An Old Car, a Repair Bill, and a Little Perspectiv

 

I lean toward old cars. That comes from experience, although one experience took me a couple of years to appreciate.

Back in the 1980s, I owned a Volkswagen Rabbit. It needed quite a few repairs, and eventually I got tired of spending money on it. I sold it.

About two years later, the person who bought it told me they were happy with it. They hadn’t needed any repairs. Apparently, I had fixed everything that needed fixing—at least for those next two years. They got to enjoy the benefit of the money I had already spent.

That stayed with me. Sometimes, just when we’re tired of repairing a car, we may have brought it into pretty good shape.

Of course, that doesn’t mean every old car is worth keeping. But I think repair bills deserve a fair comparison with the expense of replacing the car.

A repair bill gets your attention. You take the car to the shop, and suddenly you owe several hundred dollars, or perhaps more. It’s easy to say, “I need a newer car.”

The expense of a new car arrives differently. There’s the purchase price, the monthly payment if you finance it, interest, insurance, and registration. Then there’s depreciation—the value the car loses while you own it. That doesn’t come as a bill in the mail, but it still costs you money. A new car also needs tires and routine maintenance.

An older car might need an expensive repair and still cost less over the year than replacing it. The question I would ask is: “What will it cost to keep this car safe and dependable, compared with what I’ll spend to own another one?”

New cars do have advantages. A warranty offers some peace of mind. Newer vehicles can have better safety features, improved fuel economy, and conveniences an old car doesn’t have. For someone who depends on a car every day and cannot afford unexpected downtime, that reliability matters.

But an old car can still have useful miles left in it. I believe in taking care of what you have: changing the oil, keeping the tires properly inflated, following the maintenance schedule, and paying attention when something starts sounding or feeling wrong. Maintenance cannot prevent every breakdown, but neglect certainly doesn’t help.

There also comes a point when repairs stop making sense. Serious rust, repeated breakdowns, or several major problems at once can change the calculation. I’d want a mechanic’s honest opinion about the whole car before spending a lot on one repair. Money already spent is gone; what matters is what the car needs next.

My Volkswagen Rabbit taught me that selling a car doesn’t necessarily mean its useful life is over. In my case, somebody else enjoyed two good years after I had done the repairs.

So I still lean toward old cars. If the car is sound, safe, and reasonably dependable, I’m willing to fix it and keep driving. A repair bill may be unpleasant, but so is a car payment every month.

                                                                        Later

Linux Has Its Limits

 

I’ve spent quite a few hours trying to bring computer number 11 back to life. It’s an old laptop from the Windows XP days, with very little memory. I figured a lightweight version of Linux might give it another useful life.

Getting there took some patience. With Chat helping me along, I loaded and reloaded operating systems, tried different installation discs, and watched installations stall after long waits. We tried Debian, antiX, and an older version of Linux Mint. Sometimes it looked like we were almost there, and then the computer would freeze or give us another error.

Eventually, I got Debian 7.7 installed and running. After all that effort, it felt good to finally have a working desktop.

But getting an operating system to run is only part of the battle.

I wanted to check Bitcoin prices on CNBC and perhaps watch a little video. That turned out to be more than this old computer could comfortably handle. Some pages opened, others gave secure connection errors, and YouTube started loading but never quite got there.

The internet has moved on since the Windows XP days. Today’s websites expect much more from both the browser and the computer. An old Linux system may fit the machine, but its old browser has trouble with the modern web. A newer browser, meanwhile, may demand more resources than the laptop can provide.

The computer still has some use for simple tasks. I learned a lot getting it running, too. But it isn’t going to become the everyday browsing and video machine I hoped for.

That’s a lesson I’ll keep in mind when bidding on auction laptops. A low price is tempting, but listings often don’t tell you much. I’ll try to find out the model, memory, and processor before bidding—and steer clear of machines this old.

Linux can give an older computer another chance. It just can’t turn back the clock on everything.

Later

Two Days Trying to Sort Out My Debt Relief

 

I haven’t written a blog for a while, but that doesn’t mean nothing has been happening. Sometimes everyday problems keep you busy enough that you don’t get around to writing about them.

I spent two days talking to two debt relief companies, Aspire Law Group and Elevate Financial, trying to figure out who was doing what. I had ended up signed up with both of them. That was confusing enough, but then both were telling me they had made payments toward the same account.

I wanted a simple answer: Who had actually arranged the settlement and made the payments?

