I've been rich, and I've been poor ...

"I've been rich, and I've been poor; Believe me, honey, rich is better."

 -- Sophie Tucker, American singer, 1884-1966

I've been rich and I've been poor, but whether money is abundant, I've always been a do-it-yourself person. I've paid others to do what I was capable of doing lots of times, because I was too busy with other things, or not interested enough to take it on, or just lazy. Quite often, I experience that those who should be able to do a better job than me (professionals, for example) actually do not, and I wind up wishing I had done it! Maybe this has happened to you?

Now, I'm not talking about cutting my own hair or changing my own oil ... I'm just saying that when something is broken and needs fixing, there's a whole decision process that comes into play for me, and some do-it-yourself element of my makeup kicks in.

For example: My favorite laptop began to show some problems with some of the connectors, like the docking station connector and the network cable connection. I was told by a technician on the phone that this was certainly a problem with the motherboard itself, and that replacing it was prohibitively expensive; better to buy a new laptop. (for those who are wondering, the motherboard is THE main circuit board of the computer, onto which eveything else is mounted or connected somehow ... it's like the frame of your car ... without it, there IS no car!

New laptop? OK, sounds like fun! Except we recently got Cynthia a new Dell laptop, and it has had no end of trouble. My good OLD Dell has been a trusty workhorse, so tossing it out didn't seem all that attractive to me.

Instead, I found some stuff on the Web to tell me how to take apart and reassemble my Dell. Then I bought an identical model on eBay that had a cracked video diplay, but otherwise was good, and I paid about ... well, less than half the cost of the motherboard alone. It even came with extra batteries and all kinds of other goodies. I then swapped MY hard drive and monitor into that computer, and now I have my good old Dell back, working like it should! So far, so good. DIY isn't always so easy ... but it's nice when it is!

To those who say they couldn't do that, I say: I thought I couldn't either. But when you jump in, you (usually) find out you can. And thank goodness for that, or we'd all still live in caves!