Now, I know there must be some way to safely clean off computer screens without paying for it. But frankly I hadn't thought to google that until after I got home and marveled at the inanity of buying a consumer product that only exists to clean another consumer product. The guilt would eat at me relentlessly, except that now I can see my computer screen, and that makes me very happy.
* * * * *
Yesterday morning the kids' computer wouldn't turn on. The on-button winked teasingly, but went off again. It had teased like that a week ago, and I'd blown some dust out of the fan and gotten it to work again. So before I panicked about having to pay for a computer repair person, I tried blowing out dust again. Nothing doing. Feeling intrepid (or perhaps just cheap) I unplugged the machine, got a screwdriver, undid the side panels on the tower, and took a look inside. Eeeew. If I thought the computer screens were gross, they looked like a photo shoot compared to the dust-coated fans on this clunker.
I sent Little Guy for some cotton swabs and got out the vacuum. Then I tackled de-dusting the fans, with the care and patience of restoring the Mona Lisa. Mind you, I had no idea what I was doing, but I figured that as long as I didn't touch any components I'd probably be okay. And the layers of compacted dust were so dense I thought we were probably getting close to creating coal. Which would have been an interesting homeschooling project, but not on the computer.
An astonishing amount of dust later, I replaced the side panels and passed the GRE-equivalent of re-attaching the knot of wires and plugs. I turned the machine on. The light smiled steadily, instead of winking. And the computer doesn't even sound like a jalopy any more. Amazing.
* * * * *
The kids all had reactions to their vaccines. Dancer slept all afternoon on Thursday, achy enough to miss ballet. Snuggler awoke on Friday with a fever of 100.1. But Little Guy's reaction took place before his shot; let's just say he was unenthusiastic about the prospect of pain. He is of the opinion that being afraid of something is a valid reason for not-doing it. I am of the opinion that being afraid of something shouldn't prevent you from doing it, anyway.
My mother alway said "Necessity is the mother if invention". I hope you smile everytime you use the computer!
ReplyDelete"He is of the opinion that being afraid of something is a valid reason for not-doing it. I am of the opinion that being afraid of something shouldn't prevent you from doing it, anyway."
ReplyDeleteDo you think this is a matter of age and he'll grow out of it? Or a more fundamental difference in how the two of you view the world? I'm trying to gently persuade my nearly 6yo son that fear is a good reason to take a deep breath, double check the benefit to risk ratio, and then proceed (assuming it's not something like being afraid of jumping out of a tree fort.)
I think he'll probably grow out of it with a lot of help. He's a kid whose instinctual reaction to even the smallest amount of adrenaline is to assume there's a tiger in the room. Teaching him that there are gradations in fear -- and that we can handle those gradations differently -- is a real project. I figure we've probably got another thousand (or two) times of overcoming various fears before he really believes that it's possible to do more than panic.
DeleteKudos on the computer cleaning. I try to make a point to open ours up and give it a good vacuuming two or three times a year. A few years ago it started just absolutely trudging along, taking forever to load programs, reboot, or whatever. I took it to a friend who services them, and when I went back to get it, he showed me a nice pet hair afghan that he pulled out from the inside.
ReplyDeleteI was so ashamed...