Yes, simply put, my computer crashed. Not my home computer – that one would be far too important – no, it was my office computer. I’m not saying the office computer isn’t important, it is. But well, we do have our priorities.
As I was worrying and fretting over the crashed computer (this was not catastrophic. The University which lets me hang around maintains backup for everything so most files were saved) I had to start an “inventory of the missing” that was not backed up.
There was a lot missing of course, but something could be saved from the hard drive, right?
Not so much. No recent files were saved, some new re-search wasn’t saved, you get the idea. But generally it was ok as far as files go. The catastrophic things were links and settings. I have a lot of links because I do a lot of research and need quick access to places. I just do. And settings are crucial because it takes me a long time to get my desktops, laptops, tablets and phones just the way I like them. Yes, I am funny that way and you are too; I just admit it. And now I had a new laptop that had to be built up from scratch.
Um, is this important?
Rant and rave about IT all you want, the IT people are the unsung heroes of the planet. The IT specialist working to at-tempt to retrieve anything from my laptop is good at what he does. Really good. But the computer was fried. So all the important files were saved and all the time-sucking stuff that needed to be done, well, needed to be done.
And now there was something new for the worry column.
Worry column? Why yes, thank you, I do have one. A column in which is listed all the things I worry about. The location of those worries in that column depends on how important a particular worry hap-pens to be. Also, things move around on the list. Bee stings are not good for me – seriously not good. So worried about a bee sting in winter? Nope. Worried about a bee sting in summer? Oh heck yes.
And now, TA DA, I have “computer stuff” to worry about.
Or not.
I realized as I was thinking about what might and might not have been lost, there really wasn’t anything I could do about it. A crashed computer is both catastrophic and liberating at the same time.
It’s catastrophic because of the work lost, the time to find things, the expense involved, the re-creation of work, and more.
But oh the liberating part is like a warm, mellow Hawaiian evening breeze.
Worry
Worry is such an interesting thing. As children we gripe about the fact that our parents worry about us all the time. As parents, we gripe that our kids don’t realize how much we worry about them, or seem to realize that we worry at all. And both sides are correct. Parents often worry too much and kids often don’t appreciate how much we worry. That’s just part of the usual growing-up / grown-up dance of life. In other words, that’s pretty much normal.
I worry about my aging mother and I worry about my kids. I’ve got it from both directions at the same time. Most of us do. Having a mother who is cruising along nicely after more than a few decades and then having a 17 year old son and 10 year old daughter (with their accidents and illnesses), I know a bit about worrying about family.
I worry constantly. Sometimes I get so tired of worrying I think how nice it would be to pay someone to do all the worrying for me. And then reality hits me between the eyes.
Of course I know that no one can do your worrying but you. Of course I know that no one can understand the things you worry about better than you. Of course I know that I’d worry about not having anything to worry about should that ever happen. I guess I’ve been worrying so long that it just seems natural. And perhaps it is.
It’s not that I’ve always worried – heck no. My life was great growing up. My worrying started when I moved out on my own and the first bills came in the mail (yes, bills used to come in the mail. If they still do at your house it’s time to go paperless. And when your computer crashers get everything off your external hard drive and move on. You don’t have an external hard drive? Shame on you. Do it now).
Anyway, the bills came, I counted up my money and no matter how I counted, the numbers rarely matched. That’s when I really, truly learned to worry in a world-class way and I’ve never looked back.
Some stats
What would reasons-for-worry be without statistics? Nothing of course so I’ll provide some. The following statistics were gathered from various sources including Data Loss Statistics from Boston Computing Network:
•6% of all PCs will suffer an episode of data loss in any given year. That translates to approximately 4.6 million data loss episodes.
•31% of PC users have lost all of their files due to events beyond their control.
•A hard drive crashes every 15 seconds
•2,000 laptops are stolen or lost every day
•32% of data loss is caused by human error
•At a conservative estimate, data loss cost US businesses $18.2 billion annually (Graziadio Business Review).
So if you fall in those stats, welcome to the club. If not, be afraid; be very afraid because it will happen soon. Have a good day!
Still Amazed 