At 9:00 on Wednesday I banged on street level door of Agostino’s apartment above Mojo Cycles, six times every thirty seconds for a minute and a half. It seems the third time was one too many, as when he emerged he said, “Give me a chance to get down the stairs!” Live and learn. Since my flat tire was the second one in three days and he had mentioned before that my tire was due for a change soon, I bought a new one. I took my bike home and then headed to Mobil Computers. Tony shook his head as I walked in and told me that my computer is dead and that the problem is the motherboard. He suggested that I take it back to the place where I bought it. He didn’t think that the warranty would still be active on a used computer, but he said maybe I could convince them to do me a favour. I still had fifteen minutes before I had to leave for school, so I dug in my drawer full of business paperwork and found the receipt for the computer. I’d thought I’d bought the machine in November, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a 90-day warranty on my purchase and that I’d bought it on December 10, so I still had ten days left on my warranty. I’m usually half an hour early for class, so I decided that I had time to take the PC to Fortune Computers, since I actually pass the place on my route to school. I slipped it into two oversize cloth grocery bags from No Frills, hung the handles over my right handlebar and drove very carefully till I got there. They wouldn’t start it up when I brought it in because it was too cold, so I left it there and went to French class. When I came back three hours later the technician still hadn’t gotten to my machine yet, but in watching him do his work, I could tell my system was in good hands. He handled everything with care and when I heard him tell me to give him an hour, his accent, perhaps German, also gave credence to him having a craftsman’s work ethic. I decided that since I had an hour to kill, had a cold and was near Chinatown, that I might as well treat myself to some soup. I found a place with the awkward sounding name of: “Chinese Northern Flavour Restaurant”. Don’t these people have friends who speak English and who also have a literary aesthetic? Since this day was the beginning of my annual vegetarian diet until Easter I was looking for something with no meat. I saw something on the menu called “spicy noodle soup”, and asked the waitress if it was vegetarian. She shook her head and said “No, Spanish.” I always get Spain mixed up with its eastern neighbour of Vegetaria. I asked her again if it was vegetarian and this time she nodded. I don’t know what she thought I was asking the first time or what she was talking about but I could also tell that there would be just more confusion if I tried to find out. The soup arrived, bubbling violently in an iron casserole dish. It was so hot that it was almost impossible to eat for the first few minutes. It was very spicy, but the spices were unlike anything I’ve ever had before in Chinese food. It was almost as if every plant ever associated with the word “spicy” had been thrown in there. It was more interesting than delicious, but it certainly opened up my sinuses. After the noodles were gone I picked up a spoon to slurp the liquid part of the soup, but I don’t think that this part was supposed to be eaten. There were twiggy bits that I had to pull out of my mouth, grit that I think might have come from poorly washed spinach and even tiny bits of charcoal that maybe just came from the pot not having been properly cleaned. I would go back there though, if only just to find out what other crazy dish they have to offer. I went to Kensington Market and got some Montreal style bagels, and then I went back to Fortune Computers. The technician, whose name is Cesar, said he had no idea what was wrong with my computer. I told him that Tony said it was the motherboard. He scoffed and said that everybody says it’s the motherboard when they don’t know what’s really wrong. He decided to put my hard drive into another computer of the exact same model, ran a few tests, and within a few minutes a monitor showed my background image as it appeared on my other system. He read the sign I’d made out loud, “Paranoiac Utopia!” and said “Very nice!” On my way out with the new system I asked if they wanted to see my receipt, but the manager said, “Naw, it’s okay.” I think I only bumped the computer against the side of my bike twice on the way home. I waited for it to warm up before I turned it on and then it was as if nothing had happened. The transition from one machine to another was seamless, as everything was exactly as it had been on the system that broke, except that the new one doesn’t have cat hairs accumulated in the front grill. So far, as well, I haven’t noticed that glitch that happened before with the cursor flying away when the computer is tired. We’ll see.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 21:49:07 +0000
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