Nov 9, 2015 3 min read

Technology is for the birds. Every so often, I will think momentarily that some new device or system is pretty neat, but then something happens to remind me that it’s all bunk in the end.

That was the case this weekend.

My columns are typically due on Monday mornings. I am usually finishing it up and turning it in at the exact moment that it is due, occasionally a few minutes past. Sorry, editorial staff!

But not this weekend. I woke up early, and the house was quiet.

So I began typing in the silence of the morning. I shared how I had suffered through a bad headache all weekend and the home remedies I had tried.

I shared how, after several unsuccessful treatments, I inadvertently found relief when I fell asleep on the couch with the armrest supporting my neck.

I made a couple amusing references to Goldilocks finding comfort in a strange bed that were most appropriate.

And to top it all off, I was finished with time enough for a cup of coffee before my house awoke. I just needed to save and send my work – and that is when the trouble started.

Suddenly, the little doohickey that spins to tell you the computer is working wouldn’t stop spinning. It usually spins for a few seconds during the saving process, but it is a bad sign that it decided to play Energizer bunny. After a few minutes, it popped up an error message, saying the program needed to restart. I had no choice but to click OK, with the hopes of an auto-save in my mind.

No such luck was to be found; Word reopened with a blank page.

A clean slate.

A fresh start.

A new canvas.

With the sound of multiple alarms going off upstairs, I knew my silent work time had come to an end.

Questions and feet came bounding downstairs en masse. “What’s for breakfast?” “Have you seen my papers?” “Did you watch the weather?” “Do we need our coats?”

None of this was conducive to finding my lost column, so I shelved it until they left for school.

Then, I began to retype, trying to recall the witticisms and flow of my original work. It was only moderately successful.

When I attempted a second time to save, the same thing happened as the first time. The entirety of my column was lost into cyberspace.

So, there I was, having gone from early finish to last-minute completion.

I immediately remembered my position that technology is for the birds. That every time I think that some new device or system is pretty neat, something happens to remind me that it’s all bunk in the end.

I could feel the tension creeping back into my shoulder, up my neck and into my head. I realized that my column would, once again, be barely in on time. (Sorry, editorial staff!) Then, I headed for the couch again, hoping for another miraculous healing via armrest.

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.