Getting that answer took more telephone calls than I expected. There were letters and explanations, but some of the paperwork didn’t clearly identify the company involved. When two companies tell you they did the same work, how do you know which one to believe?

After going through it, I felt satisfied that Elevate had shown me evidence of the settlement and payments. I canceled Aspire and stayed with Elevate for now. I’m still waiting for paperwork, and I may decide to finish with Elevate too.

Looking back, I question whether I needed either program in the first place. I might have been better off contacting the creditors myself from the beginning. I hope I made the right decision this time, but I’m still sorting things out.

Meanwhile, my old laptop, number 11, is giving me another kind of trouble. It has very little memory. Debian is installed, but I’ve been trying to get antiX running, hoping it would work better. Several attempts have gotten close, then failed or stopped. I may try something else, but I haven’t decided what yet.

Between the telephone calls and that stubborn little computer, I’ve had plenty to keep me occupied.

For now, I’m glad to have the debt situation a little clearer. It took two days of asking questions, but at least I feel I have a better idea of who I’m dealing with.

I didn't need the service.

 A few days ago, I thought I might have signed up with a fraudulent debt-resolution company.

After doing some checking, I learned something important: I had jumped to a conclusion.

The company had actually contacted some of my creditors and had been providing a service. So I don't think it is fair for me to call the company a fraud.

The real problem was much simpler.

I didn't need the service.

I got caught up in a very good sales pitch. At the time, debt resolution sounded like a good solution. But after stepping back and looking at my situation, I realized that I am capable of contacting my creditors myself and paying what I owe.

Now I am trying to cancel the program and find out how much of the money I have paid can be returned. Since the company did perform some work, I don't know how much I will get back. I'll have to see what happens.

There is a bigger lesson here.

I've written before about internet and telephone scams. Some of those are obvious frauds. Someone calls pretending to be Google, for example, and says there is an emergency with your account. They want you to act immediately and give them access to something you normally wouldn't.

But there is another lesson that applies even when you're dealing with a legitimate business:

Don't let a good salesperson make your decision for you.

A salesperson's job is to sell. Your job is to decide whether you actually need what is being sold.

Before signing anything or handing over money, slow down. Ask questions. Read the agreement. Check the company independently. Talk to someone you trust. Most importantly, ask yourself a very simple question:

Do I really need this?

I wish I had asked myself that question before I signed up for debt resolution.

But making a mistake isn't the end of the story. You can learn something, correct what you can, and make a better decision the next time.

That's what I'm doing now.

Later

What Can You Do With a Laptop That Has Only 1 GB of RAM?

 

I've been working on another old laptop, and this one has been a challenge.

When I started, it had only 512 megabytes of RAM. That's half a gigabyte. By today's standards, that's almost nothing. Most new computers have many times that amount of memory, and modern operating systems aren't designed with machines like this in mind.

But I wanted to see if I could bring it back to life.

I installed Debian Linux on it. With only 512 MB of RAM, even getting the operating system installed was an adventure. I used the low-memory installation, and it took quite a while. At one point I thought the computer simply wasn't going to make it.

After the installation, I could get to the login screen, but when I entered my password, the screen would go blank and send me right back to the login screen.

Then some memory I had ordered arrived. I upgraded the laptop to a full 1 GB of RAM.

One gigabyte still isn't much, but it made a difference. Debian would run. The problem was that I had installed the Cinnamon desktop, which is really too much for a computer with this little memory. The mouse would pause, and everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

So now I'm working on streamlining it. Linux gives me that option. I don't necessarily have to throw away a working computer just because it can't comfortably run a heavy modern desktop. I can use lighter software and turn off things it doesn't need.

My goal isn't to turn this old laptop into a gaming machine or a high-powered workstation. That's not going to happen.

I'd simply like to get it running well enough for basic Internet use, email, writing, and hopefully streaming a video. If I can do that, I'm going to donate it to the thrift shop.

Someone may be able to buy it cheaply and get some use out of it.

That's one of the things I enjoy about working on these old computers. There's a challenge in figuring out what they can still do instead of concentrating on what they can't do.

A computer with 1 GB of RAM isn't worth much money today. But if it lets somebody check their email, write a letter, browse the Internet, or watch a video, then it still has some value.

Sometimes old technology doesn't need to be thrown away.

It just needs a lighter load—and another chance.

