Whew. My Dell desktop computer died last night.

–I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all ––

I was just surfing around, McAfee antivirus supposedly working, when the system started running funny. Does it all the time. I rebooted, as I have a thousand times. Nuthin. No computer anymore. System 32 is corrupt or missing – major component of Windows. Wouldn’t start in safe mode or even find the BIOS.

Thanks to my brother Joe and the ancient minor miracle of long distance telephone, I’ve reinstalled Windows XP. Joe had the poop on how to do it – which is good because the instructions on the Microsoft Web site are nothing less colorful than complete bullshit. I now have a totally new OS, and of course everything on the computer is gone.

Thanks to me being one of those annoying people who just can’t live in the moment, most of it was backed up. Not all, but most. So if I see you downtown and seem oblivious, it’s not my fault. Data not found. So it goes.

Oh, and by the way, does anyone find it strange that a computer’s spellcheck doesn’t recognize the term BIOS?