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We live in a time when everyday tools have a short life expectancy.  The list includes appliances, HVAC systems, mechanical yard implements, and of course, the computer, to name the more popular.   When appliances or the AC goes down, it is inconvenient, often expensive, but we move on to replacement mode with a modicum of swearing, then acceptance. For writers, when the desktop or laptop goes to its heavenly motherboard, all hell breaks loose.

Such was the case when my trusty, Vista speaking, Dell desktop died from the cyber equivalent of advanced age and MRSA.  I give the old bean credit for surviving this long.  Once the darling of House Gates, eyesight failure hampered its ability to translate internet banner ads that have become the web’s version of LED highway billboards.  Its shuffling gait between screens should have warned me the end is near.  I was in denial, like any loving family whose geriatric parent started forgetting things.

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