There Is Too Much, Let Me Sum Up

It's been a busy fair few months, I do apologize.

I've been doing OK, for the most part, albeit with more than a few challenges.  I was able to get my strictured urethra repaired, with a few complications.  I spent 8 days in the hospital with the charmingly-named "cellulitis of the groin" kicking me in the squishy bits regularly.  That's been the major malfunction I've had to deal with, although there's also been another death of sorts in the family...

That one's a bit more and less painful in some ways.  Back sixteen years ago, now, I had to replace one of my computers.  More correctly, I had to replace "my computer".  I went to Bloomington and visited a store named "The Box Shop".  This wasn't a chain, just a small store that used to be a bakery or candy shop or something most likely food related that a fellow had leased and filled with bits and pieces of computers.  

I'm sure he had some sort of relationship with a few large, local employers, and he acquired their aging technology, refurbished it, and sold it to other folks.  I picked up a Dell computer with four gigs of RAM and a 250 GB Hard drive, and turned it into the core server around here.  It has eight external hard drives hanging off it, and saw me through quite a few events.  

And of course, the Box Shop and several other "retired technology" shops I used to rely on went the way of the dodo back during the pandemic, so I'm stuck looking at a few on-line retailers for a less-than-new computer to keep things going.  I don't NEED a rocket, mostly because I can't really justify one, but I'm definitely not going to find a $40 used computer to put in the back seat and bring home.  The "fix your technology" shops that used to exist aren't there any more, yet another sign of our increasingly disposable economy, but it is what it is.  I don't see it as progress, honestly, but at least I learned from previous experience, and I've got multiple backup copies on many of those drives downstairs.  I just need something with USB ports to plug them in and just run.  

I have been looking at Office Depot and New Egg at their refurbished systems, and I can, for anywhere from $110 to $600, get a new-to-me system to do what I need done.  The question, for me, is how long I'm willing to wait.  I could probably scrape out the $110 for a small-form-factor Dell to sit on the shelf and serve up the music, pictures, and other files  have down there.  Or I could save a little longer and go with what New Egg is calling a refurbished desktop gaming system.  I don't play many games on the computer, primarily because I've never had the hardware to pull it off.  All the way back in 1990, I had an Amiga 500, and that computer was the only one I ever owned that did have the ability to run a rudimentary flight simulator, which was kind of fun.  I also had systems that could run my other two favorite PC games - Sim City and Populous - wyhic had much lower hardware requirements. 

I dropped SimCity back about version 4 due to an increased hardware requiement, something to do with a better graphics card that I did not have at the time, and I'm not sure these days if it's still being made for "modern" computers.  I probably spent a fair few hours playing it, but I enjoyed it.  

Other than that, work continues to go well.  I'm busy, my employer is happy with me, and I'm chugging away.  The dogs are good, as are the wife and kids, and car, and pretty much everything else.  Now I just need to go back to sleep so I can be functional today - now that the thunderstorm and half-full bladder are both resolved, I think I'll just sit back in this recliner and go back to sleep.  I'm looking forward to this weekend where I expect once the PICC line has been removed from my right bicep and I'm done with the infusion of antibiotics, I'll be able to go back to my bedroom and sleep in my bed for the first time since June 10.  Getting old isn't for the week, I recall a number of my late Daynotes colleagues saying over the years, and yep, I do have to agree,  The rotation of painkillers and other medications I'm on remind me it's not the mileage, it's the wear and care...  As has been said elsewhere, had I known I was going to still be here, I probably would have taken better care of me.  Hopefully I have a few more years left.  Fingers crossed...