For my IT friends......

I'm sure anyone who has, or has ever held, a position in an IT department....or anyone that has ever had computer issues requiring the help of your friendly IT person will feel for me on this one.

First, a little background story.

About 4 months ago, our PC at home took a dive. Blue screen of death, the works. In a last-ditch effort to resurrect it, my IT guy said I should bring it in for him to look at. (He's such a sweety, but I think he's a masochist. I mean, not only does he deal with the issues pertaining to our office every day, he's also always telling people to bring in their personal computers if they have issues. He truly enjoys helping out.)

Mot brought ours in soon after.....took it downstairs to the "IT lair"....and came back up with it minutes later.

I was thinking to myself "well, that can't be good...that was way to fast."

Nope, when they plugged it in, it worked fine. Go friggin' figure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Never fails. If you have a computer issue, you call the IT guy...and it stops doing it when he (or she) arrives. Everything works normally. He stands there, with that smile on his face, you know the one. The "why did they call me here, everything is fine, if people would just wait a few seconds and try again, it will work...why can't they figure this out themselves" look.

(sigh)

Do they teach this in IT person school? Do you have to show your new employer "the look" as part of the hiring process???

So, back to why I'm telling you this story in the first place.

I turned on my laptop this morning, to download some pics I took last night....and when the log on to Vista screen comes up....it automatically fills with characters. And when I try to delete them, to type in my password...it fills back up with characters.

I turn the darn thing off...because that's just not normal.

When I turn it back on a few minutes later....it goes to a black screen, flashing cursor....and starts SQUEALING as loud as the little speakers can handle.

Like "ear splitting, holy hell, shut it off, make it stop, oh the insanity" loud.

I turned off. Again, that's just not normal.

I wait a few minutes, turn it on. No dice, still sounds like Emergency Broadcast System tones - but 10 million times more annoying.

OK....this is ridiculous.

Out loud, I say to my computer, "Fine...if you want to play that game, I'll take you in to see Paul. I have pictures on you that haven't been backed up, and if I lose them because you're having a bad day, I'm going to scream."

(Yes, I talk to inanimate objects sometimes. If anything, it makes me feel better.)

I grab my laptop bag, and start loading up the power cord....and think (out loud) "OK, I'll give you one more chance."

I turned it on, stuck my fingers in my ears and waited.

It worked fine. No issues.

What have I learned from this?

There was probably a stuck shift key or something?

NO!!! That would make sense. I prefer to go with the "crazy lady who threatens her computer" theory.

My laptop hasn't even met my IT guy. I bet the PC upstairs and my laptop have been talking while I'm not around. :-)