Some people like to joke that "technology is of the devil". Over the last few days I'm starting to believe it. On Friday I had a pretty long list of work items to get done by the weekend. Most people are tapering their work lives off on Fridays. I'm still building up to Sunday. And this particular Sunday was Easter, a day when every church leader wants to give their best.
I'd been working for about an hour that morning when I saw "the grey screen of death" appear on my laptop. The short version is that my hard drive expired prematurely. Which was totally unexpected since it ate a low fat diet, did lots of cardio and meditated frequently to manage the stress of the gazillion calculations it ran daily.
Despite losing a big chunk of my work for Easter Sunday, I rallied and was ready to go. Of course Jen deserves credit too- first for talking me down off of the balcony railing, and then for understanding that I needed to work a little overtime. Crisis managed. Disaster averted.
So this morning, I got up a bit early to ensure a super productive Monday. I think I was hoping to begin this week on a positive note since the previous one had ended so hectically. Caffeine on board, I fired up my loaner laptop and went to log on to my Gmail account. Not only did I need to send some messages, but I remembered that some of the data I lost when my previous machine crashed was floating out in cyberspace since I'd emailed it to other folks.
And then my Gmail wouldn't load. Or re-load. Or re-re-load. 8 hours later I still can't access it. This is the part where you can insert your favorite profanity or pseudo-profanity if you have/use one. Technology truly is of the devil. Or maybe not.
Since my email was down, I spent the day running errands and Jen tagged along. Her folks had just rolled into town, so our free baby sitting is back! (This news is almost good enough to offset my computer woes.) So instead of holing up all day staring at a computer screen, I got to hang out with my wife sans kids. Maybe dark spiritual forces are at work in my techno world. Or maybe God is telling me to take a break today.
Until one of them takes credit, I guess I'll just enjoy what the day has brought. And keep checking to see if my Gmail account is back up.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Is This The Devil....Or God Talking To Me?
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6 comments:
I had a similar experience with my hard drive. Maybe they will give you the new OS this time for free. I had that happen and they gave me the newest software for free!
On my Macbook, I was out of warranty, so I bumped up to a 200GB drive running at 7200rpm. It is awesome, but cost me some serious bones. See you later man, and I hope it all works out for the good.
Bless your calm and peaceful heart. When you reported the GSOD (grey screen of death, heh) on Friday I forgot to think how that would impact your (EASTER!!!) Sunday. Bad on me. You were Mr. Smooth Sailing on Sunday, tho. No one would ever have known.
I used to have "preachmares" about stuff like this, but the crisis of having to get up and teach (in front of 10,000 critical people, including my seminary profs and all unchurched relatives) never happened with a 24-hour notice. Still! I think I owe you a lunch, or at least a calming cup of hot tea.
Once again, you rock.
BOO! to computer problems...
YEA!! to an unexpected day with your wife...
YEA! to free babysitting!
I say your pros outweigh your cons, my friend! :-)
We thought of you on Easter when it seemed we had more people on stage than you have in your entire church! We miss you!
Give that lovely wife and those cutie pie kids my love!
Thanks for the love and support guys!
How does loosing your hd impact your messages? You always just speak from the heart, no notes, it just flows out from your heart. But you are telling me that it does flow from the heart but a little at a time during your prep work during the week.
My work laptop hd died last year. I was bummed for a while. Lost a lot of info accumulated over several years. Seems I didn't really need all the saved stuff as it has not made a difference. Now when I get a question I just say GSOD so I cannot remember. Goes with my age pretty well also.
Blessing to all including Howard and Judy.
As a CIO and Director of IT...99% of all computer problems are due to an error between the chair and the keyboard....However your situation sounds like a true 1% problem. Sorry man.
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