Moving Day

When I told my buddy Rob I was going to get married ten years ago he bought us a Sony Vaio PC as a wedding present. Super nice.

The PC didn't come with a monitor, so he also gave me an old one of his. It was a Sony Trinitron, and in its time it was cutting-edge: 20'' of clear blue Internet surfing.  The monitor was a tank, and I think it weighed 75 pounds or more  - no lie.

When I first introduced Charlotte to Starfall Camp: http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/index/load.htm?f, (feel free to click around) she would sit on my lap and bang on the screen to see what the next letter would do to entertain her (I do not endorse anything, but Starfall Camp still rocks Char's world).  No matter how hard she slapped the screen, there was NO chance that she would hurt the monitor. She could bang on it all day long like Dustin Hoffman in the end of "The Graduate".  "Elainnnnnnne!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahFARm2j38c

Last Christmas, when we opened gifts at my mother-in-law's house, my brother-in-law received a new computer and all the trimmings. When the three of us were later driving home I mentioned I was glad I still had our old Sony monitor because Char could kill those new thin screen ones with just a flick of her wrist, and Daphne made a face.

I found out why the next day when we exchanged gifts. Daph had bought me the exact same monitor as my brother-in-law had received.  She then apologized and insisted I take it back so I could get something I really wanted.

I felt like an ass.

Two months later the old monitor began to fail, and I felt even worse about opening my mouth. Here I had this great wide screen monitor to use, and I returned it so I could keep staring at a screen that was progressively looking more like a trapezoid.

Not only did I feel like an ass, I was also getting headaches.

A few day ago I took a chance on a used monitor I found at Goodwill, and once I got it working I took advantage of Gw's free computer recycling program. I gave them the old monitor. Here it is before I put it in the car. I put an empty gallon milk container next to it so you can judge its size.

Here's my "new" monitor. It's not nearly as nice as the one Daphne purchased, but I still feel like I just made my room 10 feet bigger.