Perpetual Ruminations

Being Neighborly

About five years ago, I purchased a new computer, a desktop model, and thought I would be all set. But, as is the case often with computers, it was almost outdated when I purchased it.  That's probably why it was on sale. It was fine for most of what I needed, but it wasn't capable of running Windows 11, it didn't have much memory, and it was a bit slow.

A couple of years ago, I was able to purchase a laptop computer that is still up to date and working fine. I didn't have much use for my old one, so it sat pretty much unused, collecting dust, and just taking up space.

A couple of weeks ago, one of my neighbors, a bit of a recluse, came over with a request. Now, this guy is retired and barely making ends meet, doesn't leave his apartment except for church once a week, and to get food. He mostly keeps to himself. In the three years we've lived here, I've only talked to him a half dozen times!

As I was saying, he came over while I was out on the patio with the dogs and asked, if I was willing, to help him out. He informed me he had an old computer that ran Windows 10, but it had crashed. A person from his church tried to get it working again, but he couldn't find his license key (he's a bit of a hoarder) and could not reinstall Windows. He went on to say that all he needed was the Word program so he could continue his writing.

The person at the church gave him a Chromebook but had reset it, so he needed to set it up for his use but doesn't have internet service. He wanted some assistance with setting it up if he could use our internet to do so. His plan was to install Windows which he had the money saved up for, and then purchase MS Word, so he could continue his writing that he had backed up to flash drives.

The problem was, his Chromebook couldn't be converted to Windows, and it wouldn't read the flash drives that contained his files, since they were formatted to Windows and Word. Also, he had not looked at the current cost of Windows or the cost of Word. I did a bit of research to learn all this, and also discovered that the money he had wouldn't even cover the cost of Windows, let alone purchase MS Word!

Knowing he is barely scraping by, I wanted to help him out, and being a writer felt empathy for him not being able to write anymore. It's about the only thing he does. So, the question was, how to help him? I could assist him with setting up a Google account so he can use the Chromebook, but even if I downloaded MS Word, he wouldn't be able to use the Windows formatted flash drives to continue his writing.

The only solution was to get him set up with a Windows-compatible computer he could use. Since I had an old desktop I wasn't using, I fired it up, spent half the evening waiting for it to update, and then removed all my files, email, and anything else I could to free up space. I have everything backed up, so I didn't lose anything.

Now, I could have just reset the computer and set it up for him, but it didn't come with MS Word, which he needed. I could purchase and download it, I trusted him to pay me back, but I really didn't want to take his money. So, since I use MW 360 and have a family account, I can run MS Office on multiple devices. So I left my account on the computer, then set up another profile for him which had access to MS Office through my license.

By the time I had it set up, it was getting late, but he was still up so I carried it over, explained the issues with his Chromebook, and told him he could use my old computer if he wanted. I also told him it was kind of slow, had Windows 10, and didn't have a lot of memory for storage.

He was ecstatic! He knew Windows 10, saved everything to a flash drive so storage wasn't an issue, and didn't mind if it was slow. I helped him set it up, and he proceeded to try the flash drives, opened Word, and typed a bit in one of his documents. He couldn't believe how fast it was compared to his old computer! He also liked the extra large flat screen, it was easier for him to see.

We spent at least an hour setting everything up, getting him accustomed to it, and then I told him I should get back home. He asked, with a bit of hesitation, how much it was going to cost him. When I told him it wasn't going to cost anything he started to tear up and insisted I had to take something. When I refused again, he wanted to know why I was doing this. I explained that I really didn't have any use for the computer, but he did, so now it's repurposed and someone is getting use out of it.