A World Without Computers

Out of the blue last weekend, my trusty old laptop took it's last breath. Okay, so it wasn't really out of the blue--the screen had been this scary orange color for a month, but I was choosing to ignore it. Anyway, the screen finally just went black and left me without a computer. After doing a little research, it seems that this is a common problem with that particular model, and the replacement part would cost $250. Well, the computer is 5 years old, so we decided to just buy a new one. We didn't have time to do that until yesterday, so I spent more than a week without a computer. Sad.

Let me just list the things that I was unable to do because of the lack of computer and the Internet:
-access my recipe box on allrecipes.com (and therefore had a great excuse to not cook!)
-order the pictures from Snapfish that I had been meaning to get for weeks

-Research what computer we should buy-Mapquest how to get to our playdate yesterday
-Access my address book so I could mail a thank-you note
-pay bills
-Update the checking account
-Fill out new patient forms for the dentist
-Keep up with friends via email and facebook (most important of all the things I missed!)

...I could go on, but you get the idea. The bottom line is that I can't believe how much we rely on the Internet these days, it's crazy to think that when I started college, E-mail was still a novelty, and most people didn't have Internet access in their homes.I am happy that I have a brand new computer (or pooter, as Kate calls it) and can now get on with my regularly-scheduled life! I still haven't figured out how to get my router hooked up to this computer, so I'm sitting on the floor of my bedroom with the laptop plugged into the modem (we don't have a computer desk due to our lack of space). Oh well, baby steps. Maybe I can get Jon (my brother) up here soon to give me some technological assistance!So, let's just have a moment of silence for the Dell, and hope that the new HP has a longer, happier life than it's predessesor!