I HATE Computers!

And, I shouldn’t. This thing is my friend. So how come it hasn’t felt like it this past few days? I was about ready to throw my computer out of the window! For some darn reason it decided that I no longer needed to search, get to my favorite sites or even let me play games. EEK! I shouldn’t say it wouldn’t let me it just thought that I had hours to waste while the various pages loaded. So, what the heck did I do to make it mad? The very last thing I did was download a coupon site listed in the Herald Leader and then the “stuff” started…well, that’s the problem…it didn’t start! I uninstalled it but I guess somewhere in that black box there is a brain way bigger than mine cause it apparently kept some of that coupon site for its own use. Hey, now…I am not sharing my coupons with a box!

Normally I would have panicked but I kept myself calm and tried everything that I could think of to fix the thing. Nothing worked so for two days I spent most of my time getting the house dusted, vacuumed, doing laundry, etc. while I waited for a page to load. Not my idea of fun but at least our home is semi dust free.

You’d think that a person who has a degree in computer science could figure out the problem. I have to tell you, I went to college way back in the 60’s and my idea of a computer was a giant big thing stuck in the middle of a very cool room. We had these big keyboards that punched little holes into rectangular shape pieces of a cardstock type of paper. You then took them to yet another room where there was another big machine called a collator and it tried to make some sense out of the hole punched paper. Then you threw them into the really big machine and if you were lucky enough to put the wires in the correct places, you actually got something that made sense. I think! My how times have changed! HaHa! I remember my first day with the new “box” computer. It was terrible sitting here looking at this tiny thing knowing that somehow it would give me more information than the monster machine could do. The first thing was to figure out how to turn it on. Of course the new box came with no detailed instructions so I had to search to figure out where the heck the “on” button was. I found it and all of a sudden a whole new world opened up to me. I was now part of a gazillion other folks lives! It was like having a really big extended family. I could check to make sure everyone was eating properly, exercising and even see where the “family” was doing its shopping. WOW, and I didn’t even have to invite everyone over for the traditional holiday celebrations! Whatta family!

Now you can understand why I was so depressed when I didn’t get to see all of those smiling faces on Sunday morning. After phone calls to Manila, New Delhi, Canada, the Phillipines and back to Manila, I still couldn’t visit my family. 😦 I was all set to unplug the box and take it to a person who really knew how to work these things when I managed to find something called a “restore” button! Lo and behold, my family was almost back! AOL and I had to find them because apparently they were hiding somewhere out in cyberspace. We finally succeeded and I am happy to report that I am smiling at various “family” members again. 🙂

If you’ve given up reading this long and detailed tale about my weekend computer experience, let me put it into a few words. The DAMN COMPUTER CRASHED! And, while I managed to find my email addresses I no longer have a “favorites” list. That ten years of searching and saving great websites is now floating somewhere out there. Guess what I’ll be doing in my off hours this winter? You betcha, I’m gonna be surfing and saving all over again!

Today is not a day to worry about the box. We’ve got more important stuff to be concerned with, like getting the shop ready for customers. We’re just about there and hopefully we’ll be open for business next week. Drew is trying to section off part of the garage so that we can heat it and I’ve got to get the rest of my packaging stuff out of what will be the showroom. We are making progress and that’s a good thing. I’ll continue to keep you informed so go enjoy the warm January weather and stay tuned for more highlights in our life. 🙂