We tend to mark time according to big events in our lives – “before we were married,” “after we got back from California,” “when I was still teaching…” Right now, the operable milestones are BC (Before the Crash), DC (During the Crash), and ANC (After the New Computer.)
During the BC period, life was good, though a little bit disorganized. I knew where everything was on my computer, never mind that I sometimes had to hunt for a while. And I knew how the things I used frequently worked. There was clear sailing on my information highway.
Fortunately, the DC period was fairly short. We have a fabulous Computer Guru right on the back road, Mike’s Computer Repair. just minutes away. We called and by evening Mike had analyzed the trouble and had prepared a list of options-with-price-tags. We made our decision and within thirty-six hours I was almost back in business. Though my old computer was toast, everything on it had been recovered. Yay!
Mike even gave me a tutorial concerning my spiffy new Toshiba laptop and the various updates to my old programs. And he installed a few new bells and whistles, as well. I have firewalls and anti-virus protection up the gazoo.
I also have a different (faster he said) browser, a new-and-improved email program (never mind that I can only receive right now), an updated version of Windows and a new version of Word. Plus, Mike reorganized some of what he apparently considered my “problem areas.”
So, now I’m in the ANC period. It could also be called the PMPC (Personalizing My Personal Computer) period. I’m totally reorganizing my pictures (I think Mike said 1.6 gigabytes of them) and my email files, for one thing. I’m trying to follow the new organizational format – I definitely needed that – but it still has to be workable for me. I do believe that’s why it’s called a Personal Computer.
I’m trying to figure out what the new icons on my desktop are all about and where, exactly, all “my stuff” is. And how to indent paragraphs on my blog (as in how in the world did that function change?) And I’m waiting until the ReachOne folks get back to work after the holidays so I can send as well as receive in the email department. Then maybe I’ll really be back in business.
So about the BC period – I was working on two books as I remember…
What terrible timing for a computer disaster, althought I guess there’s never a good time. Glad you’re back in business, but change is hard and I don’t like the more recent versions of Word.