Computer geeks and rulers

I had a big scare this morning. I went to my computer to check my email and the 6 year-old computer wouldn’t respond. Yikes! The power light was on, but nothing was happening. I did the usual checks with no success, so I decided to turn it off and restart it, only it refused to restart. Oh dear! At 10 AM I called our computer-geek friend, Mike. It’s always good to have at least one of those around. He promised to come over as soon as he was finished with work.

Now I was faced with the problem of what to do all day without a computer. I was completely lost. I wandered around confused for a while. Finally I decided I could start cleaning up my studio. Why does it always end up in a messy disaster? Stacks and piles everywhere. They’re like rabbits. They multiply when I’m not looking. After I cleared away some of the rubble, I decided it was a good time to organize my rotary rulers. (Organizing things is always a good way for me to keep emotions in check.) I decided to hang my rulers from the end of my work table, right next to my rotary mat. I like to store things as close as possible to the place where they are used.

A couple weeks ago, I bought some 3M Command hooks. They come with a double sided adhesive strip that is supposed to be removable without damaging whatever surface you stick them to. I laid out my rulers and tried different arrangements so they would all fit, and then I started adhering the hooks. In just a short time, I had everything hanging within hands-reach of where they are used.

Since I was still a little depressed about my dead computer and we had a buy-one-get-one-free coupon for Dairy Queen, DH and I went out and got Blizzards. Sure, it’s snowing outside, but a Blizzard is always good medicine for whatever ails you.

By the time we got home, our computer-geek showed up. Mike did some fiddling around and some “electro-swaps” (his term for putting parts from a working computer into the non-working computer to diagnose the problem). He determined that the power supply was dead. After a quick run to the computer fix-it store and $30, Mike popped in the new power supply and my computer was thankfully resurrected! I am thrilled! I do regular backups onto an external hard drive every night, but I know there are some programs and other things that aren’t backed up, and moving to a new computer is a real headache.

Hopefully tomorrow will be more productive!