Technical Difficulties... Please Stand By

Well this has been some week so far, to begin with Mr. J ordered some computer parts the other day from Tiger Direct, which were sent to the wrong address. [I guess about a year ago, we ordered a part to fix a friend's computer, and I had sent it straight to her house, and the address was still in there. Mr. J doesn't pay attention, and just left the wrong address in I guess]. So you can imagine my surprise when she calls and says that this package arrived at her house, and we'd been expecting it for over a week. 'Ok' I think. 'That's fine, I'll just arrange to go across town, meet her and pick up the parts.' So we did...Met "Dickey" for lunch (she got the nickname after guitarist Dickey Betts), chatted for a while, I heard all the latest-About a lot of things she's going through, problems with a lady who's gone crazy from being off her meds at work (the mind is a fragile thing), and I got the package. Come to find out, it was only the partial delivery, and there was still 1 piece on back order, and the other part was being delivered separately. (Tiger 'Direct' huh?) . Thought that was the end of that...

Fast-forward to today: I was working along on an issue, when I placed an important CD into my CD drive for a quick install. [wrong-no such thing as a quick install] Immediately, the CD rattled, the CD drive whirled at 90 mph, causing a hideous spinning noise followed by a 'CLACK-A-CLACKAA-CLACKITYCLACK-CLACK-SHRIEK--WHOOOSH... KAPLUNK!' (my mind: "OMFG what was that!?!") So I press the eject button a couple of times, and no deal. That CD drive isn't coming out... Well, it was lunch time-I guess you can't blame it, computers have to eat too right? So I power down, unplug so as not to have the shock of my life, and take the computer apart, pull the CD drive out and clean the remnants of a once usable CD which are now exploded into a million pieces and gone forever. Get that all taken care of, blow all the dust out, put the PC back together, and then test it--it's fine. The CD has seen better days, but nothing gold can stay-huh? j/k It's o.k. folks, that's why we make back-up copies of everything! Get back on track, try to get a bit more accomplished and then the phone rings. It's Dickey again... She's calling to inform me that UPS had attempted delivery two or three times today and gave me an 800 number to call to find out what we needed to do to pick up this part of the delivery (part 2/3 that is). We chatted some more... I found out that the lady who went crazy off her meds, threw a screaming fit and quit on the spot, so my friend Dickey was disturbed and took some of the stress on herself being that she has seen quite a lot of issues like that in the last few years herself. The woman was also a friend of hers, and she was worried... as if we all don't have enough to worry about on a daily basis-but I guess you can't help but be concerned for a friend. I told her to have a nice cup of tea, which should relax her, and reminded her (hopefully not in vain), that stressing out about something wasn't going to help the situation or do anyone any good, so just to relax and try to let it flow... Tried to say a few encouraging words, as is my nature I guess. Then, got off the phone and tried to call the 800-customer service number. It was one of those computerized voice services that pretends to be human. "Tell me the info notice number that you are calling about." I voice the number, doubting that the machine will be able to pick it up, but it does. It states "The third and final attempt at delivery for this package was made at 2:00 p.m. on blahblahblah." Ok... that's good. We can pick it up I guess, so the computer proceed to tell me the address and the hours of the pick up center [I have to admit she is more pleasant than other customer service reps I've spoken with, so i'm not complaining]. She says "Are these arrangements satisfactory for you?" I state "Yes" She continues "Is there anything else we can help you with today?" "No." I state firmly, growing more confident in these fake CS reps all the time... She sounded so pleasant, I almost began to tell her all about my exploded CD drive and how I fixed it, and about this one time... at bandcamp--- but remembered that it was just a machine [and i'll save the bandcamp story for another day].

So I called up Mr. J, and gave him the information, he was pleased and headed over to try and pick up the parts. However, after making a trip over to the UPS location, he emerged with only the knowledge that the package was still on the truck and he couldn't get it until tomorrow. TigerDirect huh? Maybe a tiger itself could've been more direct... but the fact remains, technology has really moved so fast and it amazes each one of us who did not grow up in this broadband, computerized world just exactly how much we've come to rely on all this ourselves. When we can plainly see that it could all just up and explode on us any given moment (Kaploww!) Just like my CD drive (or the lady who went off the meds)! Have a terrific day, hopefully one free of technical difficulties.

Your Dear Aunt Jackie :)