The Saga

WHAT HAPPENED

My only link to write on this blog was stored in Waterfox. I'd click on Waterfox and there at the top of the page was a link to Amazon, which I never use, and the link to UTCOT. I'd click on that link and up would come the page just before this one where I'm writing. That first page has all the  2400+ blogs I've written in order of most recent to the very first. On that page I can see how many views each blog posting has had and check statistics of total view for the last week, month and all time and read any comments that have been posted. I can also view a world map of where views are coming from and what kind of  platforms are accessing the blog. Amazing, really!

Then on June 4th or 5th, I click on Waterfox and get a notice that an update is available. Without thinking (which is a modus operandi of mine {which according to spell check isn't correct but they offer no options so I think spell check doesn't know Latin or I'm just smarter than spell check!}) I click 'yes' and  when the download is over, I go to Waterfox and my link to the blog ISN'T THERE!!!!

And I have no idea what to do....

THE HEROS

My friend, John. He's my I.T. guy and always has been. He spent hours and hours on my computer trying to figure out how to get the link back and then days wracking his mind about it.

My friend, Deb. She showed me how to restore my computer to 'before' the Waterfox download. I did it and in the best of all possible worlds, it would have, but all that happened was that the new Waterfox link was at the bottom of my screen and the old Waterfox link was up with other links on my screen and neither would open.

My friend, Mike, down in that little part of Virginia that is between Virginia and North Carolina and close to Tennessee (which I didn't know I could spell!) We went to the same high school, a year apart, and were apartment mates in college for a year and we've stayed in touch and he's a wondrous, lovely, crazy, deeply committed guy who has read my blog for years. He spent days, like John, wracking his brain, about how to fix it, calling me numerous times and asking questions....

All my friends (Ann, Nancy, Mike, Bea, and many others) who contacted me in different ways to make sure I was in the land of the living and to find out why there was no blog since June 3 about Ascension Day. Thank you for reading and thank you for your concern.

THE SAVIORS

There is a little shop in a four shop mall on Main Street called "transform: technology services and repair" that I hadn't ever noticed though it's in easy walking distance from our house. Bern saw it and suggested going to them. So, last Friday I went down to talk to one of them, explained as best I could, my dilemma. He thought they could handle it and told me they were closed on Saturday. So I took my computer in on Monday afternoon.

The shop is run by a 30-something black guy and the two workers are a geeky white guy, maybe 20, and a brown skinned guy, also in his early 20's, if that, who I assumed is Hispanic. Just the kind of place I trust explicitly.

I went by this morning and it was done. The description on the receipt of what they had done was: "Quick fix--Quick Repair--Waterfox reinstall". They charged me $29--$30.84 after taxes. I thanked them profusely, but not the way I should have because part of me didn't believe it though they told me I would find my link, as before, on Waterfox, just as it was before--but I had to get home and be sure.

Bern and I reattached all the stuff that needed reattached--she is much more tech savvy  than I am (all I truly know about my computer is how to type, send emails and print documents!).  Then with hands shaking so  much with nerves I had to do my password with one finger--though I've been a touch typist since high school--I turned it on and.....

...THE LINK WAS BACK....

I realized I drew the first truly deep and free breath in over two week.

All was right and true in my life.

(I've told several people, since "the Saga of the Blog" that before June 4th, I would often sigh and think--I need to write a blog but I have nothing to say. From time to time, it was a burden. But in the last two weeks I've had more anxiety than I've had in the last 5 years total, not being able to write this for someone, anyone, to read. I can't tell you how alive and thankful and energized I am to be back under the castor oil tree pondering life. Prayers of thanks for the wondrous guys at 'transform'--use them if you're near Cheshire. Prayers of thanks for Bern for telling me to go there. And prayers of thanks for all of you that will someday read this--you make my writing mean a great deal, I love you.

Two weeks off might lose a lot of readers in this era of short attention spans and immediate gratification--so, I'd ask you, if you will, to suggest to friends who might be interested in my 'ponderings' to come read. And I thank you for that.