We just wrapped up the second week of my family’s January Eco-Challenge: The Compact and I’m happy to report that we are still new-stuff-free. Although we ran in to a couple of close calls this week.
For starters, my four-year-old computer came down with a virus. And not just any old virus, but I real whopper. I couldn’t get on the internet. I couldn’t open programs. And I certainly couldn’t open my expensive anti-virus software program (yeah, the one that should have prevented this virus from sneaking by.)
As I mentioned, my computer is already old, so the temptation was really high to just give up before I started and head to the store for a new one. The Compact crossed my mind. But let’s face it, when your computer is your livelihood, a borrowed computer just isn’t gonna cut it. And as I work every single day on my computer, posting goodies here and on my family blog over at MNN, I knew I couldn’t wait until this month’s Compact commitment was over.
But I did make a commitment, and I couldn’t just disregard that either. So I rolled up my sleeves and dug in for a long haul of unwinding this virus from my computer. After 6 hours of working on it on my own, I reached a point beyond my mediocre computer skills and headed to the home of a computer savvy friend to finish the job. The result? One whole workday was wasted, but my computer was saved, and it will (hopefully) continue to limp along with me for another few years.
Of course, no sooner did I get my computer humming again then I found out that our 6-month old television had gone kaput. Seriously. It was like an electronic uprising at my house! But I can live without a TV a lot easier than I can live without my computer. So I’m in no rush to beg, borrow, or steal a new boob tube. I’m still trying to figure out whether or not it’s under warranty. If it is, we’ll get it fixed. If not, we won’t. But we won’t replace it either. This new TV was a gift from family. And while it was a welcome gift, it was never something that we couldn’t live without. Instead, we just broke our 10-year-old 13 inch out of retirement and returned it to its place of honor in the living room.
So I’m 2 for 2 this week on my January challenge. But I can’t help feeling that there might be something else right around the corner. These things happen in threes, right?
