My father, Samuel Kahn, died on January 6, 2013. Two years later, while clearing out my parent's apartment in Crystal City, my brother gave me his Sony Vaio PC. An excellent computer with a 26" monitor and a really fabulous sound system. It was better for watching movies on than any other piece of electronics in my house. Until it wasn't.
On April 15, 2020, the computer died. I was working on it. Then, around 7PM, I went to the bathroom. And came back to a black screen. I couldn't jolly it into life. I unplugged it and plugged it back in. All I found was a black screen. No start up. Occasionally, it came on with a spectrum of colors
And here we are in April with everyone in quarantine. I call the Geek Squad--they couldn't get anyone to come out until early June. In early June, the geek came over, plugged my computer in, saw a black screen, and recommended making an in-store appointment to put the data on an external hard drive.
Today was the appointment. The geek plugged my computer in, got the spectrum--said, "did you know this is both a computer screen and a monitor, pushed a button on the side, and, et voila--the start up screen came back. She believes what happened was that an update went awry, then, somehow, the monitor button got pushed. The SONY Vaoi lives yet. My father escaped from a Nazi camp in WWII. Today, he escaped a sledgehammer.
The next week, I was able to pick up the computer, which had been thoroughly gone over. All files were backed up. I toted it home. Now I can enjoy movies on a bigger screen, with an excellent soundsystem and great visuals. A better keyboard than is available on the laptops.
During this period of time, I was thinking what a great TV sitcom this would make. "My father the computer," sort of a milleniel update of the old 1960's sitcom, "My mother the car." In MFTC, dad dies, the daughter gets the computer and discovers her father's memory there. They play on-line cards and chat via a dialogue box. If she's on a date, she turns off the computer and puts a blanket over the monitor, so he can't intrude When he gets a virus, she has t get him a protector. Yuks galore.