Monday, July 18, 2011

Gone, But Not Forgotten

Loves lost. They're just hanging around my house, taking up space, gone but not forgotten. Every now and then I turn them on, frown at their phlegmy hum as I search for a short story or novel chapters I can't seem to lay my hands on. I'm tired of them tempting me the way they do. Making me think there's something of value on them. I have to admit, it's hard to let go, walk away, sentence them to the junk pile. They were faithful. We were a great team. Once.

Unfortunately, nothing stays the same. We grew apart. One of us wanted to reach for the stars while the other grew slower, weaker and wouldn't--couldn't--try new things. Sad when we refuse to change with the times. Grow. Learn. Stretch ourselves even when it hurts. And believe me--stretching, stepping into the unknown is always scary and always hurts.

What should I do with my old friends here? How should I do it? Is there such a thing as a computer hit-man that will take them out quickly, painlessly? Or might there be a way to clean them up, and out, and give them new life?

What do you do with your old computers and laptops?

4 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

Lana and I are dealing with this same issue right now. We've got a bunch we need to dump. We're considering a sledgehammer party and then a trip to the dump.

Unknown said...

Luckily my son works on computers, and loves to have little bits and pieces here and there so my old laptop went to him. It is still in the family but I don't have to see it anymore.

Unknown said...

Give it away or throw it away, but do one thing first: shred the hard drive. :)

Tess Mallory said...

Ha! Great blog, Jessy! What I finally did with my Mac was get my genius son to tell me what to order so I could download all my old files off of it! He managed to save a whole bunch of them and save me a bunch of money. Now . . . well, there is this whole new thing of making jewelry from computer parts. I may have to explore that. :))