Crashing

his has been an extremely crappy week regarding all things technology.

Logging into my computer, I noticed my background was different.  Then a pop-up announces – “Welcome to your new Dell!”

Beg pardon?

My computer thinks it is new.  I’m confused.  Apparently, so was my computer.

I ignore all this and head straight into my documents to get started on a draft column I’ve been writing.  Except my computer says This Folder Is Empty.

Excuse me?  This is not possible, I was working on it yesterday.  I have hundreds of documents.

Now curious, and ever-so slightly panicked, I click on Pictures. The computer says this folder is equally empty.

This is not good.

Music? Gone.  Videos? Gone.  iTunes? Kaput. QuickBooks? Vanished.

Time to reboot, the computer’s gone crazy.

After rebooting, which usually makes everything alright, I get a “Welcome To Your New Dell!” screen again.

It may not have been the Blue Screen of Death that I experienced when my laptop died a slow and painful death, but it was pretty close.

Restore point! I’ll go back in time and create my restore point to yesterday when I knew it worked.

Fail.  It won’t let me.

My computer is possessed.

I am not a happy camper.

Fortunately, I have everything backed up on my external hard drive.  Or at least I think I do.  But now that’s a little wiggy too.

Damn.

I am not a computer savvy person.  Everything computer related is by the seat of my pants and if I hit enough buttons I can make it work.  So I click on the C drive and notice it has the same amount of memory space used as usual, even though so much appears to be missing.  After clicking on lots of folders within that, I locate documents, pictures, music – miraculously – in a strange User folder.  I have no idea how I found it.  But it’s there.  So I painstakingly save each and every individual document and picture folder as well as music.  It takes me the better part of the day but have to at least try before the Blue Screen of Death really does show up.

My poor computer is at the doctor now, hopefully getting debugged from all manner of Ebola-like infections.

This isn’t going to be cheap, I fear.

Then there’s the other techno issue that I’m really cheesed about:  Older Boy’s iPod touch went missing in the school locker room after track practice where he left it sitting on the bench.  In the twelve minutes it took for him to realize he’d left it and for me to drive back to school, it had vanished. I assumed it was picked up by a coach or a friend to give back to him.

Didn’t happen.

To whomever took it: I hope you get a very itchy, oozing, leprosy-like, dermatological condition that causes severe disfigurement.  I also hope is not covered by insurance and it will take you years, if ever, to get over.  Don’t forget about the laws of karma while you are listening to my kid’s iPod.  You have just set in motion some very, very bad juju for yourself.  I hope you get everything that’s coming to you which I personally hope includes jail time.  I used to be a prosecutor, my friend, so I’m big on jail time for those who steal other people’s stuff.  And like Tom Petty, I Won’t Back Down.  Oh yeah, good luck with that leprosy.