Several times each week I will receive messages with the phrase, "I'm sure it's something simple…" What is ironic is that these are usually the calls with problems that are the farthest from simple.
I was thinking about this last week as someone left a message that said something like, "Hi I was given your name by a friend who said you might be able to help me. I have a computer that is shutting itself off every time I drag a heart over a club in solitaire and my antivirus software keeps telling me that it can't find my sound card. I am sure it's something simple that you can walk me though over the phone. Oh, ya! It also keeps giving me errors that say something about catastrophic failure and immanent death. Of course I exaggerated the details, but only slightly.
I had to laugh as I listened to the message. Then I realized that I say the same thing to my doctor and my mechanic whenever I know that I have a big problem.
I am sure the noise is just a loose cable or bad gas, I say to my mechanic describing the sudden stalls and clunking sound from the engine.
My doctor frowns as I try to diagnose my spontaneous ocular bleeding and fainting spells with, "It's probably just allergies."
Of course it's just wishful thinking and I am willing to play along. I would rather have people who tend to be over optimistic with their diagnosis than people who fear that they need a new computer just because their sound isn't working.
