The technology bugs hit my life this week. I am familiar with technology being moody. A year or so ago I left my life of fixing technology moodiness on customers’ computers on a daily basis. This week the ghosts of glitches hit me.

It started with my old computer. Seven years is a long time for a computer to live but I love Windows 7 and don’t want to bury it yet. However, it said to me one day, “I have a hiccup and it might be fatal. Plan my funeral.”

I backed things up and continued to use it until it died. I gave it a few tweaks and it seemed to feel better. As my computer was recovering, my Internet seemed to have picked up the death wish. I didn’t have time to call technical support as I had a deadline, so I unplugged and reset at least once a day. However one day, nothing I did worked.

Boris and Natasha were sitting at the window above my computer observing, when a bang that I thought was against the side of my house scared them. I took a peek out my window and didn’t see anything. My Internet was down again, so I plugged and unplugged and tweaked to no avail. My neighbors should feel safe from my prying eyes because I never notice anything going on in my neighborhood. My husband informed me perhaps I didn’t have any Internet because a tree across the street fell on the lines.

After that was fixed I still had issues so I called support and my friendly technician came and replaced my modem. Everything worked and I was happy.

The next day my cellphone decided to glitch. It told me I didn’t have a SIM card. Well, I rebooted my phone and it worked temporarily. It required a reboot once a day to fix the problem, and I knew I needed to check with a cellphone technician but I put it off.

Remember this all happened within a few days. The glitch ghosts followed me wherever I went. My friend and I decided to go to the casino for our birthdays. We aren’t big gamblers but thought it would be fun to spend a little time on the slots and a lot of time eating. The establishment informed us of a free slot game to beat the boss. All we had to do was sign up and play the slot machine for three minutes. The person who beat the boss won $10.

The game got started late because of a computer glitch with the machines and they had to reload a couple of times. The boss machine did not work and so all the people playing won $10.

My friend and I continued on to Cold Stone Creamery for fattening things. My cellphone decided to lose its SIM card connection again. Since we were in the city we traveled to the cellphone store. My friend decided to have them update her cellphone because her coverage is spotty where she lives. The ghosts were active again. They employee couldn’t get her cellphone to charge. Finally they decided it was a new cord that decided it didn’t want to work.

As the technician was working on my phone, her computer decided to restart itself. The ghost was with me.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love technology and gadgets. I just don’t want to have to fix them anymore. I am like the customer I used to take care of — I just want them to work.

After my cellphone was reloaded — and yes, I could have done that myself, but I wanted it documented that I was having a problem — things are different. I have new things that keep popping up to make programs up to date and easy to use.

I am hoping the ghost of glitches has left and I can finally get some work done on my computer that is supposed to save me time but has made my life more complicated. Some may ask why I bother. I bother because I need to keep up so I will be able to communicate with my grandkids and their new language.

Soon eye contact, face-to-face conversations and family reunions will only be held over the screen.

 

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send email to her at hermionyvidaliabooks@gmail.com. Her Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/julie.