CALIFORNIA POTBELLIED PIG ASSOCIATION, Inc.
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Pig Tales - New Computer
My New Computer, the 1992 “Chuckles”
by Chris Christensen

I’m one of those 5% of computer users that prefer a Macintosh computer.  I watched as my Macintosh fell further behind in the race for more computer power, because their Motorola processors produced more heat than speed.  This was nice in the winter.  We could huddle around the computer on cold nights, but a little more speed would have been nice.

When Macintosh changed to Intel processors in 2005, I was quite pleased until I discovered that none of my existing programs would fully work with the new processor.  So I set out a plan that if I put $300 to $400 aside each month by the time there were programs available that would work on the Intel Mac, I would probably have enough money to buy a decent Intel Mac, the programs I need and possibly even a fair sized monitor.

Then came December of 2005.  Our 14 year old black and white potbellied pig, Chuckles, came down with pneumonia.  We didn’t seem to be able to cure it so we took him to U. C. Davis large animal veterinary hospital where they found that he had an inoperable growth in his chest pushing on his heart and lung.  We were given the choice of putting him down or giving him antibiotics and pain pills to keep him comfortable for the next few months when he would probably die peacefully or get so sick that we would have to make that hard decision to put him down.  Even though he was in pretty bad shape, we felt we owed him the time he had left.  He’d given us years of joy, so we resolved to spoil him any way that we could for his few remaining months.  His pills and special medications would cost about $400 a month.  (My old monitor might have to work on my new computer, but Chuckles was worth a monitor.)

Chuckles came home, and we slowly got his pneumonia under control.  The drugs even seemed to help his long time struggle with arthritis.  The growth in his chest that showed up on x-ray and ultrasound has???

It’s April of 2007, and Chuckles is still with us.  His step is still pained and slow, but he’s more active than he has been in years.  He comes down a ramp and joins us in the living room or kitchen 4 or 5 times a day (which he hasn’t done in years).  He goes out and explores the yard for leaves and bugs for up to an hour, at least once a day.  His meals are a chemistry set of drugs and additives that take half an hour just to prepare.  He seems to love all the attention he’s getting, and his drugs are still costing $400 a month.

So my new computer...it’s a 1992 “Chuckles”.  It’s not a desktop and certainly not a laptop.  This one sits on blankets under the desk.  It has lots of memory.  In fact it never forgets.  The processor is slow, but deadly accurate.  It’s got a large slow hard drive that has stored 15 years of information, and once that drive gets underway it can’t be stopped.  It has an energy saving sleep function that works nearly all the time, and it’s extremely noisy when you try to get it out of sleep mode.  It has a large wide screen monitor, but it’s monochrome.  It was supposed to be paid for in a few monthly payments, but they keep sending me bills every month.  I suspect my Intel powered Macintosh is going to have to wait a while.  If I’m really lucky, it will wait a long while.

"The paradise of my fancy is one where pigs have wings."  G. K. Chesterton