Old and Broken

I'm not voicing a complaint. It could be worse. I have my health or most of it., Everything else is going to pot. 

First the roof, then the a/c and more recently the home office desk top computer lost it's ability to translate information from the cpu to the monitor in a fashion that was readable. The video card has went the way of the roof and the a/c. May they meet up in that great repository in the sky.

Yesterday a big electrical surge visited right before we lost all service for the next 4 hours. My laptop refused to function thereafter. Clever deduction on my part reasoned it was fried. I loaded both laptop and desktop up today and made a drive across the swamp to the computer guy in the country. I left him with the information I thought might help him in his journey of discovery and headed home.  I'm now reduced to using only my iPad or the old XP programmed Dell in the office which is much like using dialup to get on the internet.

The trip into the country to get my computers to the tech went as follows: Road construction. Ahead of me large trucks sat straddle of both lanes of this gravel road. They had pulverized the base of this road into a fine powder and I was waved to a stop. One lane was cleared of  equipment and I was waved forward but told to proceed slowly. Slowly was the only way I could proceed. I'm in the roadster and it's low riding; the fine powder was scraping the bottom of my little car. Reaching the pavement, I gunned the engine and shot forward in a cloud of dust. The view in my rear view mirror showed the dust trapped beneath that little car escaping in a solid sheet of dust storm. I was creating my own road hazard. For the next 10 mies the dust filled the air. The little red roadster was no longer a bright red. 

As soon as I found a car wash, she was rinsed off. I'll have to run her through a auto wash to get the under carriage cleaned. 

Along with everything else that seems to have aged to the point of collapse, my Mercury was finally taken to the shop today to have the 02 sensors changed. An hour later the mechanic called to say his shop didn't have the equipment to change those sensors and I told him I would be over promptly to pick it up and deliver it to my regular place that sucks up all my car money.

This morning I braved this Dell computer that has been sitting in a closet for a couple of years and attempted to speed it up a bit. I've defragged, deleted and dumped and it's only a wee bit better. If I could capture the sound of the old "dial up connection" it would be appropriate for the speed this machine conquers. How impatient we have become. I can remember....ah but that was then...and technology has leaped forward  like a high speed monorail.

I'm waiting to hear the verdict on the laptop and the desktop; I might be getting a new something..something under that tree.

And a little update on the roadster. I peered beneath the hood and noted the thick dust covering everything so I dragged out the water hose to rinse it off and peeked beneath the grill to the radiator. All the front of that radiator was packed with that fine dust. Trudging out to the little house, I bought back the power washer and cranked it up and spent the next thirty minutes blasting that crud out of the radiator and beneath the car. The lawn was flooded with water and a large grey gooey spot. Whatever was pulverized and spread on that road, may have been being prepared to be solidified with water from the water truck standing close by. I'm wondering how many more vehicles drove through that mess not realizing what it was and the damage that might result from it to their cars.

I won't be taking the scenic route again to get to the computer tech in the country!

I'm off to try the Christmas decorating thing again. I failed to launch on that project so I'll try it again today.