For about the past year I have been in a running gunbattle with Nurse Jenny, and I’ve been losing. She gets home from work and heads right for the computer to “destress” from a long day taking temps and dealing with runny noses. She stays there until O’ dark-thirty, I give up and go to bed. Well, I got the great idea that I could get a laptop, set up a wireless net, and work on blogging from my easy chair in the living room. Only thing, I couldn’t really afford the large chunk of green needed for buying a laptop.
One day a couple of weeks ago, inspiration struck like lightning, and I got a rare idea: Why not look on E-Bay? OK, so I cranked up when she wasn’t looking, signed on E-Bay, and started looking. After a couple of days poring over the offerings, nervously checking spec’s and wondering how badly I would get bit, I picked one out and handed over a credit card number. In a matter of minutes I found myself the proud? owner of a T22 IBM laptop, being shipped UPS from Illinois.
Two days later, my package arrived, and the UPS man was hardly out the door as I greedily tore the wrapping off, opened it up, and grinned at my accomplishment. Here, in my grimy paws, was a used, back-from-lease IBM machine that my research had shown to be worth about $2500 new. I had paid a lot less, and as I fired it up I wondered if it would go up in smoke. Halellujah! It came on, and I was looking at a pretty Win 2000 screen. Now for the good stuff. A quick trip to Wal-Mart, and I had the makings of a wireless net. Several hours of installing stuff on the main computer, a few minutes of installing on the laptop, and eureka! My laptop connected to the net and uplinked sgtstryker! I was loaded for bear!
Another trip, this time to Best Buy, and I came home with DVD software, and soundblaster stuff for the big box. A few days loading software and programs of all sizes, and it looks like I have a real winner on my hands! So, on this fine Friday night, I sit in my easy chair in the living room, while hearing the “blong – splat – crunch” of video games through the wall, I’m on the wireless net, blogging my little heart out, happy as the proverbial clam. I may have worried, but really got a good deal. A 900Mhz P3 processor, 256K memory, 30GB HDD, with a DVD/CD-ROM drive, FDD, it really works great and my dream is fulfilled.
Next, I’m off to Starbucks to try out the T-Mobile hot spot. The sky is the limit here! I’m a happy old man, with an early Christmas present! Enjoy, I will…..