"We’ve Been Getting HBO Since the Last Time Lightening Hit the House."

Mitch laughs at me in only the best-spirited, most affectionate way when I call or e-mail for tech support. This morning, while using e-mail, the computer crashed twice. Turning it back on brought up the most alarming Microsoft “we’d like to send this problem to ourselves” dialog box. The word “dump” was in the line of language about the problem. This scared me a lot.

All day, my computer couldn’t find the Verizon server. A little yin yang icon spins while it looks for mail, etc. It would spin and spin, and eventually announce it was “tired of looking for the server.” I wondered if uninstalling the e-mail program, then reinstalling would help. I found the right place on the Control Panel. Stupid AOL was hiding out there, so I thought I would “practice” by uninstalling it. I did; I restarted. I highlighted Eudora, clicked Change/Remove, got the Are You Sure message – and chickened out. I checked Eudora again. The little yin yang spun for a moment, then the blue bar appeared! I had three or four messages! Yippee.

I answered a few messages, then popped around to favorite sites and blogs, pausing to check for comments on mine – and, lo! My archives links, invisible to me alone for weeks and weeks, were there. (Shout out to Bill, here, who gives me a little tech support with Blogger – though he was stumped by why I couldn’t see that list.)

So what’s an internet-ignoramus to do but assume that deleting AOL fixed both problems?

(In a slightly more probable instance of cause and effect, I came home from college once, turned on the TV and was surprised and delighted to watch a movie without commercial interruption. At the end, I found I had been watching HBO. When she came home, I asked Mom. “How long have you and Dad had HBO?” Her answer, of course: since the last time lightening struck the house.)