One day after Bonnie dropped off Amalaki (the Linux tower) at Advanced Computer Solutions for the replacement of a power supply, I received a call that the computer repair was done.

Maybe, the quick turnaround was partially due to my telephone call this morning. I was calling for advice on what hardware the store recommended for backup. I had upgraded from Firefox 1.0.7 to Firefox 1.5. The upgrade wiped out my selection of searches and Mycroft.mozdev.com was unavailable. (Probably it was overloaded by others who had encountered the same problem.)

What to do? Ah… I will restore from backup. Nope — unrecoverable hardware error. The Seagate tape drive (Travan) finally had died.

The shop recommended an external hard drive, which required a USB 2.0 interface. Madika (the Win98SE tower) has the older USB interface. After brief consultation and being quoted a reasonable price, I decided to have them pull the seemingly dead, tape drive plus add the newer USB interface.

Bonnie was at work and had called to say that her supervisor had asked her to work late because a co-worker was in the hospital. I decided to drive Suzy even though the weather was chillier than yesterday. Yesterday was unseasonably warm, in the 60s Fahrenheit. Today was in the mid-30s with the appearance of possible rain or snow.

Mister Frontiersman donned thermal socks and Polartec fleece pants. No, there is another reason for the Rod Stewart title. He donned his trusty fleece jacket, cap and gloves; uncovered Suzy; and proceeded to the computer repair store in Endicott.

In as straight a line as possible since the BDI (Battery Discharge Indicator) started at 90; dropped quickly to 55 and, then, to 35 percent. Thankfully, it stayed at 35 percent and Suzy purred along at 29 MPH.

It was late afternoon and the drive was brisk. The drive took me past Union Endicott High School. After passing the High School, getting looks and shouts, I approached the McDonald’s. A group of students were walking along the sidewalk and one young, teenage girl laughingly was running ahead of the group. In shorts.

Okay, she was wearing a heavy jacket. It was open. From my brief glance in passing, I would say she was wearing a light shirt underneath the jacket. And, I thought of the Rod Stewart song.

When I got to Advanced Computer, the young clerk behind the counter was wearing a short sleeved, polo shirt. He swapped towers, taking the repaired Amalaki to the gemcar and returning with Madika for a USB upgrade, with nary an acknowledgement that I was driving a neon green, electric car with no doors, simply an observation that a slew of repairs had come in. (No promise on when someone might look at Madika.)

The displayed showed 80 percent when I left the shop, dropping quickly to 30 percent. I got home with the display showing 15 percent. (It is a good idea to keep the battery pack's capacity above 20 percent.) Actually, I stopped at the auto service center, to check and see how my friend the owner was doing and to request some air be added to the tires.

The man, the myth, the legend goes in for orthopedic surgery in two weeks. He will have one knee removed, to be replaced with a prosthetic joint.

When I started Suzy again to drive from his shop to my house, the display showed 60 percent.