Around 3 p.m on Sunday, I was getting ready to post. I clicked on my login and started writing.  About 10 seconds after that, I got a phone call. Approximately three minutes later I came back to my site and saw–NOTHING!! All I could read were the words “DATABASE ERROR”

Now I am pretty good for an old girl with computers. I have learned many applications, how to restore the computer, how to recover a computer, especially a Dell from a blue screen fatal error, but to most people, not all, of my generation, computers will always be something of a mystery-something not concrete-surreal.

i always wonder where all of this info, these files everything are really stored.  Well anyway, I couldn’t figure out what happened and my mind started racing.  I called my son and I told him what happened. He told me that “Database error” means a file got corrupted. So I started really feeling bad.

Undergroundtownhall is akin to any of you coming home and seeing your house totally engulfed in flames or your business totally destroyed.  My son told me he was going to see if the files that support my website were still intact and they were. So, he determined that the problem might be stemming from my Internet Service Provider. These are the people who make my blog visible to the public. The files could all be intact, but if there is a problem on the servers end, no one will be able to see the site.

First I thought maybe they had gone out of business, because it is a small ISP company. A friend of mine owns it. So my son told me he would call the 800 number to find out what was going on.

In the meantime, my inbox was literally flooded with e-mails. I was frantically trying to put the word out that my site had crashed.  To further spread the word, I contacted Tim White of TimWhiteListens, who put a notice on his blog that my site had crashed.

I can’t tell you how I felt at that time–it was a feeling of horror, plain unadulterated horror. I could never replace all the articles I have written on this blog. Everything I write is in short term memory. The minute I write it, it leaves my memory.

Luckily, I have my son and a few other people who have the files to this blog stored on their computers. We all know that eventually, every computer will crash, files become corrupted for some reason. It is part of the computer age.

It doesn’t seem to phase the younger people because they grew up with computers that could restore and retrieve. My generation didn’t.

When we used to program in the mid to late 70′s, (of course there were no personal computers then), the Central Processing Units (CPU’S) were these giagantic machines that would literally take up an entire room and then some.

One would have to go to the university or college, take those beige colored mag cards, punch the holes in the card in the correct place, take the pile over to the CPU, (hoping you didn’t drop any of the cards on the way over there) put the cards into the machine and pray you hole punched correctly. Remember that??

Well, if a card or a hole was not in the right place, or you left a comma out or whatever-the CPU would crash-it would loop and loop and loop–for what seemed like an ad infinitum period of time. Finally, maybe after several minutes it would end. But you were horrified!! That feeling about computers has stayed with me-I walk on eggshells with them, they still mystify me-I go through a ritual of turning it on, shutting it off. But still I worry.

The other day I was typing, my hand hit some key and POOF!! all of my typing was GONE!!

Again, I called my son who told me to look into the “drafts” folder–low and behold-there it was!! I can’t take two instances of this in a week!! It is too much for my old self!!

Anyway, thanks to Tim White for helping me out, and thanks to all of you for emailing me with your concerns.

I know there were SOME PEOPLE who were hoping UTH was gone for good. Well, you are out of luck at least this time.

Apparently a file got corrupted on the server, it was deleted and I was back in business. My son was so non chalant about this. I nearly ended up in the cardiac intensive care unit, to put it mildly. Most people my age will never have a comfortable relationship with a computer. We will always be walking on thin ice.

I remember the time I was writing a story at the Post when we first got computers and the power went out!!

I lost the last half of my story because I got so involved in it I forgot to hit the save button after every paragraph, which we were told to do back in the 80′s, to keep from losing our work.

I took that monitor and threw it on the floor!! I was so pissed!! Luckily I didn’t damage anything, but after about 20 minutes, the editor convinced me to try to re-write what I had originally written. This is nearly impossible because as I stated before, I do not store this info long term.  So after I threw my swearing, Italian handgesture tamtrum, managed to piece something together for the paper the next day, but it was not good because I was too emotionally upset to concentrate on it.

You know what, the hell with all of this info flying through the air. Get the old typewriter with the carbon paper back!! Get HARD COPY!! Just like people are staring to realize that records sound better than CD’s someday, hopefully before I die, people will realize there is nothing like PAPERWORK ON PAPER not CD’s or DVD’s or memory sticks or whatever the hell they call it now.

Ok, so back to business.

All of us are worrying about taxes especially this year with many cities and towns in Connecticut going through reval. Many have seen their property assessments skyrocket. So, I came across a timely article aptly entitled, ” The 10 Greatest Low Tax Places to Retire/”

Hint: one of them IS Manchester, New Hampshire. All they say about it is true, EXCEPT-DO NOT DRIVE OVER 30 MPH or you will face the HELL my son had to go through in the traffic court.

Remember?

He had to drive three hours from Connecticut on a SUNDAY to take an eight hour driver retraining course-then drive back to Connecticut another three hours to go to school the next day.

Then the State of New Hampshire WOULD NOT ALLOW HIM TO MAIL THE CERTIFICATE OF COURSE COMPLETION IN. HE HAD TO RETURN THE CERTIFICATE TO THE MANCHESTER COURTHOUSE DURING THE WEEK. HE HAD TO HAND IT IN IN PERSON!!

So, that involved ANOTHER 3 hours up and back, total 6 hours on the road just to hand in the certificate!! Can you believe this? And as far as taking an online course-forget it. New Hampshire conveniently doesn’t recognize any of them. They want you in person plain and simple. That is why the gentleman who got a ticket for speeding had to take the defensive class with my son in person also. PROBLEM WAS: THE MAN WAS FROM CALIFORNIA!! HE HAD TO FLY BACK TO NEW HAMPSHIRE!! THEY DIDN”T CARE!

Also, in New Hampshire, if you travel 25 mph over the speed limit, which is 30 in Manchester, and you have a New Hampshire license, IT IS SUSPENDED!!

As I have stated previously, in New Hampshire, you can openly carry a weapon, shoot off fireworks whenever you want to, seat belts ARE OPTIONAL OVER 18, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO CARRY AUTO INSURANCE, OK? BUT DON”T SPEED!! or BREAK ANY OF THEIR OTHER LAWS!!

Keep this in mind if you DO RETIRE THERE!!

Click here for 10 best  low tax places to retire

OK I am exhausted from shoveling out from yet ANOTHER snowstorm. What gives?

See you later I hope!!