My notebook computer is dying.
The CD/DVD/Combo drive is dead. It won’t read anything at all. One of the USB ports broke several months ago, and recently, the power connection has been getting looser and looser. It’s only a matter of time before it dies completely, leaving me notebook-less. There are worse tragedies, sure… But I haven’t been notebook-less for something like 10 years now. I’m sure there would be serious withdrawal.
Then, at my son’s request, I went outside to take a picture of the sunset on Mount Timpanogos and my camera wouldn’t take a picture. Nothing. I’d try to take a picture and a very ambiguous 3-letter error message would appear. In this case, it’s fortunately not the camera that is bad, but the “digital film.” My nice 4GB UltraII SD card is dead. DEAD. I’ts not even that old. I can’t access it using my camera or either of my card readers. I can’t format it. It does NOTHING. Fortunately, SanDisk has a “limited lifetime warranty.” I called them and after jumping through a bunch of hoops (the tech had a script he had to finish before he could give me a RMA number), they decided that it needs to be replaced. They even gave me a link to print a shipping label, so I don’t even have to pay for shipping. That’s pretty nice. But I’m camera-less for a week or so. Again, there are worse things.
Speaking of which…
My old beater Saturn is dying. Or maybe not. I don’t know yet. I’m 99% sure that it’s the alternator that is dying. I’m taking it in tomorrow. If it IS the alternator, it’ll cost less than $400 to fix. If it costs much more than that, I think that the Saturn will become a “Kidney Car,” because it’s getting to the point that it may not be worth putting more money into that car. It is, after all, 15 model years old (come October) and has 150,000-ish miles on it. It’s not getting any prettier to look at and we have three cars and only two drivers, so it’s not like we’d have a car payment if this car DID die. Not to mention that it would be one less car to insure, so we’d save a bit of money there too. I just don’t know if I’m ready to give up this car and put more wear and tear on our newer cars. Then again, it could be worse.
Maybe I’ll talk about the tiny little *pop* I felt in my knee while playing racquetball last Friday in another post. I think I’ve whined enough for today.
Sounds like you need a note pad and pencil, a paint brush, and a good horse?
My knee creaks sometimes. It worries me.
Car update:
This morning, I was hoping, hoping, hoping that I had fixed it myself! I took the battery into an auto parts store and they tested it. It wouldn’t hold a charge. Just under $80 later, I had a new battery that I installed. The car started right up. I drove it in to work, but the battery light on the dashboard was still lit.
Darn.
I took it in to Saturn. They tested the alternator. It’s bad.
So I’m putting another $400 into the car to replace the alternator. (And the serpentine belt. Since they’re doing the alternator anyway, replacing the belt won’t cost any more in labor.)
If that doesn’t work, it’ll become a Kidney car. I’ll donate it.