So, What Can't you Live Without? Euology to My Friend, My Compy

Not too long back I remember watching a news show (I think it was Dateline) where they took electronic devices away from semi-willing participants for a period of time and we watched their lives fall apart on TV without these devices. I remember laughing and thinking how retarded they were. Well now, I so feel their pain!!
We've had our computer for about 5 years and I know that it's true age is kind of like dog years. It has been a good friend, but now it is an old, dying friend. The processor and video card just can't do all the things I need it to do. It's had other complications, but we have a temporary handle on them so I can at least take my new online class with Candice Stringham.
We've been saving money to get the van fixed and if any money was left over we were going to put it towards a new lens for my camera. Well, that is now a pipe dream. Two nights ago Damian and I freaked and decided go down to Best Buy to find a new desktop. We thought we'd try a Dell. So We bring it home and find it did not have a fire wire connection. I thought it did so that ticked me off. We get it all hooked up that night, check it out for a bit, and head off for bed. The next day, I come home to check my email and IT WON'T WORK!!! I was freaking out! I couldn't get it past the Dell screen. I unhooked and re hooked wires and still, nothing. So we go visit the Geek Squad. We also took in our EHD with all my pictures, digiscrap materials, fonts (some were backed up, but not all). Our old computer was not recognizing it and we thought it was because of it's "senior moments". Both the Dell and the EHD were fine when checked. So today, I get home and hook everything up again, and guess what, neither of them worked. So I called Dell tech support and they concluded I had a dud and told me to go back to the store. So Damian, the kids, myself, and our electronics head back again to Best Buy for three grueling hours. We got an HP that was a $100 more and a million times better. It has a cool laser feature in the CD burner that will print images and text on top of the CD. Goodbye Sharpie marker!!! Bad news is, it wasn't in stock so I have to have it shipped. It'll be here in a about ten days. In the meantime, we bandaged up my good friend here, gave it a blessing, and hope it'll do all the things I need it to do until my new one arrives. We're hoping our old friend will be perfect for Jared as it lives the rest of it's life in his bedroom.
So onto my EHD. The prognosis now is not good. It has died and a piece of me died with it. I've been crying over pictures and graphics that were not backed up. The good news is The Geek Squad can retrieve the files for $159.00 and put it onto a new EHD ($119.00). The bad news is more money spent that we really didn't have, and I won't have my files back for a week(sigh!). I am thankful that there is a ton of overtime available for Damian at work right now. If he works 3 extra hours everyday for the next few weeks, it should take the sting out of the cost to replace/fix our friends.
I haven't been on the computer much this week because of these issues and I haven't been able to do things like pay bills, check my bank account, check email, shop for the best deal I could find for a computer. I have been behaving exactly like those people on the news show experiment. So my question to you, my loyal readers and friends is this... What can't you live without?