Computer Guy - Part 1: You Know What? Tape.

We here at WYMOP would like to wish a happy birthday to one of our regular readers whose birthday just happens to fall exactly on today.

Happy birthday, Doris! Thank you for being a WYMOP reader. Hopefully we'll still be here for your next birthday!

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We here at WYMOP would also like to thank any and all readers who took the time last week to vote for the short story "Photo Finish" in the Preditors & Editors 2012 Readers Choice Poll. We appreciate your support... and it worked. I won! Woot woot!

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Now... here's the story:

I was in the computer shop.

Again.

If you’re a WYMOP reader, you may remember this shop from my post “Hey, Even *I* Can Do That!”. You may recall the frustration I felt with this shop at that time, and it might make you smile. If you haven’t read it, check it out. It might make you smile. This particular computer shop is the closest one to my route, and as far as I can tell that’s all it has going for it. You’ll see what I mean in just a bit.

I had intended to do some writing on my lunch and had pulled out my laptop at the appropriate time only to find the screen would not turn on. No, that wasn’t quite right — there, in the center of the black screen, was a slim strip of slightly lighter black. If I looked close, strained my eyes a bit, I could make out the faintest shadow of a narrow rectangular box, right in the middle of the screen. Exactly where the login field should be. The screen was on, just very, very dark.

So there I was, standing in front of counter of the local computer shop, with my laptop in my hands.

Again.

Huzzah.

“What can I help you with?”

I looked at Computer Guy, and saw him recognize me. The postal uniform may have helped there. I’m not sure.

“Oh! You must be here to do that data transfer!”

He turned to his own computer and started tapping away at the keys. It was then I remembered I had purchased my son a second-hand computer to replace the one he’s physically destroyed. I had purchased it here simply because of the proximity of the shop to my route: it facilitated the shopping process, actually being able to be there while the shop was open and all. Computer Guy had said at the time he could transfer all the data and settings from Handsome’s old laptop into his replacement, and he was assuming now that I was there for that purpose.

How I could be there to transfer data from one laptop to another laptop and walk into his shop holding just one laptop, I have no idea. This man is, however, a professional: a man with enough confidence in his computer diagnostic and repair skills that he’s opened his own business based solely upon that skill set. I was there to tap into those skills of his for my own benefit, was I not? Who was I to question? I did, however, have to correct his misapprehension.

“No, I’m actually here for this—” I held up my laptop. “— but… now that you mention it, I was going to try to get my son’s laptop in here for you to look at on Monday.”

“The data transfer?”

“Yes, but there’s another thing. I haven’t actually seen this happen, but he says when he picks it up lots of times the battery just falls right out of the bottom of the thing.”

I stood there, expecting him to ask when I was going to bring it in, maybe even start a work-order on it now in order to save time when I did bring it in. Possibly he would tap a finger on his chin for a moment in thought, only to have his eyes brighten as he snapped his fingers and say something like “I know just what that is!”. Maybe even the phrase “an easy fix” might float through the air, or the much-loved “Bring that in, we’ll take care of that for you free of charge”.

But no.

This business owner, this real go-getter, this Repository of Knowledge of All Things Computer… do you know what he says? To someone having an issue with a laptop they purchased there, in his very own computer repair shop?

He looked me in the eye and squinched up his face, as if he hated to be the bearer of bad news, as if it pained him to say the words he knew were about to fall out of his mouth. He nodded his head.

“You know what?” he said. “Tape.”

Oh.

My.

God!

To be continued…


And just to make up for the short post this week, check THIS out!

Is it real? I don't think so. Neat to watch, though.

Talk to you later!