Later

When an Old Laptop Still has a Lot of Life Left

 I’ve been spending quite a bit of time lately working on old laptop computers.

What I’ve discovered is that fixing them usually isn’t the hard part.

Most of the time, the problems are fairly simple. A laptop may need a new battery or charger. Maybe it needs some additional memory. Sometimes I replace an old mechanical hard drive with an SSD. Then I install Linux, and a computer that somebody thought was obsolete can be useful again.

I enjoy doing that. There is something satisfying about taking an old computer that has been sitting around unused and bringing it back to life.

The difficult part, I’m discovering, is finding somebody who wants it.

Recently I contacted the IT person at our local school district. I thought perhaps the school could use some of these computers, or maybe find students who could. I was willing to provide some very cheaply or even give them away.

He wasn’t interested in the older laptops. I can understand some of his reasoning. Schools need standardized equipment, and their IT departments have to support whatever computers they put into service. An assortment of older Linux laptops probably doesn't fit very well into that system.

I also mentioned that I have some Chromebooks, but I haven’t heard anything further about those.

That experience got me thinking.

Maybe fixing old computers isn't really the problem. Maybe the problem is finding people willing to use something different.

Most computer users are accustomed to Windows. They've used it for years, and understandably they don't necessarily want to learn another operating system. But Windows also has hardware requirements that can leave older computers behind as newer versions come along.

Linux gives me another choice.

A computer that may no longer be a good candidate for the latest version of Windows can sometimes run Linux very well. It can browse the Internet, play YouTube videos, handle email, write documents and do many of the everyday things most people actually use a computer for.

You don't necessarily need a new computer to do those things.

So I’m changing my approach. Instead of asking, “Who will buy these old computers?” I’m asking, “Who actually needs one?”

There is a man I know who runs an antique shop downtown and is also a pastor of a church in Laurens, Iowa. I’m thinking about asking him whether he knows anyone in his congregation who needs a computer and perhaps can't afford to go out and buy one.

If somebody needs a computer for email, looking for work, writing a résumé, keeping in touch with family, watching educational videos or simply exploring the Internet, one of these old laptops might be all the computer that person needs.

It may not be worth much money.

But that doesn't make it worthless.

We live in a society where technology gets labeled “obsolete” very quickly. Sometimes there are good reasons for replacing old equipment. But sometimes the old machine isn't finished at all.

It just needs a battery, a charger, a little memory, Linux—and somebody willing to give it another chance.

Here's a good example of what I've been doing with these old laptops.

Later

My Blog Is Really a Journal

I've been thinking lately about what this blog really is.

I suppose the simplest answer is that it's a journal.

I don't have a huge audience. For quite a while I had only a couple of people who seemed to read regularly. Lately that number has gone up to maybe six or seven, which isn't exactly going to set any records, but I'm glad to have them.

There have been some strange exceptions over the years. At one point, for reasons I still don't understand, I suddenly had about 250 people from Moldova reading my blog. They stayed for two or three days and then disappeared. I never did figure out what attracted them.

Over the years I've written about all kinds of things. I've written about what I'm doing in my everyday life, things happening in the world, computers, money, bicycling, getting older, and whatever else happens to be occupying my mind.

Years ago, during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, I even wrote about some theories I had concerning what might have caused it. Looking back, some of my speculation wasn't supported by what we now know. But that's another interesting thing about keeping a journal. A journal records what you were thinking at a particular moment in your life. It doesn't mean you were always right.

In fact, maybe that's part of its value.

When you go back and read something you wrote five, ten or twenty years ago, you aren't just remembering what happened. You're meeting an earlier version of yourself. You can see what concerned you, what excited you, what you believed and sometimes how much your thinking has changed.

My journal just happens to be public.

These days I write about rebuilding old computers, trying to keep physically active, bicycling, finances, things I've learned, and occasionally just what happened during my day. None of those things may seem historically important while they're happening. But put enough ordinary days together and eventually you have the story of a life.

That's one reason I think journaling is worth trying.

You don't have to write something profound every day. You don't even have to write every day. And you certainly don't need hundreds of readers. You can use a notebook, a computer, or even start a blog.

Write down what you did. Write down what you're thinking about. Write about something you learned. Write about a mistake. Write about something you're looking forward to.

Then keep it.

Someday you may discover that the person who gets the most value from reading it is you.

And if six or seven other people happen to come along for the ride, that's pretty good too.

Later

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