We love them, hate them - computers!

I don’t know what possessed me, but I actually gave my computer a fond pat when the technician placed it on my desk this morning.

Surprised, he grinned across at me and said ‘you aren’t one of those types who has a name their machine are you?’

I hotly denied that – except to say that the closest to a regular moniker my computer had would be something like ‘you bloody thing’.

He’d had it at his workshop for almost a week, and in its place was a surprising aching void I couldn’t put a name to. The feeling was akin to grief and loss.

Many times during those first few days I had to pull myself up short from sitting down at my desk to discover the latest in Blogland.

I had to get the car out to pay an urgent bill instead of using BPay. The phone bill grew because there was no email. I mean, I live alone and I don’t particularly enjoy having conversations with the four walls.

Probably most difficult was that I couldn’t work on the re-write of the novel I’m serialising on Journeys in Creative Writing. My life was upside down.

I’m old enough to remember many many years without a computer at my disposal. But I still can’t imagine what I did without one.

We love them. We hate them. We find it very hard to be without them.

Enough to say - three days after my baby left home I rummaged around in a dark cupboard and came up with a laptop that hadn’t been used for yonks. It wasn’t mine really, but I knew the owner wouldn’t mind if I fired it up.

I battled with the plugs and USB fittings, the Ethernet connection and the virus updates and, even though I didn’t have any of my personal files, was able to get into the net and Blogland.

Bliss.


Do you have a name for your computer? Tell me in a comment.

By the way I've posted 'DNA and Its Secrets - Episode 12 of "Paternity", my original Australian Mystery Novel on Journeys in Creative Writing. Read it now!