There is a downside to using computers—people expect you to know everything about them, especially the ones they use.
The knock on the door proved to me one of my neighbors, a woman in her late 40s/early 50s taking care of her elderly mother. She wanted to know if I had a copy of Windows 98 she could borrow (shhhh). I don't but my roommate Rob [1] does. He was currently using the CD but he would lend it to her once he was finished.
About an hour later he was finished. We were on our way to Shane's [2] house for a bit of Half-Life and I decided to drop off the CD to my neighbor. I would meet up with them later.
I had intended to drop off the CD.
I ended up being stuck for an hour trying to troubleshoot a Windows problem and not wanting to install Windows 98 on a 16M 486 that was barely running Windows 95.
“Should I install Windows 98?” she would ask.
“It's really up to you,” I said. “If you really want to, it's up to you.”
“Funny,” she said. “Everybody I talked to said the same thing.” She peered closer. “Nobody wants the responsibility if it fails, right?”
“Yup. And I don't even use Windows.” Not that she believed me for a minute. I use computers. I have computers. Therefore I know Windows.
Sigh.
I never did end up at Shane's house.
[1] http://www.tragic-smurfs.com/