I spent seven years of my life as an independent computer consultant. You've all read the jokes about various tech support scenes where someone calls up looking for the "any" key or wondering why their coffee cup holder doesn't work anymore (CD tray), so I thought I'd share one such incident with you that IS real and actually happened.

I had a client who purchased a new system for her son, who was a senior in high school, to help him with his studies. I set up the computer and gave the young man some lessons in basic computer operation and taught him a little about WordPerfect and a few other programs that he needed.

I went on with life and would have never given the young man or his mother another thought . . . except for a phone call I received from the mother about eight months later that went something like this:

Mother: "I don't know if you remember me, but I bought a computer from you a while back for my son and you came to the house and set it up for him."

Me: "Yes, I remember, how are things going with it?"

Mother: "Well, that's why I called. He left for college last week and told me to use it to email him. He wrote down all the instructions except how to turn it on. I thought I had it figured out, but I've stepped on the pedal several times and nothing is happening."

Me: "I'm totally lost . . . what pedal are you stepping on?"

Mother: "I guess it's something my son bought after you set it up for him."

Me: "I'll come over later this evening and take a look. Is that okay?"

Mother: "Thanks, I'll see you tonight then."

I arrived at her house, curious about what kind of pedal her son had set up, assuming he had rigged up a switch pedal to power up the system for whatever reason; kids are strange like that and probably thought it was cool.

The woman let me in and led me toward the bedroom where the computer was.

I looked at the desk and everything was fine, except for the mouse laying on the floor under the desk . . . the woman was a seamstress and assumed the mouse was a foot-pedal since it looked so much like the one on her sewing machine!

I put the mouse back on the desk, showed her where the power switch was and explained the mouse.

That was, without exception, the hardest time I've ever had restraining laughter.