Last week while watching one of my YouTube vids my computer suddenly froze and died! Dead as a doornail!! For no apparent reason. So I switched it off, turned it back on, and it appeared to have power but no display on the screen, it was totally blank, and indeed it wasn't even booting up. So I checked all the connections inside the computer to make sure everything is connected, and it all seem to be ok. So being an ancient computer, about 10 years old, which is extremely ancient in computer terms, almost a museum piece, I thought it finally died.
So I began to prepare for life without a computer for the first time since my 21st birthday. I received my first computer on my 21st birthday, and I always have had a computer since then. When needing an upgrade or a new computer I always had the financial means to acquire one, and was always able to upgrade every 5 year or so.
Enter Sally's health problems..... and with her medical expenses, all my savings has been spent, and I went into debt, a debt I am still paying off to this day. I no longer have the means to acquire a new computer. So I began to adjust to life without a computer. It turns out I can do everything on my phone that I can do on my computer, even watching YouTube videos. However typing on a phone is very awkward so it be no more of my weird articles on FaceBook and no more of these blogs.
Then I was offered help, and asked to check what was wrong with my computer. So when I got back to work I Googled for computer repair shops, and contacted one by email. I got a response on the SAME DAY!!!! - that is VERY unusual for a company. I am lucky to get a reply within 24 hours, usually several days later. So it was this which clinched my business. I took in my computer after work for them to diagnose the problem, paying $55 for the privilege but at least I would find out exactly what was wrong with the computer!
Expecting a terminal diagnoses or at least a very costly one, I waited the next day for the phone call from them. I was expecting a new main board being needed, or a new computer!! Changing the main board is like changing an engine in a car, and almost as expensive! Sometimes it be cheaper to get a new computer, just as sometimes it be cheaper to get a new car.
The phone call came just after lunchtime, well within the 24 hours turn around time, and was most shocked!!! They took apart the computer, gave a clean from 10 years worth of dust, put it back together again, and it rose from the dead...... it came back to life!!!!!OMG!!!! Like a resurrection!!
So rather than the $700 or more I was expecting it to cost, I gotten my computer back for only an hour's labour charge - $130. So in total I spent $185 but I am very happy about that, they've cleaned the computer, it now looks like a new computer, and they did check all of the components and all are OK. It is a little like taking a car in for a service and safety check. So hopefully this computer will last me a few more years........
The other major development...... my job. Since gotten back from vacation there has been some interesting development. I actually wondered if I would have a job to come back to. Well it looks like I may not be working for much longer.
Tomorrow we have a mandatory meeting with the big boss of the dept, this being the first time ever that he called such a meeting. Over these past few weeks thanks to our money obsessed govt, a number of depts has been shut down, and many others with job cuts. So far my dept had escaped. The dept next door had been told they will be shut down.
So my feelings is, and I am usually pretty accurate, is that my dept is going to be shut down, meaning, I will be without a job for the first time since 1989. I had been in a job continuously since 1989, I had never been unemployed since then.
Anyway I will learn of my fate tomorrow. At best it could be change of duties, and well my duties have already changed to reflect the govt cutbacks that has already occurred. So at best it could be just more duty changes or perhaps transfers to another dept. Or it could be just a percentage of jobs being cut. There is currently 10 in my dept, so maybe it be cut to say, just 5 people, and hoping I be one of the 5!!! Or else it could be that the dept IS going to be shut down but maybe not for 12 months, or until Xmas. But the worst it could happen is the dept would be shut down tomorrow and we be all out on the streets with a payout equal to several weeks wages plus vacation and sick leave.
I don't think it will be that drastic, I think it will be a few months notice, perhaps the rest of the school year, being shut down at Xmas. I am kinda hoping to be in a job for another 12 months, I have about 12 months remaining on my lease, and need time to consolidate my possessions, mostly legacy of Sally's tendency to hoard things!!!! I am currently renting a self storage unit to keep mostly Sally's items. Indeed this past week I started the task of going through her items, transporting as much as can fit into my car back to my house, and going through them, either giving away what is surplus to my needs, or recycling them.
Anyway....... the meeting is set for 10:30 tomorrow, so will know by 11AM my fate....... Things happens in the universe for a reason even if we don't always immediately know the reason.......
More to come this weekend.......
I hope I don't get this one re tomorrow's meeting......
What it felt like being without a computer ;)
When I receive packages from Australia Post LOL
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