Moribund

Windows Vista OS came out this past Tuesday. That means it's finally time to get rid of my old desktop jalopy.

My first personal computer was bought after a summer spent working overnight at the Quincy post office so I would have one for college. I loved my Dell. I would upgrade it's RAM and storage space. We killed thousands of Nazi's in hundreds of WWII shooter games. We stole lots music. We went to LAN parties together. We were the best of friends.

One winter break, I took my Dell home and it somehow died. The power buttons wouldn't work anymore. My dad bought a new case and motherboard to extend the life on my machine. It was a weird Frankenstein almagamation of Dell periphals and 3rd party product. We were still able to have the same fun as we used to.

In my last semester of college, my PC has started to give out. The blowers started to grind and whirr, wheezing for breath. Applications slowed down. Firefox would crash. The speakers pop and fade out. It was in it's PC winter years.

I moved away, and my PC came along. It sits on my desk, hacking and whirring every so often during the night. It's once comforting white noise giving away to the cranky sounds of a dying man. I have a laptop I use more often. I keep the PC turned off most days. He's earned the rest. His time has almost come.

I really wish it didn't have to be like this. I wish I could buy an electronic device and not have to think about how it will one day stop working. It will stop being useful. It will one day leave me. I wish whoever made these things would make them last forever. I wish it weren't like this. I wish I didn't have to say goodbye.

I can't afford to replace my PC.