saved

i go to my parents' house and see my mom's power cord on the shelf under the stairs.

me:  'why is this here?  where's the laptop?'

brother:  'what laptop?'

me:  'mom's laptop...'

brother:  'where was it?'

me:  'on the desk previously here...  it was covered with white cloth...'

brother goes home and comes back with my mom's laptop...  uhm, he cleared the area under the stairs and brought the stuff there to their garage for sorting and disposal.

me:  'you didn't toss this, did you?'

brother:  'no...  we carried the desk out...'

me:  'with this on top?'

brother:  'yes...'

me:  'ok...  otherwise the disk might be broken...'

later when my mom was logging in, i waited with bated breath to see whether the laptop would power up.  it did!  and she was able to do what she usually does on her laptop.

safe!

whew!