HONEY, CAN OUR COMPUTER DO THIS?" By: WAYNE GARRISON (MDC-RCC STL.99ers) I'll never forget the day my wife asked me this question, for that was the day when all my troubles began. My loving wife had heard me talking about the computers I work with and decided she would buy me my very own. We were both excited about it on Christmas morning when I unwrapped it and took it from the box. Her excitement began to diminish after I had set it up and slowly became familiar with it. The excitement level hit bottom when she discovered that there was a lot more to these things than just turning them on and watching them go. Eventually I was able to build a nice computer system starting with what she had bought me and ending when I had all the peripherals and gadgets I needed. She was careful when picking out a desk, to be certain it would match the furniture in the living room, which was where she had a nice spot picked out for me to do my computing. A few years went by and she decided she didn't want me in there anymore, so she moved my desk into the guest bedroom. I wasn't quite as happy in the guest bedroom at first, but soon I realized it was working out ok. If I had some important computing to do, the television among other things wouldn't bother me anymore. All I had to do is just close the door. This bedroom was still a guest bedroom complete with a full-sized bed to accomodate her parents when they come to visit, so it was a little crowded. After a while she began calling it "your Computer Room". There was barely enough room to turn around in there and my wishes to get a bookcase for my computer manuals was out of the question. There just wasn't room enough there for it. I offered to carry the bed down to the basement and make a little room. She promptly asked where her parents would sleep. My answer swiftly earned me a knot on the head. One day she approached me with some papers which she had brought home form the office. They had all kinds of fancy printing on them and she said it was done on their computer at work. "Honey, can our computer do this?", she asked. I was quick to say, "Of course it will." She then began asking me about a few other things such as graphics. She was quick to point out that the computer at work was so easy to use. I tried to explain that our computer wasn't hard to operate but as it turned out, their's at work was set up to be fool proof and would boot up and load the software by simply turning on the switch. Well after I had convinced her of our computer's capabilities, she asked me to start it up for her and show her how to do it. Altough it didn't start up as easy as the work computer, she realized that she could do some of her work at home. Well, it wasn't long before I was competing with her to use my own computer. I decided it would be a good idea to get her her own computer asd set it up to be as easy to operate as the one at her office. Now, she was doing some of her work at home, so this meant that she would need a nice desk to work at. Well as mentioned before, the room was a little crowded. Because the room was so crowded, now I sit at my very own computer, at my very own desk, in my very own corner of the basement. It's a little cold down here, but I guess that's good. I won't have to worry about my computer overheating. So take it from me, if your wife should ask you, "Can our computer do this?", tell her anything but the truth. Happy Computing!