$#*&$(@*&#(@*#&

So... not only has my computer died to the point of having to ship it back to the manufacturer (which I had to pay for - a thing I find rather irksome), but Andy's computer has now started showing severe signs of oh-no-not-good-at-all-ness as well.

He had to erase and reinstall his hard drive. Mine was sent back with no way of recovering anything on the system. Luckily... I have learned my lesson from the two prior computers that have completely died on me in the last year - and all my worldly electronic possessions are now stored (thankfully) on an external hard drive.

I am therefore typing this on the one working computer we have left, which is the oldest of the bunch and the one we expected to perish at any moment. I hate this keyboard with a passion, but Andy's recovered system now no longer knows it has wireless capacity... and so he is again on hold snaking his way through automated customer support in search of an actual person.

I am angry. I am aware of how silly it is to get angry about something so tiny as this. Yet, if I am going to be honest about where I am... it is angry, frustrated, tired, disappointed with a tinge of "not fair" thrown in for good measure.

Apparently, the problem (according to Andy's last customer service call) is Windows Vista. More specifically... it is the automatic updates scheduled for Windows Vista by Microsoft. They are big no-nos, we have now been told.

Sigh.

In the meantime, much more important things are going on in the world and, even more importantly, in the lives of some of my loved ones. Thus, I will stop prattling on about my information woes and instead go back to praying for health and miracles elsewhere.