Board my BA flight in Boston last night, headin' for London & Zurich. Set up my computer, and prepare for a necessary 6-hour work session. Slide updates. Thinking-via-PowerPoint. Etc.
Whoops.
Crash.
Big time.
Not a peep out of my Gateway.
Go through my entire repertoire of diagnostics.
Nothing.
Stone DEAD.
And my B/U Dell is in my checked baggage ... and I haven't tested it in 6 months. What do I do? PANIC. Not "panic," but ... PANIC. As in, full-fledged, clinical Panic Attack. Sweaty. Heart palpitations. Will #2 work? Just how backed-up am I? ("Mostly" doesn't somehow feel all that re-assuring.) My desktop on my Gateway represents, I'd guess several thousand hours of work, perfectly arranged. Oh shit!
Arrive London. Want to get some patches going ASAP. Try to place a call on my new, super-duper (PRICEY!) Verizon world-phone. Access denied. OH SHIT.
Hey, here I am in Interlaken working via my B/U Dell. Nonetheless, what transpired—physically & emotionally—was a startling reminder of Tech-Dependence, 2005 Style! And I'm not so happy about that. There are of course the easy fixes. Redouble my back-up practices. Keep #2 in my carry-on, and check it routinely. Stay pissed off at Verizon—nothing new there. But in a way that's the least of it. I don't like being this wed to my gear—and I'm no Gearhead. But what is one to do? Actually, I worked with Pen & Notebook on a paper outline for a couple of hours—and did some good work. Maybe I'm in a PowerPoint Rut? Hmmm. I'll think on that.