Blue Christmas

Christmas Eve with a Donkey Kong is a joyous event.  You gather around the soft glow emanating from the finest techonology that 1981 could produce and ridicule your family mercilessly when they continuously fail to get past the first screen.

And so it was this year for me, and a grand time twas had by all.  When at last it was time to retire for the evening, I cheerfully said goodnight to DK, flipped the switch, and went to sleep with visions of hammers and barrels dancing in my head.

On Christmas morning Charlotte awoke bright and early and, as had become her custom, came directly downstairs happily pointing to the machine excitedly saying "Donkey!  Donkey!  Donkey . . . fall down."  So I walked over, turned on DK, and was greeted by this:

Disaster!

Surprisingly, after about 2 minutes of this it suddenly started working fine again.  It was a Festivus miracle!  However, I didn't delude myself that the problem was fixed permanently.  I knew the writing was on the wall.  By the end of the day, the entire left side of the screen was completely freaking out and when I turned it off that night it never turned back on again (at least not in a playable form).

So there it sat - looking sad, dark, and lonely in the corner.  Every morning I'd come downstairs and look sadly over, and every morning Charlotte would still come down, pointing and excitedly saying "Donkey!  Donkey!" and I'd have to explain that it was still broken.

And that is where we stood until earlier this month when I finally got Rick from Rick's Game Repair out to take a look at.  Turns out that the capacitors were getting tired (after a mere 30 years of service) and that's what was originally causing the squished screen on the left side and eventually caused the entire display to lose hold.  So after "quickly" popping off 50 capacitors and soldering new ones back in, he plugged it in, made a couple adjustments, and hallelujah!  We are back in business!

In Cubs news:

Today is the Spring Training opener for the Cubs at the all new Cubs Park in Mesa, AZ, thus officially ending the offseason.  While it will still be 4 and a half weeks until they make their way over to this part of the country, it warms my heart to know that baseball is being played somewhere - even as my ass remains frozen solid in Chicago.