Writing poetry, personal essay and narrative non-fiction has always been a passion. Drawers and cabinets hold pages and pages of handwritten work in journals and on scraps of paper; also, there are notebooks in storage which hold 20 years' worth of letters written to my parents (and Dad saved) when my young family and I were living long, lonely miles away.
In 1997, my son and his wife gave me my first computer and printer. I enjoyed learning to navigate my way through this new technology, although the “curve” was steep. Of course, it didn’t hurt one bit to have a son who had jumped into the burgeoning IT world with both feet and was eager and willing to help me. In a short while, I became quite computer literate.
Ever the wordy one, I enjoyed the ease with which I could tap out letters to friends (at that time few people had e-mail). At first, I used the computer (and printer) mainly for these snail-mail letters.
My fingers flew on the keyboard of the new wonder, moving as rapidly as my thoughts; when I reread and wanted to move sentences or paragraphs, delete, correct or enlarge upon any of this work, it could be done with an ease I marvel at to this day. Understandable when you realize I go back to the era of clunky Underwood typewriters and mimeograph machines! To an era when we really did use cc (carbon paper copies) and bcc (blind carbon paper copies)!
In a few months, I bought and began using Intuit’s Quicken program to keep track of my finances.
I saved all writing and other information on floppy disks, which was state of the art at that time.
Now it’s 2010 and I have my fourth computer, a laptop. I can’t say I’ve kept up with technology; however, I have become more and more adept at knowing how to get the most out of my computer and its programs.
I’ve often said, “... my life is on my computer.” Well, that’s hyperbole of course. The point is losing the files on my computer would be a devastating blow.
I'm far from a fearful or paranoid person, but I did have concerns about the safety of the information I had on the computer. Purchase of an external hard drive (over $150 at the time) didn't seem to make sense as it would usually be left at home with my computer (fire or burglary, while a remote possibility, was still something to think about). I bought a USB Flash Drive, backed up data on that and kept it with me at all times, apart from the computer.
