End of an era… sort of

I think I wrote before about my old desktop PC and how cranky she is. I named her Veronica, long ago. She has gotten me through ten years of graduate school papers, internet forays, picture saving and computer games. She runs on Windows Millennium, so I never had to worry about computer viruses – apparently Millennium wasn’t around long enough for hackers to write viruses for it.

What was once a shiny, futuristic blue and white desktop computer has slowly turned dark and dingy and archaic, but I still held on to her, for financial reasons. Once I got my new laptop, I continued holding on to Veronica, for nostalgia. I told myself that I needed her to print resumes, even after I’d copied all of my pictures and music and personal files onto my new, as-yet-unnamed laptop.

Oh wait, he just told me his name is Tito.

Last week, I learned that we’ll have a new house guest, for an undetermined amount of time, and that the computer room will be turned into a guest room for her. The computer stuff that we need will be transferred to a corner of the family room. It no longer makes sense to have Shon’s computer and my computer and our two laptops. One desktop PC to print from will be more than sufficient.

It has been strangely bittersweet to delete my files off of Veronica. When I get around to moving Shon’s computer upstairs, I’ll post an ad on Craigslist for my old computer, $20 or best offer. I figure that someone might want her for word processing or for checking their e-mail – basic stuff that Veronica can handle.

With the bittersweets, I also feel a bit of a thrill. I am not really a pack rat, but sometimes I do hold onto possessions that have outlived their usefulness. Obviously I like to anthropomorphize certain things I own, which doesn’t help with the letting go (seriously, sometimes I feel bad for the clothing and shoes that I rarely wear). To let go of something I spent quite a lot of money on, something that held onto so many memories for me… it’s quite freeing, if sad.

Anyway.

Tomorrow I get up quite early for a civil service exam, and then I drive down to Familyland for Kailyne’s second birthday party. Tonight is going to be a pretty early night for me. I have added some Bacardi Gold to my cherry coke, and I’m raising my glass to Veronica, the most dependable computer I’ve had so far.

Sorry, Tito, but you have pretty big shoes to fill.