Ice Water by Laurie Buchanan
On Tuesday at just about Noon I finally heard from the Geek Squad regarding the data they’re trying to recover from my hard drive that died. Tuesday was their eleventh day of having it in their possession. I was hoping to hear that they were over-nighting the recovered data and that I’d have it on Wednesday afternoon.
The gentleman said, “I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that we’ll be able to recover some of your data, although we still don’t know how much. The bad news is it’s a time-intensive process. We’re looking at another four weeks.”
When he said “… able to recover some data,” my blood got a wee bit cool. When he said it would be “another four weeks” it felt like my blood had turned to ice water in my veins. I was in shock. Pretty much rendered speechless because so much time—eleven days— had already passed.
So what now?
As my mother used to say, “Time, tide, and Laurie wait for no man.” I’m in the process of picking myself up, dusting myself off, and starting all over again. With that in mind, Energy Medicine 101 starts again day after tomorrow. I’ll see you bright and early for Crystal Therapy.
“Whatever you are not changing, you are choosing.”
– Laurie Buchanan
www.HolEssence.com
Copyright © 2010 Laurie Buchanan — All Rights Reserved.
Tuesdays with Laurie 
Ice Water in my veins!!!
That is what I wish I had when I get hot flashes!
That is awful and pretty much what I thought had happened, however there still is hope!
(Smile)….
I am looking forward to crystal therapy! I love the two citrine crystals you had in the shop.
Kim
Kim – When I get “power surges” (aka hot flashes), ice water flowing through the veins would be a treat, wouldn’t it?! And I agree with your assesment of the two Citrine crystals we have in the shop — they’re pretty awesome, and great to hold during meditation.
Laurie,
Ice water can be rather refreshing! To drink or splash on your face when comforted with too much heat. I think the heat was on you. Sorry to hear “some” of the data my be recovered. But I think you have recovered nicely and have begun again. So ice water did not run in your veins, passion did!
I look forward to Crystal therapy.
I am Love, Jeff
“Passion” instead of ice water. I like the way you think, Jeff — thank you. When we have the Crystal Therapy class, I hope you’ll share with us about the pendant you wear.
Way to go, Laurie! You rock! The stream put a boulder in its path and now you’re swimming around it. But it’s soooo cold to swim in streams, isn’t it? HEY by the way you are about to make 9000 hits!!! Congratulations, flexible blogger!
Kathy – The waters are frigid, yes. But I’m moving so fast it’s almost like I’m skipping across the top. I just looked at the blog hit count for Speaking from the Heart and you’re right. I’m a toe past 9,000 — well would ya look at that!
Awesome!!
You always put a marvelous twist on things! “Power Surges” I love it! I will bet its the “Twisters”.
Maybe next time – come in I may purchase them!
Kim
Oh yes, Kim — and it’s a pretty interesting experience to have a “power surge” in front of a class of students!
Laurie, sometimes going with the flow takes us in unexpected directions and I love how you always say YES!
Colleen – “Unexpected directions” — yes, that’s precisely where the flow went. And I’m going with the flow. I’m so glad you stopped by and commented, thank you!
Stick a little lemon in the water for some pucker power and kiss the drive when it comes back to you all together and fine!
I’m rootin’ for ya!!!!
Laugh, learn and liven up your taste buds!
Beth
http://imacelebrationgoddess.com/
Hey Miss Beth — You’ve got a shin’ dig comin’ up in the near future. I’m sure lookin’ forward to it! Thank you for moseyin’ on by today.
In modern times, loss of our electronic data can have the effect of a house fire when it comes to loosing photos, writings and documents that are important to us. My heart goes out to you Laurie.
Now for something practical: My mother has a practice of sending each of her kids some of her most treasured photos so that if anything happens they someone else will have them in safe keeping. I sometimes do that with electronic files.
If you don’t have backups Laurie, do you happen to have drafts and copies you sent to others for review? Like copies of books sent publisher and such. Just a thought.
Talk about a lesson in letting go. Wow. Will post some orange/yellow today on Creative Potager to warm you up.
Terrill – I want to thank you again for the use of your loft the other day. Your post — Sitting — came out just as I hung up the phone. I stayed and sat for quite some time. And then revisited it as necessary.
