A Rant — Be warned!

I like computers. I like them a lot. I like the way they allow me to get my thoughts down almost as quickly as I think them, and then let me go back and reorder them so they sound coherent.

I like the way I can cut and paste, rearranging my stories without having to re-type every word.

I love that I can talk to Darling Daughter face to face (screen-to-screen?) even though she’s in Germany. It’s like a miracle.

Right now though, the only thing I can think to like about my computer is being able to imagine what kind of noise it would make if I threw it against the wall.

You see, today I put off several tasks including sweeping and mopping the floor (a major sacrifice!) to work on a short story. And I was hot, words flowing out of me like a river, tying up the loose ends that needed knotted, and really making progress.

All came to a stuttering, grinding, frustrating halt when I got up for a moment and returned to sleeping computer.

No problem, you think, and so did I. But unlike Sleeping Beauty, my lovely Mac chose not to awaken, at least not completely.

I did what any rational person would do — shut it down and restarted it. And there were my lovely words in a recovered document, which I saved, replacing the older version.

The big problem came when I tried to get back to work.
Could I type on the document?
No.
Could I copy and paste all the words in a new document?
No.
Could I copy and paste the words in an email?
No.
Could I shut down $%@# Word and reopen it?
Well, yes, I could. But the newly saved document was gone, replaced by — you guessed it — the same document I’d started out with three hours before.
Clinging blindly to my rapidly diminishing faith in technology, I again shut down the computer and restarted it.
No joy. My work is gone.

I needed to console myself, so I ate two pieces of fresh-baked bread and butter. That helped a little, but now I have to exercise to work off the extra calories.

Yes, I know it would have been better to just work off the frustration that way to begin with.  And yes, I know I should have saved earlier and more often. Telling me that now doesn’t help much, does it?

So now, I will set Word to auto-save more often in the future and then go exercise. There’s really nothing else I can do except to add one more reason to my list of why you shouldn’t become a writer.

Don’t Become a Writer
Reason #13: Because you have to depend on technology, and technology doesn’t always work the way it’s supposed to.

P.S. You’re probably wondering what the featured image of the lake has to do with this post. The answer is nothing. I just needed something calming to look at.