Tech Woes (Silver Lining 5-8-2020)

May 8, 2020

I am not happy about what I’ve discovered to be today’s “silver lining.” 

For the last two weeks or so, my computer has been sluggish.  Sometimes I move the mouse and the screen mouse doesn’t come along.  Often I click on something, and nothing happens.  I send an email… and watch the computer just whirl.

At first, I blamed it on the internet speed, because almost everything I am doing at the moment is on the web.  We installed a super powerful, really, truly high speed connection a year ago.  We seemed to have finally reached the point that all the devices could function, and the world-wide-wait had become a thing of the past.

It has been working fine, even with the additional load of more people home for the past weeks.  But I was crawling. 

Today, the internet connection showed complete disconnection, many times, throughout the night and the morning.  I was actually kind of relieved: here was the problem.  Fix this, and I’ll be set again.  It must have just been building up for a while.

But after it was rebooted–and everyone else was back up and running–I continued to wait and wait. 

Three and a half hours later, I hung up with the (infinitely patient–and local) tech.  Turns out that my computer has viruses and malware–and is not backed up as I thought. It is not safe to have it connected to the internet until we do a complete data back up, and reinstall the operating system.  I will also have to re-download and re-install all the programs, finding all the passwords and their registration keys. It will be hours upon hours of work. 

Like I said at the beginning, I am not excited about this information. 

But here’s the funny part: I am not mad.  I am remarkably calm (because I live on my computer). 

Instead of screaming that I can’t look at my computer, I find myself actually grateful.  I reached a great tech, who has a plan.  Data has not been lost.  Perhaps after one full day, I’ll be back up. 

I can’t help but to wonder if my little game of “find the silver lining” has caused a change in my outlook over all? 

If that’s true, well, then: that’s one more silver lining to this whole experience!

Silver Linings…

started as my personal response to 2020’s global pandemic of COVID-19.  When I published them locally,  I was surprised by how much people responded to them.

 

I hope they bring some positivity to you, too, during this unsettling time

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