Hello, Everyone!
Now that the weather is nicer in our part of the world, I’m definitely enjoying summer. I hope you are, too.
I often long for the good old days of summer when the days seemed to last forever. I grew up on a cul-de-sac filled with young children. Everyday was a play day with games and running around in our bathing suits and splashing in a neighbor’s plastic pool or laying on the grass and watching the clouds skitter across the sky. Those were wonderful days and sadly I didn’t realize that one day I would miss those days. Of course, back then, I had no idea how my life would change. Nothing is simple anymore, especially now that technology is part of our lives at work and at home. A few months ago, my smart phone quit working. It took the phone company 4 days to replace it. During that time, I thought I’d die. And I wondered, how had I functioned without a smart phone, let alone a cell phone all those years ago when I didn’t even know what a cellphone was? Now, I use the cellphone constantly – for email and texting and phone calls. And when I need information, my cell phone connects me to the internet and I have the information within seconds. I actually have friends who don’t own computers. At first, I thought that was ridiculous, but now I envy anyone who can function off the grid.
My frustration with technology increased multitudinously over the past month. My website was hacked and I couldn’t post anything. I had hired someone to make some changes to the website and he couldn’t access it either. I contacted the security service that oversees my website. They wouldn’t respond to me unless I completed an online request. When they realized my website was hacked, it seemed to make matters worse. They blocked me from their site so I couldn’t log in to make a request. When I emailed them about this, they told me to log in to make a request. Then I was blocked from my own website. They had told me to log into their website and my own website and change the passwords, but they wouldn’t let me access either website so I couldn’t log in and change my passwords. This went on for a month with my emailing them and telling them I couldn’t access the sites and with their pat response to log in so they could assess the situation. Because I’m so busy with my day job, I could only respond in the evening which was my writing time and I didn’t want to spend my precious writing time emailing for support. I had no choice. These weren’t the only sites affected. I had to change my password on several other sites that affected my website. When I couldn’t access these sites either, I would email the provider and receive a response that they weren’t responsible for the problem and I should contact another site which would respond with the not-my-responsibility email. I did speak with one tech who said their site was designed so the customer could dig around and figure things out on their own? When was I supposed to find time to do that, I asked? I finally convinced her I needed help.
I’m not sure what happened but finally I was able to gain access to my website and the security website. Don’t ask me what changed, because I couldn’t begin to explain it. But I am relieved that I once again can access my site and can start making the changes I had planned to make a month ago. I’ll be posting about those changes soon as I’m very excited about a couple of projects in which I’m participating and can’t wait to share the news.
I hope your life is wonderful and your summer fabulous. I’m sending warm, summery thoughts your way, and I hope you’re not having any technological problems! Happy summer!
Love,
Laura
