Stoopid Technology

Reto and I are fairly addicted to our laptops. A few weeks ago he found that his was dead. We were both distraught, he because he had no computer, me because it meant I had to share mine with him.

Reto toyed with the idea of not getting a replacement computer, but fortunately not for very long, and so a replacement laptop was ordered online. The initial information he had was that it should be delivered within 10 working days. Reto was elated. Soon after that he got an email saying it would be delivered on the 16th of April (almost a month away at the time). Reto was forlorn. He read and reread the email for days, whining that it couldn't possibly take that long to put his computer together and send it over. He then got a new email saying the computer was to be delivered on the 31st of March. He was elated again.

This morning Reto woke up at the crack of dawn* and spent basically the entire day sitting on the couch staring eagerly out the window like some sort of puppy dog who desperately wants to chase the postman. Every time he heard the sound of a car driving past his attention left whatever he was doing (eating, reading, having a conversation) and he stared enthusiastically out the window. He didn't have a shower and he refused to leave the house because he didn't want to miss the computer (in spite of the fact that 3 other people were home at the time and would have ben more than capable of collecting it from the delivery dude).

Happily the computer arrived in the end. The courier person showed up at about 5.30pm, just as Reto was beginning to contemplate the terrible possibility that his computer might not arrive until tomorrow. Poor Reto. It's the happiest I have seen him in ages. I now expect not to have a conversation with him for days as he ponces around with the settings and ... well, whatever it is that he is so interested in.


* relative to the time he normally wakes up, anyway