We Interrupt This Program ...

The Last of the Clan
Thomas Faed
Source

The painting above (though depicting the breaking of the Highland clans after the '45 Rising) could well depict Your Humble Scribe on the afternoon of the 15th instant. In which case the title of the painting would be "An t-Amadan Mòr" (Scots Gaelic for The Great Fool). Which I am and which I shall explain herein the why of that.

As you should know, after all I posted about it, I recently ordered a new computer. Long story short, I ordered it a week ago, it had to be built to what Amazon was offering and tested. After all that, it had to be shipped. FedEx Ground for those of you interested in that sort of thing (don't tell me how I could have had it shipped differently, I don't care, I was content to wait, the anticipation is almost as nice as the thing itself).

Well, I tracked that lovely beast across the country, great fun it was, calculating how far away it was and all that. But the beast finally arrived and I opened the box with great excitement, I was like a kid on Christmas morn and all that. (Again, for those interested in such things, the beast was very well packed and was handled with great care by FedEx, i.e. nothing was visibly damaged or broken.)

So the ceremony of the unboxing was held, much incense was burned, there was chanting involved (a number of coarse Anglo-Saxon epithets might possibly have been heard on the street) and I got the beast in position, ready to go.

Climbing down onto the floor to disconnect the venerable old PC - which is still in use as of this moment, you'll see why shortly - I discovered a very old (cuppla years) monitor plug, which confused me.

My old laptop (which died due to overheating) was connected to the old monitor (which I've had for the better part of a decade) and that laptop had HDMI connectors for such things. Hhmm, checking the back of the monitor, nope ...

No HDMI connection.

What to do, what to do?

Now I confess, when I bought the computer I almost bought a new monitor, wanting a big, sexy, curved thing for the gaming excellence which was in it. So did I?

Nope. Mr. Cheapsumbitch decided that he could save a couple of shekels by not doing that, just use the old monitor which still functions wonderfully, even though it is a bit of a wee sma' thing.

Somewhere I have an adaptor which I used to drive the old venerable monitor with the shiny new (but now deceased) laptop. Did I look for said adaptor prior to the arrival of the new beast?

Of course not. After all, it is in the desk drawer with all the other things I used with the old (new at the time) laptop.

Computer is set up, discovery of the incorrect monitor cable has taken place, now let's go to the computer parts drawer.

Was the adaptor in there?

I'll give you two guesses, though you should get it in one.

Couldn't find the bloody thing.

Do I drive to Best Buy and get an adaptor? Which they may not have, or ...

To Amazon I went. The monitor I thought about buying was still available and, oh by the way, they'll deliver it same day.

The upside of waiting is that I have a ton of Amazon points (because I bought the computer from them), so the new monitor cost me like twelve bucks.

Now we wait.

(And next time I plan things better!)

Author's Note: And all that above is why you got this post and not another episode in the Fall of Berlin series. My brain was busy doing other things. Also, the damned water was off today, maintenance going on down the street, so I got up at the butt crack of dawn (0600) to shower and shave. Also upon awakening to answer the call of nature at 0600, I was too damned excited to go back to sleep. Sigh ... It has been suggested that I grow up, after all, I am 72 but with the mind of a 12 year old. But where's the fun in that?