This is how I imagine I look when at my computer desk, save that I don't have a cat on a nearby windowsill. However, I helped a friend buy a computer today and set it up for her use. And she is much more likely to look like this, as she has two cats that want to be nearby their human.
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When I woke up this morning, I really didn't want to go out. But I'm glad I did, as I felt a little bit useful for a change. My plans for the day were to drive to meet RQS where she undergoes physical therapy, drive to Micro Center where she would buy a new laptop, then back to her place in Queens to get it set up. Since I knew how long it should take me to reach the Ridgewood area of Queens, I was able to leave the house around 11:15 and reach her on time.
The drive to Queens was uneventful, and I reached her area a little early. So I waited nearby (not wanting to pay for parking) for her to give me a buzz. Shortly afterwards, I picked her up and drew a "straight line" to the nearest Micro Center store in Flushing. (I put "Straight Line" in quotes, as I stayed on the same road under different names, and with curves from Ridgewood to Flushing.) Within 15 minutes of getting to the store, we left with a new computer, heading towards her place.
RQS lives in an area in which it is hard to find parking. It was fortunate that I was able to find parking within a very short walk of her house. And then the fun began. We had to unpack the new computer, perform initial system setup, remove the old anti virus, and install the new anti virus before doing much of anything else. It was a minor headache to install the new anti virus, as the setup insisted that we add dashes ('-') between several 4 character codes on the barely readable receipt (upon which the dashes were not printed). AARGH! After a quick bite to eat, we progressed onto the next task of the day - moving data from her old PC to her new PC. And again, we had problems with product serial numbers before using the Laplink software. Yet, we got the job done, and I was out of the place by 7:30 pm.
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It was not the right time to tell RQS about Marian - but that time is getting close. When I do, I hope she can deal with this part of me. Only time will tell....
PS: I called RQS the next day. She loves the computer, but found that I didn't copy everything over to the new machine. So, she's done some manual work to do so. On the whole, the operation was a success.
