Opinion : For the want of a 21st Century nail

Some of you may have looked at the unusually low numbers of stories on Vinton Today yesterday and asked, "Where is Dean? Has he been spending too much time with the granddaughters or playing on the farm to tell us what happened at the meeting with Rep. Pettengill on Saturday, or the school board on Monday?"

Well, as a matter of fact, that is how I have spent much of my time -- playing with the oldest granddaughter and holding the new one. I have also prepared my spring landscaping tools: saws, tree trimmers, mowers rakes and matches, for the work that awaits.

But that's not why you may have seen fewer stories with my name on them Wednesday.

Here's why:

Do you remember the old proverb, "For the want of a nail?"

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

For the past couple weeks, I have been experiencing the want of a horseshoe nail, at least the 21st century version of that. And it caused me to lose the battle with technology.

For the past year or so, we've used a laptop for some of our work for Vinton Today. When we moved our office to our home, it became my main work station. But recently, there's been a problem; a very tiny problem with big pains.

The tiny pin that connects the cord on my laptop to the computer came loose. It made it very difficult to recharge the battery. Impossible, at times.

"The warranty might cover it, or not," said (it seemed) the cast member from "Outsourced" when I called the computer provider.

"That pin is part of the mother board," said another computer guy. "To replace that pin, you have to replace the mother board."

So I tried to fix it myself. Instead of writing stories, I spent my time using small metal objects to push that pin back into the socket. For a while, it worked. Then, it didn't. So I spent Tuesday and Wednesday finding long-term solutions. I now use a desktop computer at home. We are still trying to decide whether to fix or replace the laptop, or to keep pushing in the little pin.

After years of using computers, I have lots of stories like that. Like the time one of my computers literally ate another one. Or the time I restored the software of my PC, only to find that the problem was a CD-ROM that needed to be cleaned -- too many kid fingerprints.

I'd love to tell you more, but it's time to see the granddaughters.