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The universe testing me!
Sometimes it happens. You suddenly find yourself in a situation where it seems that the universe decides to test you. A test of your stress resistance, and how patient you are ... or so it seemed. Last Sunday my trusty PC, my lifeblood for online homeworking, suddenly breathed its last. One moment you are still working quietly, the next moment your screen is black and there is no life left in it. Of course you can't do much on a Sunday anyway, so all I had to do was open the PC and see if it was the battery that needed replacing. We always have a few of the batteries needed for this in stock. And replacing it is a piece of cake, unfortunately it didn't bring my PC back to life this time. The screen remained black. The logical next step was to connect the monitor to my partner's PC. Maybe the problem was my monitor. But no, neither. It did an excellent job.
My partner has done IT work himself in the past and has also cast his 'professional eye' on it after the possibilities were soon exhausted for me. And the conclusion he drew was that I should have it checked by a repair company the next day to see if his conclusion was the right one. But he also advised to look online for a new PC. oops! That was not what I hoped for, and certainly not what I would want right now.
Conclusion ... I need a NEW PC!
The next day I had my PC checked and my partner's suspicion was confirmed. The motherboard had failed, and so had the processor. Of course it is repairable, but then I would still be left with an older motherboard and would not have the capabilities I would like. And such a repair was not exactly cheap either. So after thinking for a while I decided not to have anything repaired anymore, and I started looking for a new PC.
After a full day of searching I ordered a new PC
After hours of comparing, reading reviews and weighing specs, I finally decided which PC would be my new companion. It's like an online jungle with lots of PCs and one is even better than the other, but the prices don't exactly lie either. That was ultimately the biggest consideration because in terms of specifications I would like more, but the budget was not there. So the trade-off to find the best for my budget was the biggest quest. That took me quite a while. But when I found it, and hit the order button, I exhaled a sigh of relief. Normally I would receive my new PC the next day, then there would be some work to do to transfer everything from my old SSD and bring everything up to date. But after that… I could work decently again, and faster than before. Unfortunately, that would turn out a bit differently than hoped and expected.
The first delay
The next day started with a glimmer of hope and excitement. I felt like a child on Christmas morning, now that I had accepted that I had to spend so much money, I was overjoyed because ... a brand new PC is of course also very nice! But where I saw in my mail app in the morning that the PC would be delivered that day, this changed to the next day an hour later. DAMN! That was not the deal, and certainly not what I wanted! But unfortunately I can't change that... I would have to wait another day. My package was delayed. How could such an important package that would save my online life be delayed?
Even more disappointment
The disappointment would be even greater, because the next day when I looked in my mail app, the delivery time had suddenly changed to "Delivery time Unknown". That was totally frustrating to watch and the flames just about burst out of my ears. Where was my PC? What did PostNL do with it? Why couldn't they understand that I was waiting for that package? Damn it!
I would see this status for the next two days, until finally on Saturday morning the message read "Package Received by Post NL", which was very strange, because they had already given me that message on Tuesday! An hour later another message came, and my package was on its way! It was supposed to be delivered between 12:30 AM and 2:00 PM. Well, you bet I sat on the lookout. The sun was shining nicely on my skin as I sat outside with the dogs and my partner, my camera ready to take some pictures.
My PC was almost delivered at the neighbors!
And just when I was about to take a picture of a butterfly on a flower, out of the corner of my eye I saw the Post NL bus driving by, slowing down and hearing it turn into the neighbor's driveway. OH NO! We will not do that, my long-awaited package was not delivered to the neighbors. That's the downside of a dual occupancy farm, we have house number 10 and the neighbors 10A. (Fortunately, 10A is currently empty again). I quickly put my camera on the garden table and flew to the gate to run across the driveway to the front garden. There I saw the postman get off his bus and shouted to him "Do you have to be at number 10?", his answer was "Yes, that's here right?", "Uhm no, look at the number, where you are is 10A and you have passed number 10".
It is indicative of this parcel deliverer's mentality, and I think this applies to more parcel deliverers, but he shrugged, took my parcel from his van and handed it to me, not even checking what my name was.. Imagine if I hadn't seen anything, that 10A was currently inhabited and the residents wouldn't say anything. Then I would have lost a PC and a lot of money because it is so practically arranged in the Netherlands that Post NL is not liable, that would be the seller! Idiot but true.
Finally setting up my new digital work mate!
Fortunately, it all worked out in the end and after a week full of frustrations I was finally able to connect my new PC, and then the job could start to set up this PC in such a way that I can do everything I need to do with a PC again. can do. Now that I finally have my new companion in my hands, it's time to put the frustrations behind me and focus on that. Hopefully we have a bright future together, my new PC and me.