Good Morning All,
Has this ever happened to you?
As I wrote to the kids yesterday: Today one of my worst nightmares was realized. I came in to the computer, sat down, and typed in the same password I have had for the past four years. It did not work. I tried again more carefully. It did not work. I tried once more, touching the keys like a brain surgeon exploring delicate tissue. Nothing.
My heart felt pretty much the same as it had when—while driving to work in heavy traffic five years ago—a green car maybe 100 yards in front of me went into a 360 degree spin that took it across two lanes of traffic and the breakdown lane, where it bounced off a guard rail, then drifted back across my lane, now so close I could see the driver’s equally surprised and horrified face, and came to a stop on the grass median. How it missed my tiny Colt and a dozen other cars is a miracle. Three seconds later, once it began to dawn on me how close I had come to catching Charon's ferry across the River Styx, my body was all pins and needles, especially in the chest area, and there came the thumping, pounding area on the top of my head. “Oh, terrific idea, heart,” I said to my heart, “now that we've lucked out yet again, let’s go ahead and have the massive coronary, anyway.”
Well, okay, maybe, as I sat at my computer and watched the little password box shiver at me each time I got the password wrong, my heart did not respond quite that dramatically, but I was nonetheless happy I’d remembered the beta-blocker with my orange juice.
I told myself not to panic. I reminded myself I’d not done an external-drive back-up in nearly a month. I reminded myself that my computer had been reminding me of that dereliction every day for the past two weeks, and that I—knucklehead of the first water—had cavalierly paid no attention. So? Was this my reward?
Eventually, I vaguely recollected going up on a cyber games website the previous evening for one round of cribbage before retiring. The website told me I had to upgrade my Java. Java said I needed to put in my password. I did so. It did not work. Java invited me to reset my password. I did so. It worked. I lost the cribbage game and went to bed.
So, there I sat yesterday morning, saying to myself, “Is it possible that the Java password I put in somehow became my computer-entry password? I mean, I do know these twisted, demonic people who design computer software are capable of just about anything, especially little tricks designed to humiliate the elderly, but, no, that could not be it, could it?”
With no other ideas, however, I said the hell with it and typed in the password I’d used for the Java. Up came my desktop! It worked! Unbloody believable! I have absolutely no idea how or why that happened. You can see why I love technology so much.
One other small detail: the password I used included Britta’s name, so the old lass is still helping me out in a pinch.
Go Well and Stay Well,
Bhekaron
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