Tech Support. Crashing. Gratitude

I have spent the last week of my life on the phone to India or otherwise known as HP tech support.

Seems like our computer encountered some fatal error and after spending hours upon hours of my life trying to revive it we (my tech support friends and I) decided on Sunday afternoon that two weeks of celebrating a miraculous resurrection were not to be and we said goodbye to our three year old HP Media Center.

I've learned quite a bit these last few days and thought I would share my experiences with you to spare you the pain and loss. When your computer crashes, you lose everything you have not backed up on a disc or CD. Really. This is not an exaggeration.

• Three Plus years of Girl Scouts meetings; everyone in a word document. Gone!
• Every email and email address you've saved. Especially the one about your daughter's first day of kindergarten. Gone!
• The Excel documents you've written with Softball, Baseball and Girl Scout contacts. Gone!
• The 12 Days of Christmas Fliers that I previously wrote about. Gone!
• The photos you've taken and not sent to Walgreen's for back up. Gone!, Gone!, Gone!

I've not yet had the courage to go to Walgreen's and see what is there. Maybe this afternoon. Too bad I don't believe in strong alcohol as a vodka tonic might ease the pain when I open up my account.

I am not even counting all the hours since Wednesday morning that I've spent either on the phone, on the computer, or both trying to bring my old computer back to life. Gone!

Then, of course, all the time yesterday setting up the new one. Gone!

I'll never get these moments, documents or pictures back. Sure I have some of them stored on a disc, but I have lots more stored in my head and heart.

Maybe that's the lesson that impact me the most.

I can never recreate the moments that slip away that I don't bother backing up in my heart and head. Just like that hard drive in my computer, they are erased and gone for good. But I can make a deliberate step to stop that from happening in the future. I can write down the good memories, I can send my photos right away to Walgreen's, and I can invest in another hard drive to back it all up.

My husband asked me a great question. What made me so busy that I didn't send the photos right away to Walgreen's? Why did I download the memory card only to our computer?

Because I was too focused on the moments slipping away with laundry, meetings, meals to plan, cleaning to do. Not any more. These other things need to be a priority. (Don't tell my husband about the meals and cleaning part!)

I need to back up my life. I need to plan time to do the important things and let go of some of the stuff that's clogging up my time.

I'm grateful that in the end what is lost is not irreplaceable. My faith, my family, and my home are still in place. Nothing can take those away. Everything else is just stuff.