Everything Dies Eventually

I've recognized for some time how lucky I have been. Over the past few years I've seen a good number of friends experience loss but have never really planned for it to happen to me. I guess in a way I expected it to last forever. Of course I knew it would not be that way, but I wasn't prepared for it to strike home so suddenly, this evening, after a really lousy long day at work.

My 360 has passed on. Its parting words filled a screen in multiple languages and crazy moon-speak, just one decipherable-yet-cryptic fragment for me to ponder: "E74. System Error. Contact Xbox Customer Support."

"Why?" one asks. "It was young and vibrant, and had so much more to accomplish."

Not really. This was a launch console purchased in November of 2005 -- one of the first available on the market, at a time when an estimated 30% of the consoles were defective and destined to fail within weeks, sometimes hours. It's actually kind of miraculous that I've never had a single problem before tonight.

What's the solution? Well, to spend more money of course! The out-of-warranty repair/replacement is $100, so I placed that order tonight. I'll pick a new one up tomorrow so I don't have to go 360-less for the weeks it will take to get repair completed. Once the replacement arrives it will live over by the TV (instead of by my monitor in my gaming corner) so Marjorie can use it to watch instant queue Netflix movies and documentaries whenever she wants rather than waiting for the one console to become free.

Is that sinking in? I'm buying an extra 360 because my wife wants her own.

Yeah, I'm okay with that.