Day 174

I went to Elliott's today to look for an obscure brand of concealed hinge to repair the doors on some built-in cabinets in the house. Home Depot and Lowes are fine for light bulbs, paint and garden tools, but if you're looking for something odd, Elliott's Hardware is still the only place in town where you even have a chance of finding it. I took one of the old hinges with me and started looking through the bins for something similar. At first I couldn't find anything, but then I noticed a hinge that looked almost identical. My original hinge had a brand name engraved on one side and said "made in Italy." The new hinge was exactly the same size, but had no markings whatsoever. I looked again and saw some very tiny letters that said "made in China." I know the Chinese make almost everything now, but why would they copy this strange Italian hinge that almost nobody uses anymore?  Probably everything in the hardware store is made in China now. I'm glad that somebody copied the hinge however. If I had to depend on the Italians to keep this obscure design alive, I probably would have been out of luck.

When I got back to the office, I got a call from the computer repair shop. They said the computer I brought in last week needed a new power supply. I suspected that this was the problem. What I didn't expect was the price they quoted me for the repair. When I asked why the price was so high, the technician said that the power supply cost $400. I've burned out several power supplies before and never paid more than $250 for a replacement. When I mentioned this to the tech, he said the lower price was for a refurbished power supply and that he only recommended using a brand new one. I distinctly remember the last time I had a bad power supply, the technician told me that on a computer this old, virtually all the repair parts were refurbished anyway.  It's hard to tell who's telling you the truth these days. Many times the lies sound a lot more plausible than the truth. I'll probably never know the true story on this one. Repair people have you over a barrel. If you want your machine back, you usually end up paying whatever they're asking.

I got an e-mail from a friend today apologizing for not answering a message that I'd sent him. He actually did reply though....over six months ago. I was pleased to receive this misplaced apology. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one with a terrible memory.

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