What my computer virus taught me

I’m sitting here all giddy, seriously I can’t stop myself from smiling. You see, I’ve just emerged from the land of the infected computer. It is so beautiful here I hope you all are enjoying an uneventful day. Take a moment to appreciate your computer’s health. Heck, back up some files just for the fun of it. Don’t wait for the dark cloud to descend upon your home and family because it is not a matter of if it will visit you, more a matter of when.

I seriously can’t believe I’m able to access the internet and type here again. Merry Christmas.

This is the second time I’ve encountered a debilitating computer virus/spyware/malware... whatever it is, it’s not fun. Coincidentally, both occurred in 2010. The first time this happened I was freaking out. I panicked and it rocked my world for a day or so, then I gave up and surrendered my computer to our local Data Doctors. They fixed it, but it came with a price. I licked my wounds, became proactive with backing up my files and creating a copy of my system’s image. I wanted to make sure that I never was in as weak of a position as I was on that day.

So on Sunday, when this happened to our computer again. I was in a better “boat.” Looking back 5 days ago, I can see how badly I wanted this problem to go away. I knew that Data Doctor was not going to be an option this time. I was going to fix it this time. I sent Brad out to get Spyware Doctor 2011 that same day. Wouldn't you know it wasn't the latest version. It was a feat to just get the updated version via computer to computer transfer. From the beginning to the end, it was one road block after another. After a day or so of it, my stress level returned to a “normal” state for me, I’m always running a bit high in that dept. (I’m working on that too, but that is another blog topic.) I had actually considered pulling an all-nighter on Sunday night. I had a representative that assured me that I could do it! He would be waiting to work on the fruits of my labor. He informed me that he would be there for the next 8 hours to work on my issue. It was 11:30pm my time. Thank God, I chose to toss and turn for the next 6 hours, instead of trying to fix it that night. It never would of been successful and I would have been one crab-apple-of-a-person to boot. I woke up relieved that my dream where my laptop lid broke off the computer was not a reality. Phew! I don't think I could of handled that.

I will spare you all the fascinating “geeky” details of the road to recovery. I’m glad it is over. It was 5 days of following email and phone advice, usually to no avail. Sometimes, I would be successful and I felt like I was making some progress. It turns out that today was they day that it got resolved. I was truly surprised. I think it was such a new issue, that the tech people were busy learning about it as new information came in about the “beast.” Hopefully, this “beast” will all be old info and be easy to deal with if it ever does pay you a visit.

I’m so excited to be able to publish this blog today. I learned all about patience this week. It was a brutal lesson, but quite effective nonetheless. I hope I’m not put to the test anytime soon.