Sometimes you want something new – not need but want. In fact you may want it so much that you convince yourself that you need it. And then when you get it you think, “What in hell did I do that for?”. Remember the song Did You Ever Have To make Up Your Mind by the Lovin Spoonful? The 1st refrain goes:
“Did you ever have to make up your mind
Pick up on one and leave the other behind
It’s not often easy and not often kind
Did you ever have to make up your mind”
About 5 years ago I got a Dell laptop computer. It was, at the time, a fairly high end machine. It has served us very well. It has been on many trips. Literally from one end of this country to the other and many points in between. It has had a new screen installed, the hard drive partitioned, a new battery a few years ago and Linux installed. It has shown movies and played lots of music. It has helped me develop and put on a number of training courses. It is however quite heavy and dragging it through airports is always a challenge.
Last year when we were in BC I had a chance to see an Asus Eee PC 7″ netbook. It was tiny and weighs lass than 1 kg. It was a little sweetheart and to make it more attractive it came with a Linux OS. Hugh actually bought us one and we had it for two days before we decided that it was too small and we returned it.Since then I have wanted a new laptop. A smaller, newer, faster model that weighs a lot less. In fact I convinced myself that I needed one. So, I started dropping hints, not subtle ones either.”Val look at this”. Val when we get to SSM today I want to stop at Staples.” “Val did you see the deal in that email from Tigerdirect.” You get the picture. Then it was “Hugh do you think if I get a computer with X it will do A, B and C?” And on and on and on. About 3 weeks ago I went so far as to take Val into a store and point to the perfect mix of size, speed and cool. We came close but decided to go home and do our income tax. In the process we had the discussion about we don’t need it, we really have other priorities and besides the old one works just fine. Well that’s settled, right? Like heck it is. it just meant that we didn’t talk about it any more but I was still checking the Dell website every other day or so and keeping track of the deals. Then last Saturday morning my sister called with the news that my brother and her and I were going to share in some unexpected largess that came our way. When I got off the phone Val looked at me and said, “well there is your new laptop.” Sunday we made a trip into SSM and bought it. Tuesday we picked it up. What a little sweety, a 13.3″ screen, lots of power and speed and it weighs just a bit over 2 kg. A big difference from the old machine. It took off flying right straight out of the box. Val loves it and so do I. It comes into the living room with us and thanks to our wireless router and a built in wireless card in the new machine logging on is a snap. But and here comes the but I can not bring myself to pack up the old one. It is slower and heavier but it is still very functional (even if I would be laughed at if I tried to sell it for more than $2.00). I even found myself turning it on and using it yesterday afternoon. Oh the guilt.This sense of guilt that you don’t deserve a new whatever or that you really should use that money for something else is such a pain. It can get in the way of enjoyment. Anyway, I have it, I think that it is great, I’m going to keep it. I just have to decide what to do with the other one. So there.
