by Curt Kovener
The hard drive in one of my laptops died and needed to be replaced. It had lived a long life and served me well. After I purchased a newer, faster, bigger one, I viewed multiple times an online how-to video from the computer place where I bought it. There were a bunch of steps but broken down into each segment, it seemed simple enough.
After about an hour of removing then replacing tiny screws and delicate ribbon cables, it was all back together, there were no parts left over, and (to my amazement) the computer worked.
I breathed a sigh of relief and offered up a prayer of gratitude.
But it wasn’t working entirely. It seems it couldn’t or wouldn’t recognize the wireless internet signal. Even though I went through all of the steps of setting up the internet, when I got to the one about selecting the internet signal, there was no internet signal recognized.
Growing weary of the frustration I opted to fool with it another time.
Then Mary called with a problem with her computer. It wouldn’t turn on. “Is it plugged in? Maybe you ran the battery down,” advised I. She checked and sure enough, one of her pets must have jarred the power cord loose.
She said she was embarrassed at bothering me but I reassured her that similar stuff has happened to me.
Sometimes it’s the simple things.
Then Mother called and she couldn’t open her garage door from her van but could from the inside. Paying her a visit I asked if she had replaced the batteries in the remote. “Yes, and it still won’t work,” advised Mother.
I went to the garage to see if there was a signal connection wire that had come loose. When I looked to the inside switch, there was a little light flashing…on the lock button.
Apparently, Mother had pushed a wrong button sometime and locked out her remote but the inside switch worked fine. I pushed the lock button again, the flashing light went out and she opened her garage door from her van.
Sometimes it’s the simple things.
I felt good that I could help others with a solution that was simple but I returned to my own confounding internet connection problem and thought about it and what could be wrong as I drove back to the wilderness.
There I have an identical computer using the same wireless internet connection. But one worked and the other didn’t. I was almost resigned to replacing the computer’s wireless internet card thinking it had coincidently failed, when for no reason I thought of re-setting the MiFi internet device.
I shut it down, took out the battery, bent a paperclip, pushed a well hidden reset button, put it back together and restarted the signal sender.
And suddenly both computers had internet.
Sometimes it’s the simple things.
I contemplated the day’s events enveloped by the warm, spring temperatures from my front porch. It was relaxing to see the daffodils & crocus blooming, the dogwood buds swelling, and the early awakened plants of the wilderness greening up. I took a sip of my chilled adult beverage and contentedly smiled at it all.
Sometimes it is the simple things.