Day from HECK !!

Murphy Oil Soap

Today was a day of cleaning out my brand new PC HP Computer with Vista 64. Now ... I am a MAC girl and always have been .... clean running system, fast, efficient ... and NO viruses ... at least until now. Knock on Wood !!!

So ... for my trip to France I wanted to buy a MAC laptop ... But ... expenses and economy being what they are ... I couldn't afford the Mac laptop of my dreams ... $3000.00. I don't even have that to pay my bills. So ... I bought a brand new Hewlett Packard dv7 pavilion 17" laptop for my art residency in France. ... Oh .... it was beautiful ... I never saw colors like that ... and the Games !!! the games ... I had four chips to play Amazing Adventures - the Lost Tomb ... it was great. One Saturday, I sat down with my brand new laptop and played Adventures for 10 hours straight. NO .... not a waste of time because I cracked the code, entered the tomb, lit all of the torches and seized the treasure. Mind blowing.

Ok ... then two days ago something terrible happened. My PC computer, formerly whizzing through websites, multi-tasking with ten tabs working ... started becoming sluggish. Updates were crawling to enter my computer ... each day only one percent more being downloaded ... waiting 20 minutes to read one email ... no multi-tasking any longer ... did I make a huge mistake? I heard about viruses and spam and spyware and malware .... but I was a MAC user ... what did I know of these ???

8:00 a.m. sharp. This morning .... I'm on the phone with PC Security Shield ... convinced that it was the virus protector ... damn them !!! MACs don't even have a virus protector ... it MUST be them .... should I have stayed with Norton after the free 60 days trial period ??? Trying this, trying that ... and finally after TWO hours ... 'Jack' walked me through restoring my PC system to an earlier date ... crashes, weird phenomenon ... muscle aches ... longing for a martini(s) ... finally after 2 1/2 hours, he suggested that I need to call Hewlett Packard. The BIG guns.

I got out my information packet and dialed the number. It connected to a Adult Phone number beckoning me to ... hmmmm .... I don't even know what. I quickly pressed disconnect and thought ... 'Oh my God ... when my brother gets the bill he is going to think that I'm calling porn numbers ...". I dialed again more carefully and reached Hewlett Packard and was connected with the very sweet, highly intelligent 'Jas'. He's from Calcutta.

So ... we tried clicking this and clicking that, downloading this, downloading that (at a snail's pace) ... tried several times for him to take control over my computer ... SLOW speed ... no way .... six hours later .... SIX HOURS LATER ... we finished wiping out my complete system ... and reinstalling exactly the same system as it was when I purchased it only three months prior .... my shoulders ached .... 'Jas' encouraged me to lie on the floor and relax and he would yell into the receiver when it was time for me to perform another PC operation ... he was patient and funny and kind and interested in my life with all of the waiting .... waiting .... waiting .... with the blue spinning wheel of death on my computer.

He suggested ... it was an Internet Service Provider error ... 'No way' ... No way no way -- my connection showed that I was operating at maximum capacity. He suggested that the modem was operating at maximum capacity ... but maybe the ISP wasn't connecting. NOT POSSIBLE.

I paid my bill through April. It MUST be computer or software error ... the battery in my cordless phone was dying and that was the end of the wonderful Jas helping me .... tears ... why me ... why me ...

I called my Internet Service Provider ... oh ... a mistake was made ... WHO knows whose error it is - they didn't realize that I already paid through April ... they didn't bill ... thought I was getting internet for free ... canceled without notice ... No problem with PC Security Shield ... no problem with my Hewlett Packard ... but ... BIG PROBLEM with the muscles in my neck and shoulders ... and it was the very first beautiful day of Spring ... and I missed it. I never saw the trees blossom today.

Lesson. Even if it's the worst day ... and with one phone call I could've saved 9 hours of frustration and confusion ... think of friends and family and strangers that are in peril ... real problems ... like losing loved ones ... and it gives you the opportunity to count your blessings and thank Heaven that you are still here. Internet or no internet.
.... and maybe I'll see the trees tomorrow.

Thanks Diana .... xoxo

OLYMPUS AMERICA

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