A long-time client of mine called at 10:30PM, "Gayle! My entire hard drive has been erased, please come over right now!" Usually, I go through a help call routine, trying to pin down the problem, but she INSISTED that I drive over to her home office right away because she was totally freaked out.

Ok, I didn't want to leave in the middle of Frontline, but... I threw on my fanciest sweats (turquoise colored 100% silk), and headed out 7 miles north, 1 mile east, across the Rio Grande river, and down the little dirt lane to her house. Sigh.

She greeted me with a big hug, a cup of coffee (all my clients know to have hot coffee ready for me!), and tearfully led me to her now-totally-erased-computer. She said she was working on an important proposal and all of the sudden the screen went completely blank, and she is sure a virus erased her whole computer.

I asked her a few questions and somehow that guided my hand to the power switch on the monitor. I turned on the monitor and like magic, her entire hard drive was recovered instantly.

Needless to say, she was very apologetic. I often get the "I feel sooooooooooo stupid" lament when it comes to computer stuff, but, sometimes, not too often, I feel like a stupid technician. So, I said, in a comforting sort of way, "I feel stupid for not asking you to check power, cables, etc. before I drove over to turn on your monitor for you!!"

It's just like that sometimes.