More patience

I had a problem with my computer yesterday. It's my belief that computers are designed, marketed, and sold by Satan. I'm kidding, of course. Satan's a smart dude -- he has set up a shadowy series of off shore holding companies that keep him well insulated from any litigation. He finds it expedient to employ a large group of ghouls, vampires, sadists, and other monsters to handle the day to day operation of his empire. You don't really believe that there is a factory in Texas making Dell computers, do you?

My software decided that it would quit doing what it had always done and would begin doing something entirely different and totally unhelpful. I tried to fix the problem, to no avail. I tried to locate a way to simply contact someone to help me trouble shoot the difficulty. This did not appear to be humanly possible. There may be a way to get help for a software problem. I doubt it, but somewhere someone may be available. I get the feeling that there is one guy working at the Microsoft Help Desk and he's on long term disability for paranoid schizophrenia.

Frustrated to the point of tears, I decided to wait for my technologically savvy wife to get home. Then I fussed with the problem for another ten minutes. Now frustrated to the point of homicide, I figured it would be a great idea to work on a solution for another ten minutes. Finally, I decided to find a gun store and purchase a handgun so that I could empty a clip or two into the cursed machine. Processing power, my ass. Tell it to the Glock.

I decided to pause and take twenty five deep breaths before heading out. This worked. I realized that I could achieve the same result by simply tossing the PC out of a third story window onto a concrete driveway. Twenty five more breaths. Maybe I should just glare imperiously at the device for a while. I went with that.

My wife fixed the problem in two minutes.

"When we are tempted by the bait, we should train ourselves to step aback and think. For we can neither think nor act to good purpose until the habit of self-restraint has become automatic."