The Accident

We had an accident at our house a few weeks ago. Don't panic: no human was hurt. Instead, it was a close, personal friend of Jake's. Remember the computer I let him build as his Christmas present? I don't think I've ever done justice to how much time and love he's spent on that thing, both while building it and after it was finished. He loving pieced all the components together, selecting the perfect flat screen monitor, top-of-the line video card, super fast processor, mega ram, etc. You can tell I am NOT a tech person, because those adjectives don't describe the parts at all. Suffice it to say, he built himself his dream "gaming" computer. He tries to tell me it's great for other things too- like downloading my tv shows, and storing all of our pictures. But I know the truth.

Any way, a few weeks ago, Dallin was in the office with me while I was sending some emails AND talking on the phone- my first mistake. The second mistake was that I didn't notice that Jake had left a water bottle on his desk WITH THE LID OFF. Dallin helped himself to a drink, again without me noticing, then set the bottle back on Jake's desk. Unfortunately, the bottle was big and still pretty full and it tipped over as Dallin set it down. Of course, ALL of the water spilled straight onto Jake's computer. Not the keyboard and screen, but the actual brain of the computer, which has USB ports on the top, so the water ran straight through to the guts. (Again, not the technically correct names!) I panicked and grabbed the first thing I could to clean up the water- a sweatshirt next to the chair. I checked the screen and heaved a big sigh of relief- the computer was still on, and it hadn't sparked and started on fire like I had feared. My third mistake- I didn't immediately power down the computer. (Hmm, this is starting to sound more like my fault than Dallin's!)

When Jake got home from work, he immediately checked his computer and my worst fears were realized- he said it was "fried". It wouldn't turn on at all. I was sick to my stomach- all that time he spent, and worse still, all that MONEY was wasted! We'd had the computer for less than 3 months and it was ruined! We didn't have the money to rebuild it, but I didn't have the heart to tell Jake his dream life of video games on a "sweet machine" was over. And then Jake completely amazed me: he didn't freak out. He calmly gave me a kiss, told me it wasn't my fault, and went to play with Dallin as if nothing was wrong! I would have LOST IT if my favorite material possession had just been obliterated. I guess what Jake's been telling me our whole marriage really was true- he loves me more than video games.

The even happier ending- once Jake and one of his "nerd" computer friends spent the whole night testing each component of the computer, it turned out the only thing that was ruined was the video card. Even though that was the most expensive piece, it was still under warranty! So Jake is back to playing games every night on his "sweet machine". And I don't resent it at all.