Now I am still in the early technology phase - computers, cell phones, e-mails. I don't have a smart phone, as much as it might be convenient to have one. Living on a fixed retirement income I simply can't afford one in my budget, although someday I may be forced to give something up - like food - to get one. My cell phone at $30 a month is presently sufficient. However, It does bother me that folks today are so addicted to texting and playing games on their phones. The phones control their lives. And I really do get upset when I see people chatting and texting while driving. That is not only very inconsiderate, but actually very dangerous.
Now I do spend much time on the internet and using e-mail. Both are real timesavers for me. And, as I found out the last few weeks, my life is really tied into my computer. I use it for all my records, my finances and much of my purchasing. I also use it for church and Awana records and information. It contains my mailing lists. I use it to do my taxes. I operate a website and two blogs. I am amazed at how much of my life is contained on my harddrive. This became very evident to me the last few weeks.
For a few months I have been having a problem with occasional crashing of my computer. But every time it happened, I was able to get right back on again - Inconvenient, but nothing lost. I went to the Apple Genius Bar at Park City for help. In the past they have been very helpful with problems, but this time the technician didn't even want to run any tests. He just wanted me to buy a new computer. But a new computer would create a real problem because of the expensive software that I use that would not work on the newer operating systems. I talked to a few other people about the problem but didn't receive any solutions, so I just lived with the crashes.
Then, several weeks ago it died - really died. And I was in trouble. I went back to Apple and this time a technician was very helpful. He ran some tests that should have been done by them before and said that I needed a new logic board. And then he told me that they no longer make them so Apple couldn't help me. But he did suggest a company near Mt. Joy that specialized in difficult computer problems.
I headed right to their office and they agreed for about $80 to take it and run more tests. The next day they called and told me that they couldn't fix it but that they could send it to a company in New York that often can rebuild internal parts. $ $ $ Because I was now becoming desperate, I agreed. I did have back-ups, but no computer to guarantee that I could even use them. However, after much work and prayer, I was able to save most of my back-ups to my wife's computer. So not all was lost. That was a major relief.
Almost two weeks later my computer came back but the company in Mt. Joy called to tell me that I also needed a new harddrive. $ $ $ $ But what could I do? I needed the computer. A day later I picked it up and took it home to restore my files. But the computer wouldn't accept my data. So back to Mt. Joy, agreeing to pay them to do it. $ $ The next day I picked it up - it was working - took it home and once again it crashed. Back to the company again and they tried to restore it. This time they found that some of the data was corrupted but they couldn't find which files were corrupted and that prevented loading my back-ups. We were stumped again. Then that night I came up with the idea - actually the Lord answered my prayer - that maybe they could use my wife's hard drive and copy it to my computer. They agreed - they did it - it worked. And I am now using it to write this blog, update all my files and begin to file my income tax.
Computers are great - when they work. But remember to always back up your data - that is the only chance you have to "get your life back" when your computer crashes. And pray that your back-ups don't get corrupted.
I won't take time to share the other events of this week .. three root canals ... a new pump for our well ... several doctor visits. After all, it is only money, and God is good, all the time. He has provided all that we need. Now if I only owned an iPhone, I could text that to everyone!
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