Tech-savy daughter trumps woes

By Ron Dupuis

Have you ever had one of those weeks where everything that is expensive to replace or repair breaks down? The Dupuis household has not been a very happy place for the last few days and the cause, in my humble opinion, is that some time in the past I upset the deity of modern mechanical wonders and he is attacking me with a vengeance that only my cardiologist and pharmacist can appreciate.

I had just written a check to my daughters’ orthodontist for what surely must be the first year’s college tuition for his offspring. Needless to say my mood was somewhat somber when I answered the phone. My wife has a cell that only relays what information it wants so we have learned to speak in short informative laden code.
“Blowout, all o.k., repaired, $212, heading home”, click.
Great! That cost and the price of a sorely needed new cell phone for my wife would bring the total to about $300. I decided to ingest two “happy pills” so graciously prescribed for such situations by my doctor.

Two days later I found myself in the basement trying to resolve the mystery of cold water showers. After a cursory glance at all the electrical connections and gauges, and having no knowledge what so ever of hot water heaters, I determined it would be best to make an appointment with a plumber. Notice I said “make an appointment.” You don’t just call a plumber; you “make an appointment” as if he were a lawyer or doctor. Better still, an orthodontist. When paying the final plumbing bill, I was not surprised to learn that he had a son who attended the same Ivy League collage as the offspring of my daughter’s aforementioned orthodontist.
Go figure!!

The final piece de resistance.

The rest of the week was spent fiddling with a spare refrigerator that refused to keep anything cold, tinkering with a cd player that decided to no longer play music, and probing a lawn tractor that emitted so much smoke that the neighbors thought I was spraying for mosquitoes.
A few “happy pills” later and I was ready to sit at my computer in order to catch up on some research and write my column. Unfortunately the Gods of modern mechanical wonders had a different plan.
Computers are a marvelous invention. They take us places we have never been, teach us things we never would have dreamed of learning, and allow us to expand our universe in such a way as to give us the tools to achieve goals far beyond our wildest imagination. That is, computers owned and operated by any one other than me.

“Casey” I hollered.
“Casey” I shouted again. “My computer won’t turn on.”
“Do you mean it won’t boot up” she asked?
“Yes, that’s what I mean” I said meekly.
“Be right there Dad” my thirteen year old responded. “As soon as I finish fixing this cd player.”
After a few queries as to what happened prior to the malfunction and a few seconds of dancing fingers across the keyboard she was ready for the prognosis.
“Well it seems not to be a backlight failure, and if it was just the TFT’s we would be seeing something.” “I’m pretty sure the on board processor is unable to parse the RGB correctly.”
“Speak English please” I moaned.
“Your monitor is broken” was the response.
“Please don’t say that. I have things to do. Hillary is introducing her new health care plan today. The Fed is adjusting interest rates. “What will happen if I don’t get to read Drudge before noon?”
“Or check out the Red Sox home page” she interjected.
“Don’t be fresh.” “I need my computer, and I need it now” I whined.
Telling me that this may be a good time to take one of my happy pills my daughter slipped into the basement only to return in less that a minute with an old computer monitor of a bygone era..
She declared “This will work” and within a couple of minutes I was back in business.

The Gods are no longer harassing me. Hillary’s health care plan is a bomb, interest rates are coming down, and Drudge is running is running an expose on fund raising. Coupled with the Red Sox starting to win again and me having the most wonderful, understanding, talented, loving daughter in the entire world, I can truly say that life is good again.

Ron Dupuis is a long time New Hampshire resident, a former State Representative, and a freelance writer. His e-mail is drcdupuis@comcast.net and his blog where you can view other writings may be found at www.imho-nh.blogspot.com