(Not that anyone asked for it but an update on my new PC that, in my last post, I thought had given up the ghost rather abruptly).
In an English accent from atop a medieval yet modern cart heaped with other assorted dead computers … “I’m not dead yet”
Thank you Vivek at Dell from across a couple of ocean’s for being so helpful and so patient with my “ummmm?”‘s and “uhhhhh?”‘s (If I had been a Knight of Camelot I would have surely been titled Stephen The Dim and probably would have gotten a slow bleed couple of nicks on my shoulders at the Knighting ceremony from moving at just the wrong moment under the tapping sword). Seems maybe, in his estimation, a static shock of some type might have just knocked it out temporarily, or some sort of surge I just didn’t notice. Now I was on the phone for a total of 2 hours and 45 minutes (most of that on hold – though WHUD’s Andy Bale, noting my expertise at such, called me an “on hold camel” so I was ok) but with an hour of that talking to Vivek in India. Not only did he check my PC’s vitals remotely, he also patiently sat with me while he insisted on updating any system or driver that could be updated in order to assure my PC was at as peak a peak as it was going to currently be.
Was it worth all that time? Yes, because, though it’s only been just short of three months, I have a lot of new stuff on this bad boy and it was a big expense for me as well. And there’s no time lost now in the mailing and waiting for the return which, these days, is even longer.
But it was also worth it because in that time I unexpectedly got to know some about a complete stranger thousands of miles away who wasn’t just helpful, but wanted to be so. Who was simply a nice and thoughtful guy. Could use more of those. Were there some initial difficulties in understanding him through the accent and the slightly differing English? Yes, but funny, kinda how you eventually forget the subtitles in something foreign you may be watching, these difficulties soon dissipated.
I got to know a little about his family while we waited out the updates, the city he lived in, how he’s working from home like so many of us, how he goes out as little as possible thinking of his wife and children but, when necessary, searches for the lowest of volume times to shop, like so many of us, we talked of sacred cows and how they roam the streets and how, once you get outside of busy urbans, every family has one as part of it’s household. What are the odds that when I get a tech support guy in India who logs into my PC remotely that the first thing he sees is this picture which is my desktop wallpaper (a one of some of the gang here at the ‘stead’) and would inspire that last bit of cow centered conversation? I said ummmm “some American cows have a sense of humor?”
We talked of the shared fear of the time we live in and how we worry for our families and ourselves. Equal fears from opposite sides of the world and added fears for some of the extreme responses, most of them stateside here, a lot just plain stupid, but some proven to be dangerous and deadly, that have come from it. I told him the silly sounding history of my name, at least from when I was 7 and a wimpy easily frightened pink Frankenstein cartoon character appeared on a cereal box. Strawberry flavored. He got a good laugh out of that.
Updates updated and we talked.
Eventually everything was set and, at least for now, things seem to be working again which is a huge relief. But, if I’m going to spend all that time on the phone to get to this “eventually everything was set” and come to this feeling of relief at least a great portion of it was time well spent doing a bit of expanding of my world, even amid fear, though maybe, just maybe, the fear was lessened a bit.
Thanks for the assist but, more importantly, nice to meet ya Vivek.
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