The first week of December started out pretty much as usual. December is always crazy... school programs, church programs, gifts to buy and wrap, parties to plan, treats to make, cards to make and send; the list can go on and on. December is also an expensive month. This year we had saved and planned to buy most of our gifts in one shopping trip. The list was made, my parents were in town and they had agreed to watch the kids. So off we went to buy a ton of stuff. We filled a cart with gifts for the kids, grandparents, brothers and sisters, a few groceries... maybe the most we have spent in one trip to WalMart without buying one big item. I was feeling pretty good.
In addition to all of the Christmas craziness, my computer had started acting kind of funny the day before our big shopping trip. I assumed it could be solved by using the disk first aid. Unfortunately I was wrong. The next day, I took it to an appointment at the genius bar and received the news that the hard drive was failing. Immediately, I was having some major buyer's remorse. Why had I just spent all of my extra money the night before?
I found someone who could replace the hard drive for a resonable price, but I was devastated to find out that we may not be able to recover my data. I have close to 10,000 photos on that computer! I have backed up maybe 9000, but it's been a year or so since the last time I backed up the photos. Pretty much all of Paxton's life. It was going to cost significantly more to do the data recovery, but I had to do it. I want those pictures and videos, and I should probably try to recover my tax returns, too. The computer headed to the shop.
I never realized how much I rely on my computer. I keep track of my spending, the weather, Christmas deliveries I was waiting on. I found myself not keeping track of the days because I usually get on the computer in the morning to check my e-mail, bank account and facebook. I forgot to go to an executive PTA meeting and my volunteer night at the dental clinic. I was late getting my Christmas cards out because I couldn't make them, then I didn't have pictures I wanted from earlier in the year. I couldn't print photos of Paxton or my nephew to put in First Christmas ornaments I had bought. I had to find recipes for Christmas treats on my Kindle and my phone. I gave up on the great ideas I had pinned for Christmas crafts and homemade gifts. I am totally lost without a computer!
It was only a week and a half before I was able to pick the computer up, but it felt like an eternity. Ultimately I survived. My holiday preparations were a little more troublesome and there were things that I just didn't finish. Two things were learned from this unfortunate inconvenience, maybe I need to back off a bit from relying the computer, and I absolutely must start backing up my data. I have yet to put anything back on the computer, but I will be using an external hard drive to back up all of my precious family memories from now on. They were able to recover all of my data, but that isn't always the case. The guy who did the repair said put it this way~ a failed hard drive can be a disaster, but if you keep up with your data back up, it is a mere inconvenience.
Lesson learned.