I like your mother’s practicality — thank you for sharing that.
I contacted my editor at UW-Madison, she has an electronic copy of my manuscript that’s fairly outdated — but it’s waaaaaay better than nothing, and I never look a gift-horse in the mouth. I have it back in hand and am working to get it to the point where I left off. I feel like The Little Engine that Could, saying “I can do it, I can do it, I can do it” as I chug merrily along.
I’m grateful it’s Thursday — that means you’ll be posting on Creative Potager today — whoohoo!
Laurie,
a couple of years ago I crashed an external hard drive by gently tugging on the cord that attached it to my laptop. While it was running, it fell from the coffee table to the floor with a loud bang. I lost 10,000 + photos, including about 1200 from a magical trip to Iceland in summer of 2005. I sent it to some data recovery guys, but they were not able to recover anything.
I learned two strong lessons from this…. 1) back up everything (duh!) and 2) nothing is permanent (double duh!)
luckily, we can still choose to smile and sigh and start again…. like the monks do with the mandalas made of sand.
maybe a secret part of each of us just wanted to start fresh.
hugs!
~dawn
ps- I read your blog almost everyday, but usually it’s not easy to comment because I’m reading from my phone on the bus. but I’m still around. : )
Dawn – It’s so goooooooood to hear from you! You are so right about backing up (or in our case, checking that our back up is really backing up), and that n-o-t-h-i-n-g is permanent. I love how you referenced monks and the sand mandalas — a fresh start. I’m sorry about what happened with your external hard drive – ouch! Thank you for your comments.
Good Morning Laurie,
Computer lessons are hard to learn, but I bet this wont happen to you again!!
Back ups are a good idea.
You have been very patient and calm during this trying time.
A haiku I wrote comes to my mind for you while I was reading your post. .
“But I’m moving so fast it’s almost like I’m skipping across the top..”. . .
TOADY’S HAIKU
Time management:
Visioning the wolf
Nipping at my running heals
Pushing me forward.
Look forward to the Crystal Therapy.
~Jean
Jean – I love the Haiku you wrote. (My son’s totem is a wolf).
And you’re darn tootin’ this won’t happen again. Our New Zealand friend, Ted, has 9 backups — now I know why!
Pingback: Orange day « Creativepotager's Blog
EVERYONE – You’ve simply GOT to go over to Terrill’s blog post — ORANGE DAY — on Creative Potager to see how distance energy work, works! The amazing power of intent! And I was the recipient.
Sorry to hear about your computer issues Laurie!!
After loosing the first draft of my book, countless pictures and my entire website, I learned about the wonders of flash drives. Smaller than a lipstick tube and can hold gigs of data!!
I highly recommend one, or two 🙂
Hi Kristi – I’m so glad you stopped by, thank you. Yes — we are well aware of backups. We were under the impression that our external hard drive — the one for the specific purpose of backing up my laptop — was actually doing it’s job. When we went to retrieve our data from it, we discovered that it hadn’t backed anything up since January 21st. Once again the old saying of “never assume anything” came to light. Huge lesson learned.
Laurie,
I’m so relieved that you’re recovering from the ice-water shock…and moving forward so gracefully. I also read almost every post, but don’t often comment because….hmmmm, I had to think about it…but it’s because I’ve been in a place of gratefully receiving lately. It’s a hard lesson to learn sometimes.
I know you know this, but remember you are the gift. Anything you created, you can recreate just as beautifully and powerfully.
Much love,
Helen
Helen – “… but remember you are a gift.” Thank you for your kind words. I’m hell-bent-for-leather on a rewriting binge as we speak. [psssst, don’t tell anyone, but some of it’s actually better then the first time. That’ll just be our little secret] 🙂
Laurie, my heart goes out to you, mine fell at my feet when I learned that my back-up failed to recognize my Gaia posts and they were gone just like that *snap*. I actually mourned them for several days, then rationalized that there would be more forth-coming from the same source. That is a pretty callus and cavalier way of looking at it for sure, my other alternative would have been to fall to the floor and pound my fists and heels till the outrage dissipated. However, your words are braided into your life and mine are not. If a hail storm were to destroy my garden completely (and it has happened before), I would be the first on road to stand shaking my fist at the sky, shouting, ” Why? Why!?!” I feel like you have been battered by a technological hail-storm and can only offer sympathy hope for a better day.
