Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Computers Addicting

Have you ever wondered what your life will be like if your computer goes on the blink? Mine did. It started acting up on Saturday, really weird symptoms. So I did all the usual stuff that most computer geeks tend to do, run the virus checker, defrag and clean up the hard disk, check the registers, reboot, check all the cables and the hardware stuff. This was all to no avail. So hubby, our home computer builder and network administrator comes to the rescue. No matter what he did, he still could not hook up to the network, local access only, even after reloading the network software and working on the system for two days from the software perspective. Matters kept getting worse. I could type faster than the computer would put the words in the system. Now that is bad, because I'm an average speed typist at best. Tuesday morning comes around and I start to work in the sewing/computer room. The system is dragging, like a bad holiday hangover. I reboot. My baby totally dies. No response what so ever from the power button. I say to myself, this is an intermittent power supply failure. Being the experienced ex computer business owner that I am, I decide to pull the power supply to take it down to the local shop to be checked out. Hubby calls home, I update him on the status of my sick "baby". He tells me just to take the whole system into the shop because he won't have time to work on it til the weekend. He knows I will be climbing the walls by the weekend without baby girl.

The computer shop is very professional, has the new power supply in the system and up and running again in a couple of hours. So, I pick it up, put it in the car and tell myself the day is already shot for work so I go to the grocery store for my Mom and take her lunch and the groceries because she is not feeling well. I get on her computer (a hubby build for her too), check my Etsy, Google analytics, look at the blog, and am satisfied that nobody really missed my constant online attention for three days.

Hubby comes home, plugs baby girl in and WOWzy, flames shoot out the back of the new power supply. I am sullen and disappointed. I call the computer shop which is closing in ten minutes and they say....in all their years in business nothing like this has ever happened. The house smells acrid from the burning components all evening as a painful reminder that baby girl is dead. Hubby feels sorry for me and lends me his work laptop to check up on things at Sew Sassy Shop. All is well at the virtual store and I am still not missed. In fact I am agitated that my shop looks and hearts are way down for the last couple of days, and dropping rapidly. Down from 80 some visits on Saturday to a low of 14 on Tuesday. Just goes to show you that if you don't promote for even a few days, you dry up and wither away. I don't know what to do with myself and I finally resign myself to watching the boob tube.

Wednesday, morning, today, I sneak into hubby's office, and get on his computer after he is off to work. Can't stand it without my regular routine of coffee and internet. Baby girl is packed in the car, ready to go back to the hospital. I drive her over and drop her off. They will call in a couple of hours.

Guess I will take some time to do a bit of laundry, make the bed, dust and run the vacuum. How boring. I've outgrown housekeeping. My online life is much more exciting than spending the day alone cleaning. What has my world come to? I'm an addict. Computer addict that is. Life feels discombobulated without baby girl. I hope the news is good later today. Off to clean. Sandy