Kids, Computer Failure, & AeroGrow - OH MY!

I had thought that yesterday would be challenging with the 4th grade field trip, the crew of children for whom I would be held responsible as a chaperone, and then additionally the paperwork awaiting me at home.  I knew I had a physical "inbox" that was overflowing ...

                 the vision insurance claim forms to be completed and sent,
                 mom-in-law's property tax exemption forms to be completed and sent,
                 tennis registration for my daughter to be completed and sent,
                 pre-paid ticket form for our local AA baseball team ...

I was already on overload after the field trip.  My brain was fried - completely above having to deal with much else for the day.  Add to that my NEW (3-month-old) DELL laptop being completely incapable of accessing its hard drive and you have an absolute recipe for spontaneous combustion.  One trip to Wal-mart with obnoxious children later, we dropped them at home and proclaimed that they could microwave leftover spaghetti. WE WERE GOING OUT ALONE.  Believe it or not, we still got calls on our cell phones while away and on the last one my daughter actually had the cajones to remind me of the time, and to add that I needed to get home soon so I could go to bed early.  Excuse me?  Am I not 33 years old?  Am I not capable of setting and adhering to my own bedtime?  I had to hang up on her.  They'd been instructed not to call us unless it was an emergency and that was certainly NOT an emergency. 

I admit ... even though I had had a chance to relax while out to dinner, I was still near tears by bedtime.  I loathed having to deal with tech support and their ever-so-condescending ("is your unit plugged in and turned on?") attitude.  Even more so, I loathed the whole process ... the hours it was inevitably going to take me to get it back online.  Perhaps I did purchase the three year warranty with on-site service, but that was only there for me if the tech on the phone couldn't solve the problem.

So, today I spent a total of 5 hours working on my laptop, most of which was spent either on a chat or phone call with DELL Tech Support (the remainder was spent talking to myself as things downloaded - always fun!).  Jesus had first honors as my Tech Support person and he did do his best, but our session logged out before I could resolve anything past reformatting my hard drive.  YIKES!  Not a good position to be in when you realize you are utterly and completely alone!  Then Deliseo did his best, at least helping to get Windows back online.  Of course, Nino was the most efficient of the bunch, getting all my drivers back into place and at least allowing me the ability to get my wireless network pieced back together.  Finally, Mary did a remote access thingy (sheer brilliance if you ask me!) to teach me how to get my wireless Internet up again.  As thrilling as tech support experiences often are, I still never got a satisfactory explanation of what happened to my laptop other than "Windows corrupted". 

So, happily chugging along in my half-insane bliss that I can actually get the laptop to work, I remembered that I now have to download and reinstall just about every program that had been on there.  More work.  A LOT more work.  Although I didn't use it for more than internet surfing, blogging, music downloads, and photo storage/editing, that alone indicates at least 3 or 4 programs.  iTunes, Kodak EasyShare, AVG Anti-Virus, PhotoFinish, Trillian ... they all needed to be put back onto the machine.  CRAP.  To top that off, dinner kind of fell apart without me.  London Broil came off the grill as I was finishing up with Mary and hubby was not sure what else to do.  Since we weren't going "caveman" anytime soon, I urged him to finish up with some instant potatoes laced with garlic and sour cream plus some frozen veggies nuked to doneness.  It happened without a hitch.

So, now I'm spending my night preoccupied in my laptop love affair.  I even hung up on the Aerogrow Representative that called me.  I just couldn't be bothered.  Well, I was annoyed with them anyway.  How can you have a commercial promising a DVD and info ... but then offer that only when someone agrees to take your bloody machine for 36 days?  Besides, I can return it, right?  Yeah, but if I forget and it gets to them just a day late, I'm on the hook for $200.  No, thank you!  So I vaguely remember rattling off something about deceptive advertising practices and that I'm no longer interested, yadda yadda, yadda.  Oh, definitely a "don't call me again" was in there somewhere, too.

ANYWHO already long story short ...

If you don't see me around here much, it's because I'm piecing my life back together AGAIN (didn't I just do this 3 months ago?) without the benefit of having backed anything up in the external drive.  :(  Bad, Mommy!  I know!

Just be patient with me.  I'm fragile.  I've been in tears twice today.  Deliseo had me pulling my hair out with his "let's try this ..." (Giggle)  NO.  Let's NOT try!  Let's DO.  Let's make it happen, OK, because I've already been on these computers far too long and you're supposed to know what you're doing! There should be no need for "trying"!   Breathe in and hold 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.  Exhale.  Much better.  Sorry about that.