Computers--Now You See Things, Now You Don't

Although my sister would say I am completely helpless when it comes to computers, that is not true.

I can do e-mails, shop, surf the net, shop, generate word documents, shop, download, upload, set up files, shop, create shortcuts and I even know what a cookie is and how to delete it. Oh, and have I mentioned that I can shop? All this and more. When my computer lets me do it, that is.

Sometimes, it turns on me. Like when I first decided to blog. Every time I tried to get onto blogger.com on my PC, all I got was a page with streaks of color. All the other websites were fine. I just couldn't get onto blogger no matter how hard I tried. Even a call to my sister, grand high exalted queen of computers, didn't help. I just couldn't get on the site.

Puzzled and frustrated, I gave it a whirl on my laptop--and got right on. Hmm. Interesting.

A month later, it got even more interesting. I could get on blogger, but I couldn't access the Sirius website.

Two weeks later, I could get onto Sirius, but not Gifts.com. Now it was getting personal. It was impacting on my shopping. Was I typing things in correctly? Had I somehow opened some sort of weird virus? Could I blame any of this on Tim?

Than, total disaster struck. No Word. Every time I tried to open a word document, I got either a blank gray screen or a series of dialogue boxes saying I needed to install the disk, it was searching the net for the correct program, it was screwing with my mind, etc.

Wait. When had I uninstalled Word? Had I been sleepwalking lately, or somehow hit some sort of secret delete key I didn't know about while searching for a YouTube video? More importantly, could I, in any way, blame this on Tim? So many questions.

And to make matters even more puzzling, Word was listed when I checked under programs and I could generate a word document.

Before I could figure out this cute little twist, my laptop decided to join my PC and make sure I had a nervous breakdown.

It stopped going online. No signal except for maybe a half hour between ten and eleven pm. That's it. Period. "Cable Unplugged", it told me. Ha!

I checked and there was no cable unplugged. I even unplugged and replugged. Maybe there was an elf living in the basement who was getting his jollies unplugging the cable? Perhaps it was the ghost from next door who had gotten bored and wandered over, looking for something new to do with her time? Could I, in any way, blame Tim for this?

Before I could answer any of these questions, the latest string of computer frolics occurred.

Word miraculously returned to my PC, but my address bar disappeared. I can only go to a site by not typing www, but only the site name in the topmost google box. I don't go to google, but directly to the site.

I can also get online with my laptop most anytime I want, but once I go to a site, I cannot get home by clicking on the little house icon because it is gone. Vanished into cyberspace.

Once again, I am left with many questions, the main one, of course, being, "Can I blame Tim"?