Watching smoke waft out of the computer you’re using conjures up a certain combination of awe and horror that’s hard to describe. But Airborne Express is coming in a few hours, to pick up my laptop for its fourth trip to Dell’s repair depot in its two-year lifetime. Luckily, this one is covered by the 90-day warranty on its last repair visit.

I have now paid for this laptop at least twice over. If I had known the first time, I would have donated it to Goodwill and bought a PowerBook. But, of course, at any given moment, repairing the laptop is always cheaper than buying a new one. Each time, foolishly, I assume it will not break again.

This time, at least, I tried to plan for the future. After navigating through Dell’s voice mail maze for an hour (see previous entry), I finally reached the Extended Services and Parts department, where I was told that once a system has been out of warranty more than thirty days, it cannot be extended. So much for that.

I have a sneaking suspicion that I will never again purchase a computer from Dell.

Walking home last night, Laura and I passed a fellow on the street, who asked if we knew the time. My watch read “9:57,” but I struggled with how to convey this. First, I rejected simply saying “nine fifty-seven.” That seemed too precise, too geeky. Besides, it might not have been accurate, as my watch could be off by a minute or two. I considered “ten o’clock,” but to me, that implied that it actually was ten o’clock. If the man had reason to need to know if the hour had passed, I didn’t want to lead him to believe that it had, when I knew it probably hadn’t. I rejected “nine fifty-five” for similar reasons; that seemed like I would be implying that it actually was 9:55, which I knew to be inaccurate.

Finally, I settled on “five to ten.” It required more thought on my part, and probably more thought on his, but it felt right. To me, phrases like “to”, “of”, “past” and “’till” imply some imprecision in a way that reading off digits does not, perhaps because they predate the use of digital clocks.

Am I nuts?