Where I've Been...

No, the first week of school did not swallow me up.

My desktop got mad computer disease - similar to bovine spongiform encephalopathy in that its brain got eaten from the inside out.

Or at least, that's what I feared had happened when I suddenly lost internet access Tuesday night. I checked the modem and everything was fine up to the point where the signal entered my computer. Things did not look good. After wishing the problem would fix itself for a couple of days, I broke down and called Time Warner. They assured me that they knew about the problem and had technicians working on it and would have me back on-line in a day or two... sweet relief! But when I still was not on-line today, I called again. This time, they had no memory of ever having known about a problem, let alone having worked on it. I went through three levels of technicians before I got one who could reset my modem from afar and get me up and running. Now I ask you, why didn't we just do that the first day I called?

Anyway, my computer has a few other symptoms of mad computer disease, so I am now in the market for some knowledgeable yet cheap technician to do a house call. If I disappear again and you hear heart-rending screams emanating from Manhattan, you'll know why.

How did computers get to be so empowering and disempowering simultaneously?