Have Friends, Will Experiment

Over Labor Day weekend, my best friend John came to visit, along with his two boys. Due to last year having travel restrictions, I haven't seen them in person since summer of 2019. In two years, children change quite a lot. It was fun seeing how the kids had grown and having an active house for a few days. John and I have not qualified as children for a few decades now, and some things never change.

On Saturday, the two of us were talking, watching the boys play, and just hanging out in the house. Mom was also talking with us and said she remembered when we were in high school and she would come home to find us grinning with computer parts strewn around my room. That reminded me that my parents found my old Toshiba laptop early last year and I kept it for just such an occasion.

Digging through my collection of outdated computers, we soon found the machine that I  received around 1991. At that time, it was very useful and I utilized it in the last years of grade and junior high school. Now, it is completely useless and unable to do anything modern technology does. I always wanted to see what was inside, and that's what we did.

It took some searching, but John kept finding screws hidden in various locations. Removing them slowly pealed the plastic case away from the electronics. After a few pops that sounded curious, we were soon inside. One of the first items removed from the interior was a long, thin, battery pack. Originally, it would have helped to turn the machine on. Now, corrosion had claimed the power cell, meaning the computer could not start if we wanted it to.

Through the next several minutes, John continued to take out screws and unplug wires until the kitchen counter was covered with what used to be cutting edge technology. The keyboard and screen would not yield to further destruction. However, John's oldest son quickly latched onto the bones of the computer. The screen worked well to prop his iPad and the keyboard functioned as a tool to help with typing practice. He didn't seem to mind that punching the keys had no results, it was fine for his imagined document.

Our previous computer escapades always resulted in an upgraded, functioning machine. This time, the parts went to the curb and the bones went home with a happy boy. Living the quad life often means few close friends, but I'm thankful for when we can get to be together and enjoy mutual destruction, I mean exploring.