Hi Sandi – I’m actually feeling like a trooper today! Other than to stand up and stretch my legs, my fingers have been blazin’ they keyboard — a regular whirling dervish! My snack of the day has been rice, with fresh avocado and lots of fresh salsa, with seedless green grapes as a chaser. I picked four roses this morning — two yellow and two pink — to keep me company with their sunny disposition. My candle is burning and I’m ploughing right through. Three article deadlines have been met on time. I’m currently working on a deadline for this weekend. And then my next deadline is July 5th. I’ll make them all — I’m determined. Thank you so much for stopping by. There are two blogs I’m recommending that everyone visit today:
Creative Potager’s ORANGE DAY
Ted Howard’s STATUS UPDATE
Laurie thank you so much for linking more than once in your comments to Creative Potager and also to Ted Howard’s update. So glad to be in community together. As your hands fly across the keys mind have being mixing and splashing paint in perfect time.
Terrill – It’s almost 6:30pm here and I can’t squeeze one more drop of creativity out of my little pointed head this evening. I’m going to plunk myself into a comfortable chair and watch a DVD I got at the library called “Paris, Je T’aime” — It won at the Toronto and Cannes film festivals. It’s eighteen different love stories — vignettes — directed by 18 different directors.
One more thing, Terrill – I hope that the painting you’re currently working on will find its way into your blog when the time is right. Is it the one you showed the underpainting of on Orange Day? Or another treasure in the works?
Can’t wait to read the power surge articles!!!
(Smile)
Kim
Kim – You make me laugh!
Hi Laurie,
About 15 years ago I had a head crash, and lost the File Allocation Table (FAT) and the root directory – physically scratched off the disk.
I started a reformat, and let it do one track then pulled the power.
Then I spent 7 days, 20 hours a day, rebuilding the FAT and the root directory by had, using some Norton tools.
Learned a lot about how hard drives work in that week.
I can understand it being a time intensive process, even with modern tools, there are a lot of things that require human intuition to figure out.
Likely to be quite expensive.
Have you given them a limit on how much you are prepared to spend?
Trust Len is getting to grips with DirSyn – it’s a great wee tool.
Arohanui
Ted
Ted – I just read your comment to Len and his eyes nearly bulged out of his head with the time/effort you spent restoring that hard drive! He’s still in the process of investigating DirSyn; hasn’t purchased anything yet. We did, indeed, give the Geek Squad a financial cap — a limit on how much we’ll spend.
It’s hard for me to imagine that you’re having winter while we’re up here in full summer. Sandi (over in Georgia) is practically in a hot house, and Barbara (Maryland) had a heat index of 103 degrees yesterday. With our humidity (Illinois) our state bird will soon be the mosquito — they’re getting that BIG!
Hi, Laurie — I popped over to Ted’s blog for a minute and wanted to come back and give you my condolences/congratulations (?). You are now the data safekeeping and recovery guru of the Gaia Community and we are all learning valuable lessons. I hope the whiz kids recover all of your data; I am glad you set a $$ limit. I am saving my Energy Medicine lesson for later today; right now, I am off to play tennis before the heat bakes the tennis court into glue.
Barbara – I hope you had a great morning on the tennis court. I know your heat index has been up over the 100 degree mark recently. I’m definitely not a data recovery guru, but man-o-man have I become extra-extra-extra careful about backing up RIGHT NOW on something external, and then VERIFYING that the external backup is working. I don’t intend to make that mistake again.
Hey Laurie! I have a local friend who has just started a business for fixing computers. I can pass on the info if you might want to confer with him before going the Geek Squad route. Unless you have some sort of insurance through them… might be good to get a second opinion.
Carla – Thank you so much for the offer, but we’re already in the “commitment” mode with the Geek Squad. They’re well into the process. Should we have any computer difficulties in the future, we’ll give you a holler. Maybe your person is the same person that Lisa Krupp gave us information for (local to our area).