Computer Shopping
I can hardly believe it but I’ve now owned my latest laptop — a Dell Inspiron — for nearly three years. When first purchased, it was all sparkly and new and fast and well, just about everything I wanted. It’s still pretty darn fast and the hard drive has gobs of space on it, but it’s starting to show its age with periodic crashes and freezes. And most annoying, the wifi routinely requires tinkering. And the stupid thing weighs a ton (well, not really, but it feels that way when stuffed in a bag or pack along with everything else I need to carry).
Used to be, I was thrilled to be able to go online. About 15 years ago, I was deeply grateful to those advanced spirits among my acquaintance who permitted me to browse this new bookstore 
After freezing regularly (sometimes up to 4 times a session) for the last month or so, last week my computer at home finally gave up. Fortunately, it only did so after I had gotten backups of virtually everything on it. Off it went to the repair service, got a new hard disk, a couple of updated programs, and was returned to me yesterday in better shape than for a long, long time.