Bad Case of Withdrawal!

Have you ever gone into withdrawal? Maybe from trying to quit smoking - or drinking - or drugs - even dieting - whatever, and the stress from trying to give up something that was a big part of you really just about did you in?

That happened to me today.

I went into withdrawal from about 2 a.m. Monday morning until almost 7 p.m. Monday evening.

The cause - my computer was sick! So sick, that I couldn't get into anything, much less get online. Couldn't check my e-mail or read my favorite blogs or just surf. Sure as heck couldn't write a post either for my blog. Heck, I couldn't even get it to open enough to even play solitaire.

And, let me tell you this - I was lost! Like a little kid, separated in a store from Mommy dearest. Geez, I was like a fish out of water! Yes, it was THAT bad!

My problems began last night - about this time - when just out of the blue, the computer shut down on me and from then on, it wouldn't let me do anything. Just went into a loop as it tried to boot up again and again but something was blocking it. I could hardly wait till 10 a.m. when the computer shop opened for business Monday morning and was probably the first caller of the day there too! The owner tried to walk me through re-installing XP but it kept failing. Finally, he said he was sending his "techie" down to pick up the computer, take it to the shop and get it fixed there for once and for all!

About 1 p.m., Matt - the techie - showed up and bundled up my baby, almost as lovingly as I would have done had I been the one carrying it out to the vehicle waiting to take it to the computer hospital. And, about 4 hours later, the shop owner called to tell me he had it all operational again but just one small problem. When they re-installed XP, it wiped out all the information I had on it since I purchased it not quite three weeks ago! Even though when he tried to re-install XP, he had selected for it to remember files and folders, etc., it just zipped on by that command and erased my e-mail files, the software I had carefully installed and took with it one word document I had begun for my 1964 newspaper research collection.

It was about 6 p.m. when the shop owner's wife stopped by the house with my computer. She hooked it all up and I could hardly contain myself to log in to the internet, get my e-mail up and running and be off to the races again.

Thankfully, when I knew I was purchasing a new computer and that they wouldn't be able to transfer my e-mail over from the old one to this one, one of my blogger buddies had suggested I send e-mails from the old computer over to a webmail account and for once in my life, I listened to that directive. Boy, am I ever glad it did that too! I still am missing some e-mail addresses but was able to build a file from the e-mails I had shipped off to my g-mail account and then copy the address in from those messages to my address book. Thanks to Cariboo Ponderer for that piece of advice. It really worked great to have those e-mails to fall back on Vic.

Even so, it still took me from about 8 p.m. tonight until around 2 a.m. to get all those addresses copied in and nicknames, names, addresses all set up there!

So, I'm pretty beat tonight - my eyes are about worn out now too and I'm calling it a day and heading off to bed.

But, Tomcat - if you're reading this, please e-mail me because your address was one I didn't have when I got this computer so I had no record of it stored in my g-mail to re-add it in here tonight. There are a couple others whose e-mail addy I didn't have then too and I'm going to have to go into a search and destroy mode over the next couple of days now to track them down and get their addresses added too. But that's not near as hard to do as it would have been to try to find e-mail addresses for well over 100 people now is it?

SO - since I missed posting on Monday and here it is - already Tuesday - you get a double dose now of Bushisms so I am at least caught up in that department!

February 26, 2007
"We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or hold our allies hostile." - Des Moines, Iowa; August 21, 2000

and
February 27, 2007
"I like the idea of people running for office. There's a positive effect when you run for office. Maybe some will run for office and say, vote for me, I look forward to blowing up America. I don't know, I don't know if that will be their platform or not. But it's - I don't think so. I think people who generally run for office say, vote for me, I'm looking forward to fixing your potholes, or making sure you got bread on the table." - On elections in the Mideast; Washington, D.C.; March 16 , 2005