The old Dell

I wrote once about The Demise of the Dell, but in that post I concentrated more on Uniting With the New HP than on the death of the old laptop. 

Many photos and journal entries are still locked inside that old machine. The poor thing doesn't know when I've inserted a cd, so I can't pull off the memory. I need a professional to do that and I haven't asked one yet. Knowing what I know, I wonder why I don't do backup cds with this HP laptop. Silly.

Look at this poor old thing. 

 See where the arrow key at the lower right fell off? I was able to reattach it several times (it had little folding legs on the bottom that reminded me of an antique wood-and-canvas folding lawn chair) and finally gave up and became accustomed to using that key without the smooth flat surface of its cover/face/whatever it's called.

See the darkened spots at both sides from my forearms and the heels of my hands?  ...and how the blue is completely worn off on the left-click button?

See the dust and filth embedded in the corners of the touchpad and in between the keys?  

It's like looking at my life: Wounded and worn and cluttered up with the detritus of old food crumbs, old cigarettes, old dust . . . and inside, years of pictures and memories.  

The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been.  ~Madeleine L'Engle