However, this month, let me add one to the list that just happened a couple of weeks ago when I was on travel 1,100 miles from home.
My laptop died two days for an index was due. If there was ever a time for Business Disaster Preparedness to be tested, now was the time. And, I failed completely!
I had taken the pages with me, and was working on the index while on travel. Working was expected while on travel. The index was 1/2 completed.
All of a sudden, without warning, the laptop died. I mean died!
I don't carry a backup laptop. I didn't have a car for transportation to a public library to e-mail the editor. I wasn't staying in a hotel with computing amenities. I didn't have a backup copy of the index on diskette or CD. (Bad planning on my part.) Nor did I have my indexing software to install on an emergency use computer--whether I bought a new laptop while on travel, or used a kind other soul's.
This is a case of Up The Creek Without A Paddle. I seriously hope you will learn from my mistakes along the way to benefit yourselves. This situation caused me to be physically ill from the thought of having to call the editor at this late date and relay the very bad news.
I tried everything I knew to do to the laptop to jumpstart it. Nothing. To me, this was a genuine business disaster!
Since it was really dead, my husband decided to get "up close and personal" with the laptop. After all, radical was all that was left. After pulling out a bunch of unfamiliar tools I didn't know he had, and fussing with the thing, it turned out the power cord simply had a broken wire, or short, or something. As long as the cord was perfectly placed, the laptop worked! It had suddenly died because the power cord wire was moved. Up until that point, it was just luck that it didn't show up sooner!
In other words, I really got lucky! We placed the laptop and its cord just so and didn't move it until the index was done. I didn't lose very much work at all when the laptop died suddenly, because I have my indexing software set to automatically backup every minute.
Go To Page: 1 2
