Apparently, I’m dealing with a “catastrophic board failure” which admittedly…is nothing like the “catastrophic glue failure” that had the mast of my brother’s wooden boat crashing to the deck as he was alone on his sailboat one afternoon…leaving him clinging to the side of his boat as he worked tirelessly to cut away the heavy sails that were dragging him under, before making it to shore…many hours later…exhausted and battered.
Nope…nothing like that at all.
There’s no life or death to what just happened. This is part of every day life. A computer I rely on heavily for both my Graphic Design business and my blogging and social media work…”dead.” Or at least temporarily not-breathing.
That little Mac “heartbeat” that keeps me company some nights as it lies next to me (yes, often my computer is next to me)…is no longer beating.
The worst part…it died the night before 60cm of snow virtually shut down the city…meaning I couldn’t get it to an IT company until 60 hours after it bit the dust…which essentially had me losing a solid 20+ hours of work…at least…before I could even have it looked at!
“I have both good and bad news,”the IT Tech informed me. The bad, included words like failure, fatal and catastrophic…the good, it’s a “known issue” so it’s covered by Apple…more bad, I won’t see it back until mid-week at best. Which essentially, will be a full week since it all began.
I have my iPad. My iPhone. However, while I can somewhat stay in touch on social media, I’ve a sympatico email account that allows me to RECEIVE emails and see all of the people who are trying to reach me but I can’t RESPOND to them because…well…who the heck knows. Something about Apple and Sympatico servers not liking one another but I zoned out during the explanation.
There is no correlation to my brother’s catastrophic failure and mine…I’m not left clinging to the side of a boat, I’m not using adrenalin strength to drag what was left of the mast onto the deck, I’m not exhausted from cutting away sails nor am I afraid of drowning…there is no relationship at all between the “catastrophic failures”…except for the words used to describe the events.
I have an unexpected week without my computer. I see many 12 hours days in my future to get caught up…I’ve done my best to explain it to clients and they’re incredibly understanding (one client even sending a bottle of Baileys!) The one fire I had to put out was dealt with by Matt who not only brought me his computer to work on Friday afternoon, but brought in the groceries from the car, put them away and made me lunch.
I’ve done as much as I can from an iPad (thank you Netflix for giving me this fabulous tool) but I’m unable to do 95% of my work (even putting a picture on this post becomes an issue and I’ve two posts I need to write with contests and links that simply aren’t getting done at the moment.)
This weekend…I read a book, cooked a few good meals, cleaned my room, watched Season Three of House of Cards (again, thanks Netflix), had a few baths, visited with a friend and relaxed for the first weekend in months.
There’s not a whole lot catastrophic about this. It’s a complete pain…but I will recover.
My brother…it took him a little bit longer than it will take me. Just as my warranty will cover most of the $1200 price tag for fixing my computer…his insurance will cover a great deal of the cost of fixing his boat. And, just as I’ll get back in the game in the next few days…he’ll sail again this Summer.
While this event puts me a little behind the eight ball…has me a wee bit panicked and wanting to get back to work…I’m cognizant of one simple fact…the language we use to describe events isn’t always necessary…and in fact, often it’s over the top. I worked in IT and have used dramatic language to describe computer failures many times, but really, there is nothing catastrophic about this…nothing fatal whatsoever.
My computer broke.
I maintain backup at all times and no files were lost…my clients are understanding and it’s quite a nuisance for me and those counting on me…but it’s as simple as I have a broken computer…that needs to be fixed and if it couldn’t be fixed, I would have bought a new one.
This week, I’ve had a few days off that to be honest…I probably needed. I’ve been working hard and the thing is…I need to find a little more balance in my life. And, just as soon as my computer is up and running and I’m all caught up…I’ll see what I can do to make that happen.
In the meantime, I think I’ll check in with my brother…see how things have been with him in his busy life…see how things are going with the rebuild of his boat and how he’s enjoying the tulips and daffodils that are springing up on his front lawn in Vancouver while we’re covered in snow! I’ve both his Christmas gift and his birthday cards sitting on my windowsill for the last several months, I’ve yet to take a moment to congratulate his wife on a fantastic award she just recieved…and I truly have to find the time to take care of a few important things in life.
The stuff that really matters.
Glad it’s under warrenty