I think there must be a bad luck cloud permanently parked above my head. Our luck has been so bad lately that we have taken to burning white candles to ward off the jinks that some nut job has decided to place on us. I'm even thinking about getting some sage to burn in the corners of the house to ward off evil spirits. But on top of everything that has been going on, our computer monitor dies. Oddly enough, this is the third monitor we have had in the past year. We started out with a really cool sleek black flat LCD screen monitor that came with the computer. But last spring, when the tornadoes decided our street was a party zone, the whole computer got fried. We had to replace the motherboard and the power chord and several other components of the computer as well as the monitor. Earlier in the week, my husband tried to turn on the computer and the monitor would not work. The power would come on, but no screen. WTF, dejavu all over again. And we are so strapped for cash right now, I wasn't sure what we could do. The monitor we had was definitely an old clunker. It was actually a freebie given to us by the infamous Crazy Neighbor. It was extremely tiny, and had red finer nail polish spilled all over the top of it, but it worked. Now, just like Crazy Neighbor, it is history. So yesterday I went to the B&M Emporium near our house. It is basically a huge building filled with 10X10 booths. People sell everything there. Old Hot Wheel Cars, antique furniture, antique dishes, bottles, clothes, ect. It is sort of like an indoor flea market, with out the fleas, and the livestock. So I was perusing the Emporium and a saw an old Sony Trinitron Multiscan G400 monitor for $30.00.
It's HUGE! I swear this thing weights 200 lbs! Sure, I'm exaggerating, but it's still very heavy. I didn't buy it yesterday. Instead I came back home and told my husband about it. I asked him if he thought it was worth the $30.00. He told me it would be better than not having a computer for awhile, so I went back today and bought it. While I was struggling to place it into the shopping cart, I managed to wedge it in there. When I made it to the check out counter, I was unable to get it out of the cart. It took me and two very strong men to remove it from the cart. So, that little chore done, the monitor was sitting upright on the counter, and the cashier asked me if I plugged it in to make sure it worked. "No, I didn't see a plug in anywhere, so no, I haven't checked to see if it worked." "Well, she says, " there are plug ins at every booth." Well, I am certainly not lugging it back to the booth to plug it in now." "Well, I strongly recommend that you plug it in to check that it is in working condition because we have a no refund policy." I was agitated by now, and I asked the woman if she had a plug in behind the counter. "No, but there is one over there by the door." The door was about twenty feet away, so I grabbed hold of the monitor, hauled it off of the counter and carried it to the door. I had to place it onto the floor in order to plug it in. It worked. I ripped the tag off the top of it and carried it back to the counter and left the kids beside the monitor to guard it. After paying for it, I went outside and drove the truck right up to the door, then I lifted the 200lb behemoth into the back of my truck (Actually, I drive an SUV, but it is a Nissan Xterra, so it is rugged like a truck.) And came home. I got home and my husband had just left for work, so I did not have any assistance getting into the house either. The kids even slammed the door in my face as I was walking up the steps. I hollered at the top of my lungs, "OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course they both came running and then stumbled and fumbled their way through our narrow laundry room in front of me. I was gritting my teeth by the time I all but dropped it into my desk chair. My fragile patients were holding on by a single thin thread. But I calmly unhooked the old monitor and hooked this one up and walla, I now have Internet access again!
