I. don’t think of the iconic Windows XP wallpaper too often, but when an article or video comes across my social media feed reminds me of nothing but happy memories coming back. Thanks until recently SFGate article, I feel like I lying in a soft patch of grass, a cool wind washing over my skin. I see the clouds creating Windows logos and hear the cheerful piano melody and lines crumble as I press the power button of my old Fujitsu laptop in my mind.
The Windows XP wallpaper pictures “Bliss” Hill in Sonoma, Calif., As captured by photographer Charles O’Rear. He uploaded the photograph, taken in 1996, to a stock photography group helped with co-discovery. After a year or two, that stock photography group was purchased by another stock photography group, one that Microsoft would regularly use. T.o make a long story short, ended up selling the image to Microsoft for permanent use, and that’s how it turned out Windows XP’s desktop desktop wallpaper.
When I think of that red hill and vibrant blue and green colors, two memories immediately come to mind. The first one is sitting in an airport with my Fujitsu laptop in my lap, a small mouse with a string on top of the arm that doubles as a mouse rod while I was pulling my cell phone against my left ear with my shoulder, chatting away with one of mine Star Wars galaxy guildmates while racing a distance to a nearby cantina on Naboo.
The memories spread in a domino effect. My first Windows XP device was that Fujitsu laptop, which I received as a high school graduation gift and would have used during my four years in college. But before I went to college, I played the crap out of it Star Wars galaxy all summer long, even building my laptop to that airport while I was waiting for my flight to visit the friend I was talking to on the phone. I would wake up in the morning to go to my summer job as a preschool tutor assistant, but before I left I would pick up the game and set up a few macros so I could XP earned to balance my entertainment while I was away. Those were the good old days, before real adult responsibility began to enter.
But the second memory, and perhaps more importantly, is that Windows XP there were my father all the time favorite Windows operating system. This was Microsoft’s first OS that targeted both the consumer and business markets, so naturally my dad was a computer engineer. Didn’t like the half-type-bubbly, leth-a blurry view of the start bar and the matching colors of “Bliss” wallpaper as it reminded Play-Doh, but other than that he was just fond of Windows XP.
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For all the pleasant memories that I and countless others have of that Bay Area hill, you would think I might have found a trip – after all, it is in the same condition as this. I live. Others may have. And now that I know exactly where he is, I might do it—and not just because i am such a big nerd i have to visit the real site that became a wallpaper for the operating system that helped explain my playing years in college. (All right, maybe a little.)
You see, my father wanted to be buried at sea. So we rented a boat that would take us to a quiet, peaceful place off the Pacific coast to scatter the ashes. That is what he wanted. But that boat rent was not cheap. It was worth his service, of course, but returning to the same place would cost the same. I didn’t find it the right side a place to go and think about my father in the same way I can visit other family members at cemeteries scattered throughout California.
Driving to Bliss Hill, though? That is doable. To see a physical picture of my father and I ‘s relationship? That sounds like a great place to visit.