The Day I Was Put on Hold

Clammy hands. Body drained of blood. Paralysis. Irregular heartbeat. Fuzzy brain. Malaise. Disorientation. Jelly knees.

Did I have a crush?

No, I did have a crash! 

A devastating, frustrating, heart-breaking crash. The hard disk of my trusty desktop (my lifeline) crashed on me, on my first working day of the year 2010! And it came without warning.

I reveled all I could over the holidays and visited my desktop only to check my emails and dawdle on Facebook. The first Monday of the year, January 5, would be my first writing day.

It was early in the morning and I was raring to add another ten pages, at least, to the book I am writing. And then it happened. The screen blinked and wham! I didn't know what hit me.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
My life stopped.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It became a series of ellipses (a series of periods—more like it). I was able to reach the outside world only through my netbook, but my files and photos were gone.

JC came to the rescue when he arrived home from work that evening. Using my netbook as CPU, he connected cables here and there to my monitor. In what seemed like ten years, there they were, on my screen, my folders containing my drafts and research materials!

“Your other files will have to wait till I am less busy," he said.

“Can you recover them all?” I asked, turning blue from holding my breath.

“Yes.”

I've never heard a sweeter “yes.”

But for the grace of God, I'd never have survived.

This will never happen again, I promised myself. 

The next day, as soon as the mall opened, I bought myself an external drive. At the moment, these are my new life support systems.

In time, I should be able to save up for the best CPU money can buy.

Thank you to my friends on Facebook, whom I ran to for help, for their advice and sympathy.