COMPUTER OVER-LOAD

Contrary to common belief, the title of this entry doesn't refer to a virus or malfunction.  At least not for a computer.  This is in regards to the over abundance of computers in my household.  By over abundance, I mean 2 or more.  6 years ago I didn't even own a computer.  Then my sister gave me a hand-me-down monstrocity that I don't think even had a brand name.  It ran on DOS, and there was something about BASIC that I was supposed to study, but I never did.  Maybe thats why its 475mb harddrive crashed on me so many times.  The only windows this computer had were the ones I had inadvertently hammered in while attempting one of a million re-boots.

My next computer was a packard bell.  That one had about 800mb, enough to load Windows on, but barely enough to operate it.  It had a modem and I was able to install free-mail until my husband realized how quiet I would get while messing around on the computer.  Liking the peace and quiet, he subscribed to AOL.  The peace was short lived once the cussing at the computer began.  People would hear me from the freeway 8 miles away and drop off computer parts to help fix my problems.  Nothing worked, lets face it, you wouldn't let a preschooler fix a skyscraper, so don't expect me to fix a computer.  When I finally had enough money invested in my stocks I sold them all and bought a cheap little emachine.  With 4.3 gb of harddrive and 128 ram I was in cyber-heaven!

But, as any cyber-junkie will tell you, its not easy to share.  I would 'hog-cheese' the computer and not let anyone else on.  The kids couldn't load games on it because they would take up too much of the precious harddrive space.  And my husband was always online when I was at work, making it impossible for me to call the house, which I only tried because I knew he was on my computer and it irritated me that he was on instead of me! 

We eventually got a separate line for the computer, and with unlimited internet access life was good!  It didn't take long to outgrow the eMachine though, and with my digital camera filling up my shrinking hd it was time for a new computer.  My husband was given a laptop for school, but the computer monster had taken control of him along time ago and although he generously added my name onto his computer as an authorized user, he would not let me load anything on or customize my settings.  Basically, he would not share!

Not a problem, a new eMachine was introduced just about the time my profit sharing check was due to come out, and I put it on layaway.  Now my husband has a Dell, and he decided that it was the best computer out there.  I'm not convinced, I think its over-priced and he's just a sucker for the commercials, but when he offered to pay the difference and get me a Dell, I jumped at the opportunity, on one condition.... he not dictate what I can and cannot do with MY computer.  The kids automatically inherited my old eMachine.  Okay, are you keeping count?  Thats 3 computers. 

A few weeks after my Dell arrived, my husband comes home with yet another computer... another Dell.  He justs wants me to take a look at it, which I do.  It hasn't got a monitor or keyboard, but its a nice machine.  Not worth the $ the guy is asking, and I say I wouldn't pay more than $300 for it since it needs a lot to make it usable.  Next thing I know we're the proud owner of computer #4!  We've taken the monitor and keyboard off of the eMachine and put it on the Dell so the kids have their own computer.  Thats the Frankenputer I use on occasion.  They get mad at me when I use it, cos they don't like to share either.  They can have it.... I think its haunted, or maybe the keyboard isn't compatible.  What ever the reason, sometimes it starts typing backwards and all funky. 

So yes, we have 4 functioning computers in the house.  The little eMachine is just waiting to be hooked up in one of the kids rooms after my oldest boy goes off to basic.  Then instead of having little family gatherings in the den, we can all sit in our rooms and chat online with a 'lol' and a 'brb'!