Gremlins in Attic

Rusty & Buddy

RUSTY:  Did Jan tell you about the gremlins in the attic?

BUDDY:  I hope you aren't trying to tell a joke.

RUSTY:  It's not a joke.  We had strange computer problems all last year.  Flashing monitor banners, two hard drive suicides, and since the original drive died, the computer has bouts of Alzheimers and sometimes tells Jan to reboot or pick a drive when there is only one drive on the computer and none listed on the notice.

BUDDY:  I do know the stress got to Jan.  Monday she came sooooo close to just shutting down and not touching the computer again until we held an exorcism.

RUSTY:  I know you're kidding about the exorcism, but she did almost shut us down. None of us has been able to do much of anything in a while. Sunday she checked to be sure it wasn't our UPS.

BUDDY:  UPS breaks monitors?  I thought they just deliver packages. 

RUSTY:  Not that UPS.  Our computer backup battery. 

BUDDY:  Oh, that's a relief.  The brown pants UPS delivers our Chewy review boxes.  

RUSTY:  Monday the monitor setup banner started flashing before Windows started to load.  That's when Jan said she'd had it, that there were gremlins in the attic, and she was shutting everything down!  Noooooo!

BUDDY:  I must have been napping then.  I do know that as of yesterday there is a new monitor on order. 

RUSTY:  And the banners are no longer flashing and blocking our screen. 

BUDDY:  Yes, I've been meaning to ask how that happened.

RUSTY:  Jan decided to see if there could possibly be another update to our old monitor drivers, so she sent Microsoft out to check the internet for one.  It said we're using the best driver for it and then stopped flashing.

BUDDY:  But if it has the same driver....? 

RUSTY:  Yes, it's weird.  Jan did remember when the backup drive was connected and died, it left a mess and Windows had to do a repair and set everything back to an earlier time in order to be able to start Windows. 

BUDDY:  So the monitor problem has been resolved?

RUSTY:  Yes, for now.   I hope the new monitor won't have any gremlins because Jan has been wanting to have this one for an emergency backup, and we're all a bit tired of emergencies around here.

BUDDY:  This is a new year.  Let's hope it's a good year.  No gremlins in the attic.  No emergencies.  Marcus will become a model roommate and - 

RUSTY:  You should have stopped at no emergencies. The only model Marcus will ever be is the poster boy for the Canine Youth Detention Center.