I’ll just say it plainly – today sucked.
It started last night after the kids got home from Trick-or-Treat. I was reassembling my computer, which I had to take apart partially to hook the projector to my notebook. See, I was projecting a Halloween sign onto our garage door that told the kids to go up the street for candy. Perhaps I’ll explain that more later. In any case, I was reassembling things when I noticed that, unrelated to my reassembly, my center monitor’s backlight seemed to have blown out. This makes it exceptionally hard to log in.
It’s kind of a strange puzzle. The center monitor is the only one on DVI, and the side monitors are both VGA-only. This might have been fine if I had a DVI to VGA adapter, but there were none to be found. So, it was time to order a new monitor, and with me being off to take care of Riley while Nana was on vacation, I saw this as a perfect opportunity to visit Best Buy and get that upgrade I’ve been considering. But then, events seem to collude to conspire against me.
Around the time I was futzing with my monitors, Riley had actually asked to go to bed. This is a sign; the omen kind. After curling up under the blankets in his room voluntarily as early as 9pm (this doesn’t happen - ever) we took his temperature: 102.9 degrees.
Thankfully, a little Tylenol brought his fever down, but he was out for the count. A second dose to kill his fever this morning, and he was bouncing around like a well-rested Riley. He was ready for the day and didn’t seem any the worse for wear.
I’ll just say here that nothing terrible happens to Riley in this story, because it seems like that might be the direction it was headed. So if you were worried, fear not. No, the badness is for me today, one of those “boo-hoo, poor, poor Owen” stories that makes me oh so popular with the people who don’t have anything to whine about. As stupid as this sounds, if I got my arm cut off somehow, I’d probably whine less, simply because all of the crap that happened today is stuff that didn’t really have to happen, and isn’t of any real consequence, but is the kind of thing that messes with your head and has you start thinking about whether the depression is going to hit again this holiday season. But anyway, moving on…
So with Riley up and ready to go around 10am, we packed our gear and headed for Delaware, home of tax-free monitors. Actually, I had managed to order the new monitor from Best Buy after he went to bed, and it was just a matter of picking it up. While there, I grabbed a new VGA cable to replace the one that I left at the PHP Framework presentation along with the power cable for my projector (which I didn’t notice was missing until trying to hook up the thing for Halloween, and I didn’t think to replace today, darn it). Oh, the irony of all of this.
After lunch with Berta and a quick trip home, Riley was sitting on the couch while I poked at some email. Nothing good is coming of me not working today. I had to send out a couple emails. A couple I neede dto send out I couldn’t reply to without information from my headless desktop computer. Oh, but shouldn’t I have had a monitor by now?
First… As I said, Riley was watching TV. Suddenly he laid down and started looking lethargic. I felt his head. Sweltering 102.1. More Tylenol for the kid that acted like he was fine all day, even when the medicine should have worn off. I was really hoping it was just a weird overnight thing, but that was not to be.
Between making Riley comfortable, I tried to set up the new monitor. As it turns out, this monitor has every conceivable connection on it. Except DVI. Note that as I said above, the only connection that I need (read: “must have”) is DVI. Great. I consider my options and decide that a trip out to get a DVI to VGA converter should do the trick.
Abby came home while Riley lulled on the couch. She required supervision. I was anxious to get out to get my adapter. There were some games. There was some TV. I read more email, and didn’t like any of it.
I will insert here that there are work-related things in my email content that are driving me absolutely insane, not just at this point of the day, but throughout the day. I’m not going to mention them specifically here, but I’m almost hoping I’m still hot enough about them tomorrow to have something done about it, but not quite enough to just quit. Anyway.
Berta came home. I called Dave to see if he wanted to hitch a ride to Best Buy and dinner so I could pick up my pre-ordered cable. Done deal. Another trip to Delaware. A phenomenally lousy burger at Damon’s in Wilmington - ugh. If if was more salty or more overcooked, it would have been a charbroiled salt-lick. It hardly looked like beef. It was disgusting.
Back with my two new cables (yeah, buy two $30 cables just to avoid another trip to Delaware), I started plugging things in. DVI to HDMI? Failed. DVI to VGA? Cable. Too. Short.
Freaking out ensues.
I tucked in Abby, who was reading a book to Berta. Riley was already down, once again victim of whatever bit him. He’s going to be off tomorrow, and needing a doctor’s appointment because his ear is probably acting up again, hence the fever.
I should say that Riley was a perfect little boy today, and although after reading my email I considered how nice it might be to quit work and be a stay-at-home dad, I think I lack the constitution to pull it off. I would really go nuts. More than I did today. See my sanity meter? It broke when the mercury exploded out of the top.
Where was I?
Tucked in kids, headed back out to Target this time, because everything else is closed. Surely Target carries a simple 12-foot VGA cable? No. No, they don’t.
They do carry a DVI to HDMI adapter and a 12 foot HDMI cable. I think I must have been struck stupid at this point because I bought them both. Didn’t I already have a set of this that didn’t work? Well, whatever.
I returned home and started connecting things. HA! The new adapter doesn’t fit next to the other plugs on the back of my PC! Amazing, no?!
I started to plug and unplug random things. Finally, I get the new monitor to come online with the DVI to VGA adapter and a VGA cable plugged into the VGA switch, which gives me an extra foot or so of length. Oh and wasn’t the picture quality cruddy? It was blurry. Nobody said this would happen. This isn’t good. “Is it the monitor that’s crappy?” I asked myself, recalling the lousy display monitor I saw on the shelf with tons of burn-in and what looked like a weak signal, but just then realizing it was simply VGA. Oh, the humanity!
I took the switch out of the signal, and moved the PC half out of the cabinet, wires strewn all over the floor. Still no clarity.
Also I should mention that at some point the PC decided that the VGA port on the primary card, rather than the DVI port, had become the primary monitor, and had taken it upon itself to rearrange the positions of all of my screens for me. Very confusing.
Finally, for no good reason, I swapped in the original DVI to HDMI cable, since it would now be close enough to try, I guess. It worked. Crystal clear picture.
So it basically took all day, through Riley being sick, three trips to the store, needlessly buying tons of needlessly expensive connectors, and I finally have wallpaper that doesn’t fit my desktop. Why was this so hard? Total new resolution: 4925440 native pixels. (2 * 1280 × 1024 + 1 * 1920 × 1200)
Riley is going to Mom’s tomorrow with Berta because they live near the doctor. Work email can wait until the morning where I won’t be screaming at everyone and regretting it. Lunch meeting at noon anyway, where hopefully I can complain about what ails me without quitting or getting fired. Then I’m passing the heck out at 5pm and trying to forget that this week ever happened. I might even start right now. See you in the AM.
