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A strange day

February 29th, 2020 at 10:45 pm

Today has been an atypical day, filled with a number of unexpected events.

Dell Technical Support
This morning I tried calling Dell technical support as I was having issues printing from my new computer. The first person was on with me for 45 minutes, after which she told me since I was having a software issue, not a hardware issue, she'd have to transfer me, and the next person told me since my warranty doesn't cover software, i'd have to pay $239 to upgrade my warranty!! if I wanted to have them help me fix just this specific problem, that would still cost me $129.

I declined either offer and told them I'd just go on social media and tell everyone what I thought of Dell technical support, after which they offered to "escalate" the issue and have someone else call me back at a later time, presumably at no cost to me.

So we'll see what happens with that. I was pretty irate, having spent over $900 on a Dell computer, to have them telling me this.

Scrapping old computers
After that, I got really tired tripping over the components of my old computer, which was sitting unassembled on the floor. I had hoped to make a few bucks selling it but had no takers, and I know there are hundreds of other people trying to do the same thing. Both my computer and my mother's computer, which had been taking up space in a spare closet for 4 years now, worked fine but are functionally obsolete.

Microsoft, as you may know, no longer supports Windows 7, which I am told leaves it vulnerable to hackers, so that pushed me to upgrade my computer, which was really not that old. I think I got it in 2013.

With some difficulty, I took the tower of both computers apart and removed the hard drive, then smashed both hard drives with a hammer to destroy them.

I had considered keeping my mother's old hard drive and transferring all the data, but I'm not really sure what the point was. There is nothing I have missed these past 4 years, and reading her documents or viewing her images would just be a painful and emotional process.

I brought all of it to my town's transfer station today before they closed.

My friend and neighbor invited me to walk with her and her dog, so I worked out my frustrations with her as we walked.

Neighbor's marriage woes
Later this afternoon, another neighbor unexpectedly stopped by and confided in me his marriage has gone south. I had always thought of theirs as a great marriage. I was really surprised. So we talked over tea for quite a while. He has contemplated an affair. She won't see a therapist (doesn't even want to talk about it) , and they can't afford to divorce.

Now, as dusk descends, I am back to my own devices, considering myself lucky that I am not dealing with a late-in-life marriage crisis.

I filed my tax returns a few weeks ago and got my federal refund of about $1100 in my checking recently.

The stock market tumble
I'm worried about the stock market as I lost quite a bit on paper, even though I had only 50% invested in equities. All the more reason to get an immediate annuity for about $150K in 5 years to ensure regular monthly income that will cover most of my ongoing expenses and remove that money from stock market exposure. So I wouldn't have to lose sleep over future stock market fluctuations. It's a little too early to have done this now, as I would get a lower monthly income because of my younger age. Actuarially, waiting 5 more years is a better strategy.

The rest of the weekend will be devoted to cleaning the house, cooking, chillin' and reading.

2 Responses to “A strange day”

  1. Turtle Lover Says:
    1583073373

    It is good to hear from you :-)

  2. rob62521 Says:
    1583101091

    Hopefully Dell will come through. It's sad that you have to get so upset and frustrated and threaten them to even get them to consider helping you. Customer support my aunt fanny.

    Yeah, we have been watching the market big time too. So many different things going on and so many reasons. Hopefully it will go up. Hopefully those folks who invest in our retirement accounts and mutual funds are starting to buy low.

    Good job on scrapping the old computers and taking them recycling.

    Glad to hear from you!

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