Time Out

We’ll try and keep this short and not too sweet.

Technology can be a wonderful servant but it makes a cruel master.

Anyone who has ever gotten stuck in an elevator or spent hours on hold waiting for a real person to pick up the phone line would agree.

Among the most frustrating machines known to modern man are our personal computers.

Addictive? Yes. Especially for news junkies like me. And when your PC breaks down…as it ultimately will…the withdrawal pains are unforgettable.

I should know. This weekend both my computers went down. This should never have happened. The whole point of keeping a back-up computer is to keep the information flowing under adverse circumstances.

Who could have planned a Sunday morning that required one machine’s hard drive be formatted and the other’s modem drivers to take a permanent vacation somewhere in cyber space.

Before the day was out, I noticed my right index finger twitching…left-clicking into thin air. My attention was irresistibly drawn to a black screen, expecting it to flicker to a life of its own. But there would be no quick fixes on this day. Just hours and hours of loading programs, working around system conflicts and promising myself to get a real life.

At least now you know (as of 1/20/02) why this message has not yet been recorded. Bill Gates has sent my tonsils on vacation, so the least I can do is send him this heartfelt…

"Thank you…"

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