Technology: A Cautionary Tale

So, it's Father's Day 2011 and it's been, oh about...a-long-time since I've blogged and there are about 2000 other things I could write about.  BUT, I thought since I haven't written in a while, I would bring you a cautionary technology tale.  A kind of Public Service Announcement.  Consider it a Father's Day gift.  Or if you are not a father - just consider it my gift to you (I know, I know.  I am always thinking of others).

Here's the set-up in my house.  Basically it's Dueling Computers.  No, we are not techies.  No, we do not grow money on trees and thereby buy all the technology we want.  We have one fairly old laptop that is "mine," one brand spankin' new Toshiba laptop that is "sometimes mine," one dEEOInosaur from the ice age when computers actually looked like TV's (Remember large, fat TVs?  No?  Well, then you are too young to be reading my blog.) - that one is the "kids," and one of hubby's "work laptops" that only runs Very Important Work Programs That Are Useless to the Average American.  Any given day or night you can find the kids playing games on the dinosaur and whining incessantly about no sound, it moves too slow to shoot anything, why can't they have a real computer, blah, blah, blah, me "working" on my old laptop, and hubby fooling around with his work laptop (presumably doing actual work), and also doing Very Important Stuff on the Toshiba.

I think a timeline would be helpful and since I have lost all track of time, I am just going to make-up a timeline.  One night, let's call it Tuesday night, when hubby and I were feeling particularly technologically savvy, we decided to load all of our External Hard drive Very Important Information onto the Toshiba.  We did it!  It was a team effort, but we were successful (as evidenced by then having to open every file on the Toshiba and comment about how it all looked correct and normal).  Mission Accomplished.  We felt like pros.

Wednesday night hubby was doing work on his work laptop and fooling around on the Toshiba when a sound came out of his mouth that I can only describe as horror and amazement?  If it had been a word the word would have been EEGADS.  I mumbled, "Huh?" from my laptop.  He quickly told me that ALL our files we had loaded just the night before onto the Toshiba were gone, lost, vanished.  I did nothing.  I did not comment or react because I was absolutely sure that he was nuts and/or was not looking in the correct place on the computer.  So this type of conversation ensued for about 10 minutes:

Him:  BABE!!!  Everything is GONE!  How can this be???
Me:  Hmm. 
Him:  Jeez!!!  Aren't you freaking out???  Don't you care???
Me:  That's weird.  For sure.
Him:  Holy CRAP (not his EXACT words)!!!  I freaking HATE COMPUTERS!  What is the deal???  How can this be???
Me:  So are you sure they are gone?
Him:  Sheesh.  ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME???  What the heck is wrong here???  Didn't we just load this crap yesterday???
Me:  Hmm.

Now, after this continued for 10 minutes I decided to get up and walk the two feet across the table to examine the computer with him.  THEN the conversation went a little like THIS:

Me:  %$HS#!!!  What the heck???  Where the heck are all the files???
Him:  I don't freaking know!!!  What the heck is going on here???
Me:  It's like we are in some sort of altered universe.
Him:  What should I do???
Me:  I don't know.  Shut the whole thing down and REBOOT.  This is freaking crazy.  What the heck could have happened???
Him:  Okay.  Let's THINK, babe.  Let's shut down.  Maybe something mysterious and weird has happened that we wouldn't understand.  Shutting down.
Me:  Do it.

Silence. 

More silence.

Him:  (Very quietly.)  Oh, um babe.  It's the wrong computer.  This is my WORK computer.  The files are on the Toshiba.  We loaded the files on the Toshiba.  We've been looking on my work laptop.
Me:  You are kidding, right?
Him:  (Very quietly again.)  No, not kidding.

Doh!

After we got over the shock of our Very Important Files not disappearing into thin air, we had a good belly laugh.  As I am sure you are laughing at us now.  As you know, I have no pride.  So, I am not ashamed to tell you that THE VERY SAME THING happened about one week later.  Of course, we realized quicker (after only about 6 minutes) that hubby was looking at the wrong computer. 

Moral of the Story:  If you are not a techie and you are experiencing technological difficulties run through your list of helpful troubleshooting questions.  Is the computer plugged in?  Is the computer on?  And ADD to the list, IS THE COMPUTER YOURS?

Happy Father's Day!