Geek Squad

My computer has been acting up lately. It freezes periodically, usually in the middle of a game. I've had to just shut 'er down and restart, which (as anyone will tell you) is a horrible thing to do. So far, my repeated hard reboots have not created any issues - but I've been fearing starting her up again (I don't know why she's a she to me, but she is), being certain the blue screen of death cannot be far behind.

We realized that the computer memory is not all that 'large' - and considering my computer is primarily for 'gaming' (I play a lot of online and downloaded games), it seemed that more memory was a good idea.

So this afternoon, after I returned from working for a bit, we headed to Best Buy, seeking the advice and counsel of the geek squad. We procured the memory - 2GBs - for only $57.10 plus tax. The guy assured J. he could easily install it himself, and he has - and it's working so much better now! Yipee!!

We were reminiscing on the way to and from - about the early days of our marriage, when money was really tight. And we scraped and saved to buy our first computer - and then we had to keep buying more memory. In those days, not quite 20 years ago, the memory we just purchased for $57 and some change would have cost over $2,000. And I reminded J. that in those days, he'd buy more memory and assure me 'this will be enough for forever' - and sure enough, 3-6 months later, the computer would be crawling along and we'd have to buy more. It was a constant source of irritation. We were just so incredibly money tight in those days - two babies in daycare, huge mortgage (our mortgage back then was $250 more per month than we pay now - only we were making 1/2 what we're making now AND we had daycare for two infants/toddlers back then to boot!) etc.

B. loved the Richard Scary Busy Town games - and he played them everyday. I was grateful for something that kept him occupied and busy - and out of my hair while I cared for his brother and/or prepared dinner, etc. So B.'s been a 'gamer' since he was old enough to sit upright in a computer chair - he loved those games. Takes after his mom. Though these days, I'm more into a variety of 'farming/ranching' games than building things.

When B. gets ready to go to college (in less than a year!), we'll give him this laptop and I'll order a really souped up, high end gaming computer! Until then, though, the newly installed memory has restored my computer to it's previously fast response, good machine-ness!

Thanks to my favorite Geek guy - J.!