Jacob Performed His First Surgery (Well, Sort Of)
"Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do. Or do without!" That saying is posted beside my dad's computer in his den. Growing up, it was practically our family motto. I learned from a very early age that we made do with (or sometime without) things and made what we had last as long as possible.
So, I guess now that we are living the lives of starving students, it hasn't been difficult to make it our own byword. Especially in these difficult times with a recession on, people out of work, costs of groceries going up. That is also why when our PlayStation 2 (the one we got practically back in the Stone Age when Caleb was born) stopped playing one of the boys' and Jacob's favorite games, we were at a loss. It had been starting to do crazy things, humming noises, no sound, as well as just not loading that most precious of games. (Hey, it sounds pathetic, but when you've got a free mode of entertainment, you can become a bit reliant on it. At least, that's what Jacob and the boys think. I rarely play the thing.)
We couldn't just go out and spend the money to buy a whole other gaming system and games - at least not with an impending move on the horizon - so, it just meant that ALL the boys would do without. And without, they went. Until today.
Brendan had been asking Jacob (yet again) why they couldn't play their game, and he was telling him (for the millionth time) that it just didn't work and he didn't know why. Then, he suddenly had a thought. The old thing must have collected unnumerable dust bunnies and things inside over the years as any computer CPU does, so why not open it up and clean it out?
Having successfully taken apart and repaired our home computer a time or two (thanks for the over-the-phone instructions, Dad), it seemed like a pretty doable idea. Although, without any experience with laser readers and such, I figured we could use a little help. So, Nurse Stephanie and her trusty nurse's assistant (Google) got on searching for a website with instructions on fixing a PS2 that wasn't reading disks and voila! (Man, I love the information age!)
Jacob got right to work pulling the thing apart. We cleaned out nearly seven years of dust from it. 
Then, he got to work adjusting the lens. It was a little trial by error to see when it was reading the disks just right, but by the end of the one hour surgery our PS2 was well and in working order! So, we ended up saving ourselves the cost of a new system or any repair place taking a look at it just to tell us it needed a cleaning and a few tweeks!
We make a good team, and the boys were thrilled to have their game working again. I guess we won't have to "do without" for a little while longer.
So, I guess now that we are living the lives of starving students, it hasn't been difficult to make it our own byword. Especially in these difficult times with a recession on, people out of work, costs of groceries going up. That is also why when our PlayStation 2 (the one we got practically back in the Stone Age when Caleb was born) stopped playing one of the boys' and Jacob's favorite games, we were at a loss. It had been starting to do crazy things, humming noises, no sound, as well as just not loading that most precious of games. (Hey, it sounds pathetic, but when you've got a free mode of entertainment, you can become a bit reliant on it. At least, that's what Jacob and the boys think. I rarely play the thing.)
We couldn't just go out and spend the money to buy a whole other gaming system and games - at least not with an impending move on the horizon - so, it just meant that ALL the boys would do without. And without, they went. Until today.
Brendan had been asking Jacob (yet again) why they couldn't play their game, and he was telling him (for the millionth time) that it just didn't work and he didn't know why. Then, he suddenly had a thought. The old thing must have collected unnumerable dust bunnies and things inside over the years as any computer CPU does, so why not open it up and clean it out?
Having successfully taken apart and repaired our home computer a time or two (thanks for the over-the-phone instructions, Dad), it seemed like a pretty doable idea. Although, without any experience with laser readers and such, I figured we could use a little help. So, Nurse Stephanie and her trusty nurse's assistant (Google) got on searching for a website with instructions on fixing a PS2 that wasn't reading disks and voila! (Man, I love the information age!)
Jacob got right to work pulling the thing apart. We cleaned out nearly seven years of dust from it. 
Then, he got to work adjusting the lens. It was a little trial by error to see when it was reading the disks just right, but by the end of the one hour surgery our PS2 was well and in working order! So, we ended up saving ourselves the cost of a new system or any repair place taking a look at it just to tell us it needed a cleaning and a few tweeks!
We make a good team, and the boys were thrilled to have their game working again. I guess we won't have to "do without" for a little while longer.
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