Use Your Toys!

 Once upon a time, there was a Boy with a Computer.  The boy loved his computer, and the computer loved the boy. Together, they would listen to music, watch movies and chit chat with friends.
  
 The computer's favorite times were when the boy would sit for hours tap tap tapping on his keyboard, filling up file after file with words he dreamed would one day be printed in big, bright picture books of men and women with capes. The boy's favorite times where when, even if the music player was on shuffle, the computer would  play two Catherine Wheel songs in a row--and in really special times, three. They were happy, the Boy and the Computer.


Then one day, the computer died...


 Everyone's been through it, that pit of the stomach bubbling, angry feeling you get when an 'essential' piece of technology fails you. The utter frustration of knowing you can do nothing at all to fix it makes the thought of how much money you'll need to spend to replace it is especially vexing.

   It could be your phone, your television, or even your car, but when it's your computer there is that extra little sting, an added twist of the How-Are-You-Going-To-Pay-Your-Bills-Now? knife.

When my computer shuffled off to that great Dell store in the sky the only warning I got was a few clicks, a beep and then a flash of that blue screen that I now know was telling me the end was nigh.

 I was crestfallen.

My computer had everything on it. Everything.  And just like that it was lost.

All my MUSIC!!!

Three years worth of little tales to go into my as yet unfinished graphic novel.

And my TUNES!!! My SONGS!!! They were GONE all GONE!!!

Oh--and other stuff like wedding pictures , account numbers and whatnot. All that vanished too.


 Enter my Mother. Beautiful lady.  She got me a new computer for my upcoming birthday, just a scant eight months away.  I was on the phone with her while setting it up, listening while she rattled off all the new and exciting features on my fresh out of the box gift.

I was nodding, even though she couldn't see me; the nod when my Mom is talking reflex is still strong. She's my hero.

"It even has a built in camera." She said "You can send me videos of my grand baby."

 I could only scoff.

 "Camera? " I said already thinking about the easiest and most efficient way to get all those songs from all those CDs back into MP3 form. "That's about as useful as me churning my own butter."


She laughed, because our Moms are supposed to help us believe we're funny, but  I was eager to get off the phone and get started on the important stuff...


Well, its been almost two years, and my sonic therapy is just now getting back to where it belongs. As it happened, none of my best laid plans were neither easy, nor efficient, but I've gotten my music all back in once place.

 While we have never quite gotten as tight as myself and its predecessor, New Computer has been a pretty good sidekick. We watch movies. We type words into files. Shuffle is again in full effect.

We chat with friends too. In fact, we try to answer every email and Instant Message that travels across those invisible spaces between computers all over the world. People talk to Spaceship Days, so New Computer helps Spaceship Days talk back.

Only this time we do it a little bit differently.

It turns out there was a use for that camera after all. Guess I'd better get started churning that butter.

C