The Hard Way

Today's post is brought to you by the letter 'H.'

Courtesy of www.sesamestreet.org

Particularly, things that being with the letter H: 'hard drive' and 'hard way.' Used in a sentence: "Corrie has learned the hard way by not backing up her hard drive."

 Due to an accidental incident involving my laptop being dropped (not by me), and failure to back up any data during the year I've owned it (all my fault), I was without a computer for much of the month of April...hence my absence from blogland. The good news is that my amazing friend Jeff happened to have an old hard drive sitting in his closet from a mis-shipment awhile back and gave it to me for free. My hero. The bad news is that I probably can't recover (or afford to recover) any of my data, which means I have lost tons of pictures of projects we've done and didn't get a chance to post about.  These were some of the more time consuming projects, which would involve long posts that I just hadn't had time to type up yet. They were: installing a kitchen cabinet, restaining our patio furniture, DIY baby shower gifts (nursing cover, pacifier clips, baby headbands), and replacing pipes/installing a drain in the walkway outside our back door. Perhaps the biggest loss - and most disappointing loss of pictures - was from a an electrical project we did with my dad in which we ran wiring for a new outlet in the dining room and two electrical boxes in the half bath, allowing us to install a wall sconce and light switch. (The half bath formerly had a ceiling light with a pull string that you had to pull horizontally to turn on - not easy for someone who is 5'2".) Not only was it our first major project, but I had planned to rely on the pictures and documented steps as a reference for future electrical work. 


That - relying on pictures and documentation of completed projects to replicate or help with future projects - is really the core purpose of why I started this blog in the first place. Even though the results are physically present in my home or as gifts in my friend's home, the processes are lost. And to me, those processes carry just as much value. 


And so my friends, though I am saddened at the loss of all that I wanted to share with you (and keep for reference), I'm forging ahead with some new projects. I am also thanking my lucky stars that I only had one year's worth of data on my computer. Though a lot of bookmarked recipes, project ideas, and house inspiration stuff was lost, most pictures from life events during that time are on Facebook, most of my music is on cd, my iPod or my old desktop in the attic, and important financial documents from my taxes and house purchase are not gone forever. Things could have been much worse. 


The moral of today's story? Go out and buy an external hard drive, then back up all your info. Or if you already back up your info, do it more often...You never know when someone might drop your laptop and everything could be gone in an instant!