Child Found Within the Tree

Since late March of this year, I've kept to my every-other-day walking exercise schedule. Today, I got a late start (more on that in a moment) and got back to the house just as a severe thunderstorm was breaking. Still, another day added to my perfect record.

I got a late start because this morning I had to take my laptop back to the repair shop. They successfully wiped the hard drive and reinstalled Windows 10, and I successfully logged into my Microsoft account and installed Google Chrome, but the laptop was making a scratching noise, sort of like an old mechanical hard drive makes just before it crashes (I've heard that sound too many times in my life). 

The chipper young lady who took care of me last week wasn't there, and I hit it off on the wrong foot with the young man who was at the counter instead when he asked me, right at the very beginning, "Sir, how old is the computer? It looks like it's been around for a long time." For the record, I've kept the laptop in fine shape - it was me who looks like he's been around for a long time and the young punk was just extrapolating. 

I thought back and remembered that I bought the laptop in 2016. Granted, that was 8 years ago (time flies!), but it was an extremely powerful, top-of-the-line laptop when I got it, and it still kicks ass. But in 2016, the guy behind the counter was probably still in high school.  

He looked put upon as he opened the laptop to investigate the source of the noise, and then took it back behind the counter and out of my sight to look further. When he came back, he said the hard drive and everything else was fine, but the internal speaker was blown and making that crackling sound.  Why? "It's just old, sir."

"What?," I asked. "Speak louder! I can't hear you, sonny!" And then I said "Covfefe" and took out a gun and shot him.

No, that last part didn't happen, but I can't say it didn't cross my mind. He said it's fine to run the laptop as it is, even with the blown speaker, but I told him the sound was annoying and asked him to order a replacement. I was told it might take a couple of weeks to get the part for an older model like this but they'll let me know when it's in the shop. I might even actually return to the shop and let them install it when the part arrives. Who knows?