I'm back. And I hate technology.

About 20 minutes after I posted my last diary (OK, I don't really remember how long) the computer stopped working.
No prob, I tell myself. Whatever's wrong I can fix. I mean, I've got piles and piles of discarded computer parts in the basement. Whatever's wrong with it I can replace easy.
So, I open it up, and the CPU fan is covered in dirt and isn't moving.
So I get an old hulk, with a 120mz CPU, swap hard drives and... well, they didn't have 30 gig hard drives back then. It just plain isn't going to work.
What's more, the battery seems to have died and the CMOS doesn't seem to work anymore; it quits about the time it should be looking at its drives.
So, I tell myself, screw it. I've got stuff to do. I'll get back to the damned computer later.
The car I bought from Mike s friend Charlie runs for about two weeks and quits. In the pouring rain. In heavy traffic.
Luckily, my daughter was with me, so I had someone to steer while I pushed. I get it off to a side street, and get a tow truck to take it, me, and my daughter home.
The next day, I push it to the repair shop around the corner.
The fuel injectors are bad, and it's going to cost over a thousand dollars to fix.
Damn!
I hate moving parts. Cars used to have carburetors, and the only moving parts were adjustment screws, which never needed adjustment but stupid people adjusted all the time, but otherwise, carburetors almost never went bad.
I finally found a place to change the injectors for eight hundred bucks.
Evil-X said she was going to take the TV. It had come from her dad, who I had told could have it back any time. So now I'm going to have to spend more money on even more technology.
I hate technology. Because I'm a cheapass.
I visited my sister at Christmas, who showed off her new TV. A fifty two inch wide screen LCD. Boy, those Playstation 2 pixels are GIGANTIC! My oldest daughter wanted a Playstation, so I bought her one for Christmas. I bought my youngest a new car stereo.
Since I've never, ever had a TV die a natural death although I've had them struck by lightning, peed on, and dropped, I decide that I want one I'm still going to enjoy when I'm even more ancient than I already am.
And after seeing my sister's gigantic TV, the 27 incher I was used to wasn't going to cut it.
You think it's too big? she asks.
There ain't no such thing as too big a TV.
That's what David says. David's my nephew, her son.
So being the cheapass that I am, I shop around, and ask shop owners what the biggest TV they have for a thousand bucks is.
Yes, I spent twice on the TV what I paid for the car. The biggest anybody but Circuit City would admit to was thirty six inches, so I got the flat screen forty two inch widescreen-enhanced (although it's a standard aspect tube; winding through the menus you can get 720p out of it if you're playing a DVD) Trinitron. Its screen is about as tall as my sister's widescreen, although hers is about 50% wider.
But she paid three times what I did, so I'm happy.
I mean, I'm a cheapass. I hate to spend money.
So, I occasionally tinker with the old computer junk, trying to, if not make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, at least something I could get on the internet with.
Jonesing for the internet, I finally broke down and bought a new motherboard and some memory.
And a video card with a TV output so I could plug it into that bigassed TV set.
Then, SBC calls wanting to hook me back up with DSL. Mind you, I still had no internet box, although I could play Duke Nukem (the original side scroller) and Solitaire.
I bit, and they would have the equipment to me in a week. But I already have a DSL modem...
But it's FREE!
What the hell, just what I need, more electronic junk cluttering my basement, which I'll have to move shortly, as I'm losing my house to the bank.
So the parts come... and out of a half a dozen old cases, the MB wouldn't fit in a single one. Somehow I wrangled the supplier into sending me a new case for free.
So as it stands, the new box is sitting here with the side off, two floppies inside, of which only one works because there's only one floppy power cable, two hard drives, only one of which works because I totally and stupidly screwed my Linux drive.
Never do a FDISK/MBR when your primary drive has Linux and LILO. But that's what I get for building a computer when I'm drunk.
And two CDs, one of which is a burner and the other which (surprise) doesn't work, because I can't find the CD (or floppy?) the drivers are on.
But I'M BACK!!!
And the divorce was finally final the last day of the year.
And I've been off of the Paxil for almost two weeks. Damned near as bad as giving up cigarettes, with the same result: uncontrollable, insane, rage.
Speaking of which, that damned X still hasn't got this TV out of my living room yet.
But I'm better. I miss the cartoons... I hope it doesn't screw up my diary style too much.
And probably a bunch of other stuff I don't have the room to write right now.
I missed you guys. I wonder if any of my K5 harem still love me?