I woke up early this morning, turned on the computer, and got a screen that said “MBR error 2”.

And then it suggested that I hit any key to load from the floppy.

Now, I understand that “the floppy” is the DVD-ROM now.  There’s no such thing as a floppy drive anymore. Those days have passed.

And…what floppy disc? Load what? What?

It was a panicky feeling.

I had really important work to do.

I had a blog to write…and coffee to drink.

This “MBR” (master boot record) was really messing me up.

It was pretty darned serious.

And then I stepped back and took a quick reality check.

I don’t have to have this thing that I type on.

I don’t have to…but I will have it…and I’ll probably like it.

What the heck was I feeling so frantic about at 5:15 in the morning?

It was like I had a basketball size hole in my imaginary boat and I was trying to stem the flow with a large cotton blend T-shirt.

But I didn’t have a boat and I wasn’t in the water and I didn’t have some distant shore that I had to arrive at.

I was sitting in front of a black box that I connect to a screen and hit little plastic keys on a keyboard….and the plastic thing wasn’t working and I was frantically trying to fix the computer when all I had to do was take a breath and put things back into the proper perspective.

This plastic box doesn’t run me.

It ain’t the boss of me.

It’s no lifeline….

It’s like that funny commercial where the girl is making fun of her parents who only have “17 Facebook friends” (!!!)….

I don’t live for this thing called a computer.

Of course, I’m trying to do a system restore as I type this….so I’m not completely cured.

I love to surf….I love to read about what the people I care about are up to….I like the internet.

There’s a lot of cool stuff on the internet.

It’s a big, big library and I love libraries.

OH, MY GOSH!!! I THINK THAT THE SYSTEM RESTORE IS WORKING!!! MY PRECIOUS!!! MY PRECIOUS!!!!

MY PRECIOUS!!!

My boat floats.

All kidding aside…I think that I’m back in business with the computer that I must love a little shy of life itself.

That’s pretty pathetic.

What would it be like to have an actual smartphone?

Would I sit at the dinner table sending important texts (after I learned how to text) to people? Would I send texts to people who weren’t sitting at the table with me?

You know, though…this backup laptop that I’m typing on is pretty cool. I can sit and watch TV and type at the same time. It’s a good thing.

What’s the emergency? So one thing breaks and I pick up the slack with some other electronic device.

I’ve got this “electronic distraction” thing covered.

I am well distracted.

There is no hole in the boat. The computer is fixed and everything is the same again.

I almost didn’t miss it for a minute.