Miss me?
My last post was on the January 1st, and that's when things got a little crazy around here. The first was a Tuesday, and I was getting ready to leave for a quick trip to Wisconsin on Thursday. But in between Tuesday and Thursday (also known as Wednesday) it became clear that the hard drive on my computer was not going to make it much longer. I took the computer in to the Mac Store, and they agreed that this was most likely the problem, and then took it away saying I wouldn't see it again for another week :(
And so I traveled without my computer (which made going through security a breeze!) and I really enjoyed my time in Wisconsin, focusing on spending time with my family. I had my ipad with me, but I quickly learned that there would be no good blogging from it. Typepad doesn't let you add photos when using an internet browser on the ipad, and although it has an app, it looks like you can only add pictures together without text in between. And so I went old school and started jotting down memories and looking at the pics on my phone for reference so I would remember to add them later.
When I returned home, I got my computer back with its fancy and large new hard drive - I was excited to get it home and run the time machine to restore everything just the way it was before things went bad. Unfortunately, it just wasn't that easy. For whatever reason, there were problems with my backups, and while everything was still on the time capsule, I wasn't going to be able to retrieve it on my own.
Things were so crazy, busy when I returned, that I wasn't able to have anyone look at it again until Thursday of that week (I guess this would have been last Thursday) and Wil was kind enough to offer to take a look at it. He figured it would be a fairly quick fix and he could get it started here and it would be fine. No such luck. He ended up taking my computer and the time capsule back to his house to work on picking everything off by hand and returning it to my computer. Since the time capsule also serves as our router, we spent last weekend without the computer or any internet access (GASP!) We all learned a good lesson in finding other things to do with our time :)
Wil was able to return the computer and time capsule to me on Monday night, but I was so tired after he left that I couldn't even really deal with what needed to happen next. While everything is here on my computer (YIPPEEE!), he put it all into one folder on the desktop for me to return to its rightful location. HUGE potential for reorganization and a good cleaning out, but also a task that seems rather daunting. This week has also been pretty crazy with work, Ellie getting sick, and just life in general, so most nights I fall asleep in my chair before I ever get much of a chance to work on the computer. I have MUCH to catch up on, but will be doing it in small chunks when I'm awake.
But rest assured, we are all here and there are many pictures and stories that will be shared in the coming weeks. I will also be looking into additional back-up options for my 'puter. The time capsule is AWESOME when it works, and I still highly recommend it, but I'd also like to find some sort of cloud-like, off-site backup. And I also got some interesting input from Wil's girlfriend Eva, who is an archivist - she feels that the best form of back up is to set aside some favorite pictures from each month and simply print them. As years go by, she feels that those will be the easiest things for future generations to look through and put their hands on. I used to religiously print a number of favorite pictures every month, but stopped doing it about a year ago. Might be time to reconsider that plan as well.
So incorporating my word for 2013, I have to say that today I am CELEBRATING the following things:
- I'm so grateful that Wil is knowledgeable about these computer things and willing to help when stuff like this happens. He's definitely gone above and beyond to help me recover my data.
- SO HAPPY to have my computer back - the blogging, the work I do with my pictures....it really is a hobby that I love and I was missing it.
- Despite the hassles of not having the computer, it reminded me that there are other things that I like to do too - I started reading a series of books that I have enjoyed and I was able to spend some quality non-screen-time with my family for a couple of weekends. I think I might have even gotten a little more sleep too!
Stay tuned - there will be lots of catch-up coming soon :)
