The Gift of ADHD – Ya Gotta Love It

Today I experienced the gift of ADHD.

Well………..that’s not quite accurate.

I experienced it last night,

and again this morning.

My personal computer, which is the keystone of my existence, had been getting more finicky with each passing month. Yesterday’s email from a large computer retailer had featured refurbished computers at rock-bottom prices. I decided it was time to make a purchase. That evening I purchased the computer.

Being the genius that I am (remember, I have “the gift”) I figured this would be a slam/dunk installation. In fact, I am SO smart that I won’t have to reinstall any software. I would just take the hard drive from the old computer and put it in the new one. Voila! All my software would be installed and configured. (You *know* there’s a “however” to this story…don’t you?) I arrived home that evening with the new computer, got the tools and opened it up. Boy, was it ever crowded in that little box. Still, I was able to figure out how to remove the hard drive. I looked at the cables attached to the hard drive. Uh oh. Looks like the new machine uses the latest (and greatest!) hard drive interface standard. My old and tired machine…uses the old standard. They are not compatible. No problem. I’ll just run both computers side-by-side and, over time, I would find the software…reinstall on the new machine and after a few weeks…the new machine would have all of the software installed and configured.

To run both machines simultaneously I would use my KVM switch. This allows me to share a keyboard, video and mouse (hence the acronym) between two or more computers. (A two-port switch allows you to control two computers, a four-port…four computers.) I crawl under my large computer desk/hutch to search for the cables needed to hook up two computers and the KVM switch. I found one cable and I only see part of another cable. The other end wraps around my computer hutch. I look behind the hutch and there is another computer (actually, TWO computers…one stacked on the other). Did I forget to mention that the computer hutch is set back into a little alcove and there’s only about a foot and a half of clearance between the side of the hutch and the wall? Anyway, I reach over and pull out the computer on top. But the cables are attached to the computer on the bottom. I wedge myself in there by standing on one leg, raising the other in the air as a sort of balance, my left hand holding the top of the hutch so I don’t fall, and my right hand reaching all the way down to the cables at the back of the computer. Success!! I get the cables disconnected. Now it’s time to run the cables for the KVM switch for both computers.

Hooking up the computers was a snap. But there was one problem. For some reason, the video connection was male at both ends and I need it as male on one end and female on the other. I knew I had an adapter…but where is it?  About 30 minutes of hunting through some drawers of stuff I found the adapter. Good! Now we’re in business. Ooops! Now I need an internet connection for the new computer and all the ports on the hub were taken. Thankfully there was a connection that I could reroute to  my machine and I now have an internet connection on the new computer. There is, however, a slightly different problem. For some reason the new computer doesn’t want to recognize the mouse that’s connected through the KVM switch so, for now, I have two mice on my computer desk.

So…where’s the “genius,” the “gift” of ADHD in all of this? That’s a good question. I purchased the new computer thinking I could move the hard drives from the old machine to the new one. That idea went bust. There are also TWO drives in the old machine so, at another time, I’ll need to figure out how to get the data off of that second drive and onto the new machine. The KVM switch would, at least, solve part of the problem since I could run both computers simultaneously but, for now, I have to live with the “two-mouse” solution. So…my nice, clean, organized desk (ok…the organization would only last for a few days but still…I worked hard to organize it) is now cluttered with computer detritus, two mice, various cables going every which way, a cannibalized computer (the old one) sitting behind me on the floor and this newly created mess is starting to make my skin crawl.

None of this would be funny if it happened to the average person who made a mistake by purchasing a computer that could not support the hard drives from their old computer. But I’m not the “average” person. I have a gift. I am a genius. And I should have thought of this potential problem beforehand especially since I have been building and installing computers -personally and professionally-  since 1994.

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