A New Computer

My husband Larry is co-chair of the local Communities In Schools http://www.whatcomcounty.ciswa.org/ for Whatcom County. On Saturday March 21st, CIS held their Inaugural Friend and Fund Raiser for Education with an auction and Improv performance by local high school students. The event was held at The Leopold Hotel in the Crystal Ballroom.

The Leopold Hotel in Bellingham Washington was built in 1899 and was originally called The Byron Hotel. Leopold Schmidt was a brew master who established the Bellingham Bay Brewery and bought the hotel in 1910. The hotel was then named after him upon his death. The Leopold Hotel is on both the National and Local Historic Registry and is presently used for retirement apartments. During the 1940’s the hotel was a getaway for famous movie stars to relax in style.

There were a large number of auction items up for bid but I had my heart set on winning a new computer that co-chair Mark Knittel was donating from his business, Data Doctors in Bellingham. I was the successful the bidder and on Tuesday March 31st Larry and I met Mark for lunch at Busara, a Thai restaurant in Sehome Village and we talked about what I had on my current computer, what I needed to have on a new computer, and what I wanted to have on my new computer.

I want a speedy computer. I want to be able to have multiple web pages open, several photo programs open for editing my art, and word documents if I am writing poems or articles. Mark made several suggestions for operating systems, browsers, security software and computer back up recovery systems.

The pieces and parts have been ordered and Mark gave me the option of helping build my own computer when everything arrives next week. I know my limitations! I can use bits and pieces of almost anything to create art in my studio and I can use the more basic photo editing programs to help create my art, but much more than turning my computer on and I am lost. I decided that talking with Mark about what I wanted for a new computer was as close as I wanted to be in building it. I do want my computer to work when it’s built, so I will leave the technical details to the experts. I will bring Mark my old computer drive, my back up drive, and software; then they can synchronize, combine, merge, and mingle everything into one brand new, speedy, zip and zoom computer and then I can bring it home play.

Days! Just a few more days and I can kiss this noisy, slow computer good-bye.