his bed. No doubt ready to smoke me out. He's not going to do anything with that damned laptop. He'll just hold onto it for as long as he thinks I want it. But first, he needs to find more parts for it, like a powercord, and maybe a battery. It looks rickety, and a passerby, unless they wanted it for parts also, would not think it to work. We'll see how this turns out.

I say goodnight to Big K and then finish up on my email. The time goes past Ten and the lights go off, but I stay behind my laptop, typing into the night. The Techs walk through the room but they say nothing. Igor is on his laptop across from me in the gloom, lit only by the feeble light coming off it's monitor screen. Soon, he closes up shop and I do the same. It's time for bed.

It's after Midnight.

Hobobob