Today's issue is the laptop. Bear has an extremely elderly laptop that once upon a time belonged to father (who passed in 2015). It wasn't brilliant to start with, and time has taken its toll. Currently it will only charge if the thingy is physically held in place. My awesome, awesome brother is setting up another laptop for bear for his school work, and I will be doing an illicit exchange in Tesco carpark tonight.
It's probably okay, as it's a necessity for bear's school, and it will be in the open and we will be as appropriately distanced as possible, but it still feels like I'm smuggling weapons' blueprints out of Nazi Germany. I will be expecting wobbly searchlights at any moment.
Bear has an Xbox, which he can't use for school, and a PC which has been having issues for years but until awesome brother can get into the house, we can't do anything about that (something something space Windows ram something something). It won't run Word or any of the stuff he needs for school and limps through practically anything.
The laptop brother is kindly lending is even more elderly, but at least it will charge. Bear will be back in school soon, but I think we will still need to find him a better laptop. In three year's time he'll be in sixth form and I think he will need it then. If we get a decent one and nothing bad happens, it may last him until he goes to university (if he goes). The days of cheap refurbished laptops vanished when the lock down hit. So many people now need to work and study at home. I'll see what we can do, though. I'll have to be better at saving.
Speaking of (not) saving, I would like to recommend these.
I got an extra couple so that I can keep cycling them in the daily wash. They are 100% cotton and are scourers. I already have the microfibre cloths that have been going for years. These are a supplement for the tough stains. They rock. They get off burned on jar sauce, all the dark bits in a pan - everything. They're better than the magic sponge/eraser thingies and up there with steel wool but non scratch. And they wash.
Hugs and good health to all.
I'm another one that needs to be more organised. I seem to take two steps forward and one backwards - sometimes it's even the other way round! I'm glad Bear will be able to go back to school soon. The kids here in our school district have been out of school almost a year. Sigh. I am so glad all mine are grown!
ReplyDeleteI laughed at your car park rendezvous story.
ReplyDeleteI laughed at the vision of you sneaking around the car park to exchange computers like a spy. It is typical bad timing, isn't it? A friend of mine just got a new laptop for £250 because it was slightly out of date and didn't have so much computing power, then promptly upgraded it for a very modest sum and now hopes it will last for years. It was a company that temporarily went into administration and is selling off old stock - I'll ask him which one - but he's a computer whizz and was very pleased with his purchase as he'd expected to pay three times that for a comparable machine.
ReplyDeleteMind you, being a teenager bear probably wants one that he can play games on and do all sorts of fancy things and those seem to be very expensive. It's great to have someone in the family who can do upgrades for you though.
I've been using coconut fibre scrubbers recently - I say I, but actually it's my husband as he obligingly does most of the washing up since I do the cooking - and find the really effective. I bought some recycled fibre pads initially and they didn't meet his standards. He said gunk got caught in the weave and wouldn't wash out easily. I'll give these a try though, as they look different. One day we will be able to switch to eco washing up liquid when I've used my stash. I bought an auction lot of the stuff and we haven't had to buy any for 3 years! When I had lots of storage space I often shopped at auctions. In fact we are currently still using the hand sanitiser and latex gloves we bought 8 years ago. And people laughed when I bought a gross of the bottles... last laugh, and all that. All that really resonated with me was that I could get dozens for the price of 8 or 10 small bottles in the shops. But once I have used up all the stores that's it, I'm switching to eco everything, promise!