REALITY?: Susie-Fix

Quite proud of myself this morning.  Fixed two problems with my framing equipment, both repairs required from long-time use that wore components to the breaking point.  One needed replacement parts that I managed with a long screw to serve as a stopper for my matcutter until I can order the part.  Works perfectly in the meantime.

Also fixed a hardware problem on one of the computers in the shop, though I’d let it go since it’s only up  to WIN 98 speed and bring in my laptop instead.  Both Jim’s and the shop computer still use WIN 98 rather than XP since I’m not thrilled about making Bill Gates even richer by having to buy two more copies of XP.    But it does create problems with networking to a certain degree when all four aren’t on the same program, and I had hopes of using one of the computers almost as a twin and thus a backup unit if the laptop should crash.  I really need a full week off from everything to concentrate on just fiddling around with getting all the computers on track.  For now, I need an external backup hard drive unit and the guts to wipe one of the existing hard drives clean to re-setup.

Love the guts and bolts of computers.  Every time I’m elbow-deep in a case, I think of my dad and a toaster or an iron or a drill laid out in a hundred pieces on the kitchen table to be reassembled and repaired.  He taught me how to do a lot of these little mechanical repairs–and plumbing and some minor electrical ones–and one of the greatest disappointments we shared was in the new disposable tools such as drills for example that are not made to be opened and repaired, but tossed and replaced instead.  Even broken crystals on watches, unless they’re of a certain monetary value, cost much more to replace than a new watch.

Sad state of affairs for the environment.  Sad too for those who like to fiddle and fix.