Computer Regains Sanity, Jerry Loses His



Keyboard removed from computer

Yesterday--finally--I took my computer to a fix-it guy and got the space bar function restored.

It's been maddening.   Except for internet addresses, which have to run together, I couldn't type anything thatdidn'tlooklikethis.  I was ready to throw it out the window.

I spent an hour-and-a-half in an unheated shop while a genial guy named Won painstakingly disassembled the computer and then jimmied the keyboard, flexing it, cajoling it.   He was fearless.

Putting it back together

We covered a lot of chatty territory during this operation.  I found out that he's Thai-American, trained as a graphic designer, and switched to computer repair.  He referred to the binary logic of the Start button (!), and he's a Democrat with definite ideas on immigration ("We all came from somewhere").

Scary!

He charged me only $50, despite the $80 minimum charge posted on the wall.   I would have paid a lot more than that.  Lucked out.  Took it home the same day.

* * * * *

Department of Jerry-Stuns-Me-Once-Again:  Last night, after we cleaned up the dinner dishes, I watched him fish a cookie out of a plastic bag, leave a few crumbs on the kitchen counter, and slyly brush the crumbs on to the floor.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

"What are you doing?"  I screeched.  (Yes, I did.)

"They were tiny," he protested, with a sheepish look.

"But why?

"You don't like crumbs on the counter." 

It made perfect sense to him.  I don't like crumbs on the counter, so why not sweep them onto the floor?

* * * * *

My friend Lin and I went shopping in the Elmwood neighborhood of Berkeley on Saturday, and we dropped in at The Focal Point, where I buy my glasses.  We poked around.

Fashion flash:  wire-rims are out.  There are hardly any for sale.  Lots of plastic frames.

I found a pair I really liked,  that were about as flattering as it gets on someone my age:

Pricetag:

That is not a misplaced decimal.  Can you imagine?

And the pair in the foreground:

Pricetag:

Unbelievable!  Fortunately, there were lots of frames

that cost less.

* * * * *

Boxes of stuff have been arriving via UPS, Christmas presents I ordered  for my sister and Jerry.  I've been doing a mental count and decided that each could use another present or two.  (What's this weird equation we do in our heads re "enough" gifts?  I know my mother did it, too, and my pal Lin cops to doing  it, too.)

I asked Jerry for a suggestion or two, and he came up with this item after a long search in his car:

It's golf glove for a right-handed person, meaning it fits on the left hand, but there's no size printed inside.    In the old days, pre-internet, I would have gone to a golf shop, presented this item to a clerk who would have recoiled, but helped me figure it out.  Now I'm off to Amazon.

In the course of searching the car for the golf glove, Jerry found a pair of glasses that are so old he can't remember wearing them:

I told him he could save a lot of money and be fashionable if he just had new lenses put in.