As a single mother, I learned very quickly how to do things for myself, and the kids, that I perhaps wouldn't normally have had to. Or wanted to.
Like mow the lawn. (Keep in mind, the boys were 4 & 8 back then. No lawn mowing yet).
Or hoist Christmas trees on the car roof, put lights on the house, and bail gallons of water out of my basement.
And of course all the 'manual' stuff that comes with each season lol.
Then, there's the other stuff.
The more mentally challenging stuff, that I have two options on how to tackle.
A) Send 'it' to a repair person, or B) Attempt to fix it myself.
Well ... of course I'll always try option B) first.
With the help of a little friend I like to call, YouTube.
My most recent triumph (until last night) was ... changing the headlight in my car.
When I bought the bulb, the Walmart automotive dude told me he would install it for $10.
I said, 'No thanks.', came home, watched this video and changed it MYSELF!
Sure, he's a bit monotone, and dry in presentation, but .... EFFECTIVE and got his point across!
It was EASY!
Maybe not a big deal to those of you who do this on a regular basis, but you know what? I was DAMN proud of myself once the mission was accomplished!
So much so, I even broke out the Tim the Tool-man grunt!
My latest challenge came last night.
Adam's laptop stopped working earlier this week.
Technology issues have to be one of my top ALL TIME biggest peeves, because NO, I DO NOT want to shell out $50 every time something goes wrong, and they simply reformat the hard drive.
No ....no .... NOOOOO!!!!!
But, the laptop had the dark screen of death.
Similar to the blue screen of death, but ... black.
The system would boot up, it SOUNDED like windows was loading, but the screen was totally black.
GREAT! Another $50 gone, and a reformatted hard drive on the way.
Not to mention a cranky child until he got his laptop back.
I've been sick all week. Didn't want to deal with it.
But, last night, I finally decided to take matters into my own hands, and sat down with my good friend Google.
Then we invited our other Bestie to the party ... YouTube.
It took me three different videos, many attempts to get the freakin' 'FN+ESC+Power' keystroke combination right, before the machine started beeping at me, and minimal cursing, but ...
I did it! I FIXED IT!!!!
I learned how to do a Flash BIOS, and got the laptop to start from the flash drive instead of the regular system BIOS, and .... it worked!!!!
Screen was BACK!
I pulled out the flash drive.
Still worked.
I pulled out the power cord.
Still worked!
I brought the, now working, laptop upstairs to Adam, handed it over and asked, 'WHO is DA BOMB?!?!??!'
Yes, there was much WooHooing and high-fiving!
I had a VERY happy, and I think, maybe even, somewhat IMPRESSED boy.
Then he asked the loaded question. 'What happens when I turn it off?'
'DON'T!', I said.
'Just ... not right away. I'm not sure what's going to happen when you shut it down, so just ... ENJOY it for tonight!'
He did.
Until it was time for bed and then he did what he does automatically every night.
Closed the laptop!
He gasped.
I gasped.
'I closed it!' he groaned.
'I know.', I replied softly.
Well ... no time like the present ...
'See what happens when you open it.', I said.
He held his breath.
I held mine.
He flipped up the laptop cover.
It booted up ....
Login window appeared.
BAM!
OH. YEAH. BABY!!!
So yes, I can say I fixed it.
And yes, Mama's flyin' the Geek Flag HIGH and PROUD today!!!!
Once again, not a big deal for all you OTHER geeks out there, who do this on a regular basis, but for me, yeah, another proud, 'I am MAMA! Hear me ROAR!' moment.
Now ... if I could just figure out how to fix my power steering ...
K.
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