Writing is like being able to put life into a snow globe. It takes the things that are too big and scary and reduces them into a form that I can put away when I want and look at from a distance. It also takes all that’s good in life and captures it into something I can take out when I want and look at close up and keep forever. It makes the bad things into something I can hold…and the good things into something I can hold onto. Both help so much that I need that little souvenir of life.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Ten Good Things About Having All of Your Computer Equipment Fried in a Lightning Storm!

1. No way to access the internet means more time to read books!
2. Many valuable opportunities to learn lots of new things about computer equipment. Even if that sort of thing makes you want to hurl.
3. Bonding time holed up at children’s colleges stealing internet and borrowing equipment.
4. Experience with other cultures while spending hours and hours (and hours) on the phone with outsourced techs in Pakistan.
5. Many opportunities to remember about writing in longhand.
6. Learn valuable lesson that surge protectors apparently do not work.
7. After much thought about how to pay bills, remember that there used to be such a thing as paying bills by mail, using stamps. Bonus: remember to buy stamps!
8. Unaccustomed trips to basement reveal need to spray for spiders.
9. Frequent trips to basement reveal whereabouts of diminishing pen collection.
10. Frequent frustrations necessitate need for “mental health outings,” such as hanging out with friends in a beer garden at Oktoberfest and relearning to polka.

I'm borrowing a tiny laptop for emergencies but am hoping to be back next week!

 …life's like an hourglass, glued to the table /No one can find the rewind button, girl. So cradle your head in your hands/ And breathe... just breathe, Oh breathe, just breathe… ~Anna Nalick, “Breathe (2 A.M.)”

11 comments:

  1. Been there. Fried computer due to lazy surge protector. Outsourced techs were from India, and my son dealt with them for hours. He found it odd that he could barely understand them, yet they had names like "Susan" and "Jeff." Got the spidery basement.

    But your pens are safe with me. I can keep them for you if you'd like.

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  2. Tammy--Do NOT, under any circumstances, give Val your pens to keep "safe." She will keep them safe, alright...safe in her deadbolted and guarded classroom.

    Did your kids enjoy your stealing their internet?

    I love that Anna Nalick song. The line about "life is an hourglass" made me buy the whole CD...many years ago.

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  3. You do see the silver lining in every cloud.

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  4. Oh how I fought with AT&T when we first moved here! I almost went back to the LaQuinta, where we stayed before the house closed. Even now, I am holding my breath!

    Pakistan, India, etc.! Did you know that you could request an American tech? I got so sick of saying, "please speak slowly because I am hard of hearing." HA!

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  5. OMG, Val, I had a Jeff!!! Maybe it was the same one. I kept expecting to get a "Peggy."

    LOL, Sioux, but she says she prefers black ink. And it's not like they're the good kind of dry erase markers....

    Thanks, Linda.

    Judie, that's a great line. Hope you don't mind if I use it!

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  6. The pens will be VERY safe. Really. I have the perfect hiding place from subs and custodians and riffraff in sink haircuts and Crocs. Plus, I'll put those Quartet markers out front in my pencil tray, to tempt the sticky-fingered among us.

    Of course, being an experienced sub, you might be able to ferret them out if you needed to use one of your own pens.

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  7. Oh, no! I can't imagine. Will you be able to retrieve anything off of your old computer? So sorry, Tammy. What a mess. Sending you hugs.

    Kathy M.

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  8. Nothing wrong with looking for a rainbow in the rain. :)

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  9. We are really tied to our gadgets, aren't we? A day without my computer or cell phone tends to put me into a state of complete (and painful) withdrawal.
    Good luck with getting everything back in good working order!

    Pat
    Critter Alley

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  10. What a lovely and humorous way to put your setback in perspective.

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  11. It's always better to look on the positive or bright side of something that is really annoying and frustrating. You could add another... you saved friends from losing their stuff because they backed up their computers after learning about your troubles (well, at least I did!). I loved #5 because... well, you know.

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