The beginning of my aforementioned “fortunately…unfortunately” week was a week ago yesterday, when the computer crashed as I was starting to backup the most recent files. I only lost the recent files, which was regrettable and annoying, but not a major loss. I did not know I lost the files until I took it to the technician. The saga that ensued made the loss of files irrelevant.

I took the computer in on Monday morning. He kept saying he would call me at a particular time, but I had to call him back each time. The last time I called Monday evening he was about to install the operating system. I asked him if he would get the files off of the hard drive first. Meaning no computer for another day.

Tuesday afternoon when I called, the tech ask if I had a flash drive to copy the files to. I drove back up to the store with my external hard drive. Which is when I learned what files were missing. Or so I thought at the time. Suffice it to say, the tech was off on Wednesday which made Thursday afternoon the earliest I would possibly get my computer back.

Which was maddening. Our middle son, Cameron, let me borrow his computer in the meantime. Which helped me get online, pay bills, and so forth. But without the programs I needed, I could do little else. I was still in limbo as to whether they would be able to retrieve my files from the hard drive or not.

Trying to concentrate on writing was more difficult than usual. My mind kept wandering,  thinking of software I would have to replace or find the installation disk for. Thinking of files I was not sure were included in my last backup. And simply feeling completely out of sorts because my routine had been upended and thrown into the corner behind the waste basket.

Of course I was praying. Even so, I was not sure God, other than being with me through the Holy Spirit and his grace, could provide digital assistance. I did, however, feel the moments of comfort – letting me know God was with me, regardless. Yet the situation dragged on.

I finally got my computer back and re-installed most of the programs. Which extended the period of feeling out of sorts with no control. Hours upon hours of waiting for files to load and  updates to run. Having to restart my computer for the changes to take effect and wait for even more updates to run.

Everything seems to be loaded and running at the moment. At least until I think of some other program I no longer have and need to load again. There was one odd thing though. I was going through the file containing  what the technician retrieved from the hard drive. I figured if there was nothing in some of the files, I might as well delete them. Fortunately, I started with an insignificant file.

When I hit delete, I found myself waiting for the computer to delete thousands of files that were not supposed to be there. Which would explain why they could not find anything on the hard drive after he had transferred the files. It also leads one to think that the files are potentially retrievable. So after I sufficiently recover from last week’s episode, I’ll find someone who can possible retrieve them. I don’t want to get my hopes up and have them trampled on again any time soon.

But come to think about it, maybe God has gone digital after all.

Peace be with you.