Recap of Monday morning . . .

DAVE: Do you ever use a shoe horn?

JIM: I used to have one when I was young. Don't know what ever happened to it. I would say that I have never used a shoe horn since I left home to go to college. Why do you ask?

DAVE: Like you, I never really took to shoe horns, except maybe when I was a young man and I had to cram my feet into dress shoes every Friday night for dance class. But generally, I haven't had a need for one. I bought a new pair of shoes recently that fit nice and properly, and I need a little help getting my heels into the things. I knew that I had one somewhere in my place that I had been carrying with me for years. I looked around and finally found it. It really does help me get my new shoes on. I suppose, like other shoes before it, there will come a day when I start slamming my feet into the shoes without the assistance of the shoe horn, but for now, I need it.

JIM: So since probably about last Wednesday, my work computer has been making this loud, high-pitched squealing noise, and performance has been really slow. I mean, REALLY slow. So I called our Help Desk last week and the guy on the phone told me to blow canned air into the vents on the computer. Nice. How do I get that job?

Anyway, now my computer has pretty much ceased to function at all. I just now was finally able to get it to boot up, after nearly an hour and a half. I called our Help Desk again and the guy I spoke to this time said that they had me down to get a new one, but that they hadn't gotten to it yet. It's possible that they might be able to get me a new one by tomorrow, but he didn't know because "the depot is really backed up," whatever that means.

100% of my work is spent sitting at my desk staring at my computer screen. If I don't have a functional computer, then I can't get any work done.

DAVE: Fifteen minutes ago, I was just reading an email response that I got from the Pirates guy at the PG when my laptop started making a clicking sound, then a blue screen, then I just shut it down. I just got it back up and running. My laptop is in desperate need of replacement, but I really don't have the money right now. So, yes, having no computer at work for you definitely sucks. But if I don't have my laptop at home, then I got pretty much nothing.