After an unseasonably warm winter, the usual deep freeze of a prairie January arrived this morning. As the weather reports on the radio announced wind chills of -40 C, we snuggled deeper into our cozy bed. Hibernation was sounding good! You know…what the bears do. Eat copious amounts of food, and sleep it off. But life beckons. Hubby headed to the office. I decided to stay home and get caught up on some long overdue computer work.
Tasks have been hanging over my head since before Christmas. I decided to devote the day to just one – overhauling a website. I was finally in the mood. Unlike writing, this was creative work I can do with music blaring; copious cups of coffee at my side. I got the laundry started, and settled down to a cozy day in front of the screen.
Then the unthinkable happened. My computer crashed! A couple of error messages and the screen went blank. Several attempts at rebooting Windows resulted in the same blue error screen. I followed the instructions, with no luck. A phone call with a helpful techie didn’t solve the problem. I had to take “Big Red” (my Toshiba Quasmio….also know as Quasimoto) in for service.
The bad news, is that this meant driving 100 km to the store in frigid cold weather. The good news is that the frigid cold weather kept all sane customers home today. The store was almost empty, and I got great service. It should be fixed in a day or so.
I’m a killer of lap-tops. They seldom die a graceful death of old age. Seldom have the chance to become obsolete. They suffer the slings and arrows of daily use and abuse. Keyboards get shiny from overuse within months. By the first year, there is a blank key between the ‘w’ and ‘r’. The feeling of a newbie computer is quickly replaced with a smooth, well worn action of many hours of constant use. And, I love it!
So, I’m trying to come up with a great life lesson in all of this…
Life is what happens to you when you make other plans!? (Too cliché.)
We are too dependent on electronics. It’s time to simplify our lives! (No way. I’m a big promoter of the potential for good with modern technology. How else can I rationalize my iPad; my new BFF? Shhhh….don’t tell Big Red!)
Remember, ‘Jesus Saves!’ (You would think I would have learned by now. Since I didn’t have a recent back-up of my hard-drive, I had to shell out $99 to my techie friends to save my data.)
So, this is the day that was. Oh, and by the way, I googled the patron saint of computers. It’s St. Isidore .
catholic dialogue 
Isabella your story of “life is what happens…” made me reflect for myself that there are really no dead ends in life, no wasted trips to the computer store, no wasted time, no useless characters, no meaningless happenings like crashed computers. All has meaning, and God is in all things waiting to speak and bless. Everything belongs, and God comes to us “disguised as events in life”.
The next time my computer crashes will I remember this? Probably not.
Thanks, Ray! It turns out that the computer can’t be fixed over-night. It has to be sent away, so the repair will take almost two weeks to complete. 😦
On the plus side…it has helped me to decide which tasks to focus on, since I don’t have the programs or data needed for some. 🙂
And, lessons ARE learned! My techie friends have assured me that they have all my data, including all my photos, on a back-up hard-drive in the shop. They will restore it all when the computer comes back. Yes, we have to learn to stop and slow down…and SAVE, SAVE, SAVE along the way!
Sent from my iPad
Hi Isabella. I had a similar experience a while back.
http://wp.me/p1OXNv-Z
Since this happened when I was away I realized I had to let it go at that time. Funny how that lesson repeats itself for me. God reminds me of this when I least expect it. 🙂