A slight variation from the squeaky "new toy!" posts

Been reading on the flist about people with new gadgets and gizmos. Yay friends!

Here's the variation: my birthday present. No, not a ring of power. It's a new, latest-generation laptop to succeed (never replace) my current workhorse, Cortana, which has served me well for just about its entire operating life, but is now showing the effects of age, travel, and heavy use.

The new laptop arrived the 14th of this month.

At my old address in New York City.

(They wouldn't ship it overseas.)

So as I type on Cortana, which serves me well but sometimes doesn't want to acknowledge that I've pushed its "on" button, and has a tendency to overheat and slow down at times, my new laptop sits in a box in an apartment in New York City, watched over by my family, waiting to be opened.

And it'll probably continue to sit there until at least April.

Time to go to work.

Tech support? I'd get better support from a shovelful of sand.

One of the side effects of working from a backup on my desktop computer is that I have to go through the Microsoft activation procedures all over again. Now, the first thing they say is to connect to the Internet. *looking around* No phone line, so that ain't happening.

Second thing they say is to call Microsoft. *looking around* See above re: no phone line. *checking belt* Oh, wait. Cell phone.

*dialing toll free number*

*recorded message says no such number*

*computer says to call England*

Er, ain't happening. On the other hand ... I can use Skype, and not get charged for it, since they give a toll-free number in the U S of A.

*schlepping laptop over to Starbucks*

*calling Microsoft*

*autodial computer can't hear my voice and instead of telling me to push a button, bounces me to a tech support person who's probably camped out in Calcutta*

*after much difficulty, tech support person gives me an activation confirmation number*

Me: OK, I want to read that back to you to be sure I've got it right. I'm not at the computer, so I need to be sure I wrote it down right.

TSG: Go ahead.

Me: *reads off number*

TSG: That's right. Now click OK.

Me: I'm not at that computer. *sound of Skype disconnecting* Hello? HELLO?