Tina's TEOTWAWKI Journal, Day 43-44

Yesterday I melted down.

Not only did I melt down, I think I took Frank and Matthew with me.

Matthew has a practice job interview on Monday.  All week, his teacher has been giving assignments to her students, such as watching a video about job interviewing and completing assignments about answering interview questions.

Friday, Matthew's teacher first said that no one had turned in an assignment she had posted in their discussion area.  So, after virtual class, I decided to delegate the job of finding that assignment to Frank and Matthew.  Frank has been telling me that I need to delegate.  I figured this was a good opportunity.

Well . . . it took me helping them, but we did find the link to the assignment.  It linked to a Google document . . .  which we did not have permission to open.

I emailed Matthew's teacher, who may have fixed the problem because later on, we were able to get to the assignment, print it out, and have Matthew fill in the questions.

The problem came when we tried to fill out the Google document online.

We couldn't do it.

I got so frustrated I went downstairs and yelled at Frank.

He went upstairs and tried to fill it out. 

He could not fill out the Google document.

So he got the idea to scan the document Matthew filled out and send it to his teacher.

I thought it was too much work but I did go along with it.

I couldn't get the scanner to work.

In the meantime, Matthew is watching me and Frank is occasionally watching me.

Matthew dislikes dealing with technology anyway, except when it comes to streaming video.  This whole debacle did not help matters.

Finally, I told Matthew that we would deal with it tomorrow.  And then I cried on Frank's shoulder.

I also put out a scream on Facebook, which prompted a call from my BFF.

I cried on her shoulder.  Part of my FB scream was also about Trump's comments about bleach and disinfectant.  I am not going to go into that here, except to say, I am so sick of political spin. 

BFF reminded me that we are dealing with a crisis:  COVID-19, a shaky economy, and an election coming up, and I am dealing with, basically, homeschooling a kid with the help of the public school system.  (She also gave me more bad news:  as much as I might be tempted to kill someone over this whole mess, I'm not allowed because she has no bail money to bail me out of jail.) 

She calmed me down, reminded me that we'd get through this, and pointed out -- after I said I'd eaten some chocolate before I had my meltdown -- that chocolate should not be rationed during times like these. 

We ended up having a good conversation with lots of laughter, and after I hung up, I had a chat with my husband.

Today was a new day, and after finding the installation CD for my printer, I reinstalled the software, re-set everything up, and after a few mispunched buttons, FINALLY scanned the document and sent it to Matthew's teacher.

That saga is now over.

Now, I need to go to my Saturday chores of cleaning the bathroom.  I enjoy that chore so much that I am sitting here writing on the blog rather than clean the bathroom.  (Note sarcasm here.)   

The other source of my frustration was trying to hang some shelving in my office.  After trying, failing, and staring at all the stuff I'd brought up and thinking that I just didn't have the energy to bring it down, I finally got the idea to use some different wall anchors.  Those works.  So far, the shelf is still standing.

One of the tools I brought up is a hammer.

Which will be used as a motivation (read, threat) to the computer, printer, and other technology if it ever causes me to melt down again!

Deep breath, and into our theme song:

It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine!

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.

Disassemble . . . not dead!

In the 1986 movie Short Circuit, a robot, Number 5, comes alive as the result of being electrocuted. He winds up in the home of Stephanie, who immediately tries to educate him (give him "input", in his words) about the world. At one point, she tries to explain to him what "dead" means and says, "Disassemble." His reaction: "Disassemble . . . dead?!"

This is what I feared I had done to my computer yesterday.

It all started when I got fed up with my computer overheating. I had used compressed air to blow out the dust from the air vents, and it was still overheating.

Two days ago, I took the computer apart, with the help of a YouTube video, but I was unable to figure out how to take off the motherboard.

Yesterday, I tried again. I first got a set of precision screws. My BFF Laura says it's because I'm smart. It's more like, our garage is in chaos and I can't find the screwdriver I need!

Then I used the precision screws to take the back off the computer, pry off the keyboard, unscrew the top, take OFF the top, and finally remove the motherboard to get to the fan.

I cleaned the fan and other portions of the computer. I will just say that it desperately needed the cleaning.

Then came putting the computer back together.

The first main problem was, trying to figure out where two certain wires went. I replayed the YouTube video that showed how to take apart the computer and couldn't figure out the location of the wires.

Finally, in frustration, I Googled, how to reassemble a HP Pavilion g6 series computer . . . and found a YouTube video showing how to put the thing back together!

After watching the video, and putting the screws back in, I realized there was a portion of the motherboard that I had not reinstalled.

So, I disassembled the computer, put in that portion of the motherboard, and put the computer back together.

Then I pushed the power button.

Nothing happened.

Had I, in the words of Number 5, disassembled my computer so it was dead?

I took apart the computer, again, and discovered that there was a ribbon cable unplugged. I plugged it in.

Computer reassembled, I pushed the power button.

Success!!

Until I tried to move the mouse.

No mouse.

Back to disassembling the computer, where I found another ribbon cable unplugged. I plugged it in and put the computer back together, again.

This time the mouse worked!

Then, I went to get on the Internet, and was greeted by the following message: can't find proxy server.

Aaarggghhh!!!

This time, I did NOT have to disassemble the computer. I DID, however, have to play around with the proxy settings and turn the computer off and on.

Finally . . . computer turned on, mouse maneuvered the cursor, and Microsoft Edge got me on the information superhighway. (Not only had I disassembled and assembled my computer, I also upgraded to Windows 10 yesterday!)

My husband went to bed knowing that I couldn't turn the computer on. He got up and went to work this morning before I could tell him that I had fixed the problem. Today he wanted to know if I threw in the towel and called the Geek Squad. I said no. :-)

I can't tell you what on a motherboard makes a computer work, and I can't tell you what the red wire does or the black wire does . . . but I found out yesterday that, with proper instruction, I CAN take a computer apart and put it back together again.

Contrary to Number 5's assertion, "disassemble", in this case, does not mean "dead"!

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.