A Word to the Wise

You know how life goes. You get busy, taking trips, volunteering, yoga, a new grand baby , and you get distracted. Housecleaning and dusting can be put off until guests are scheduled, but you must go to the grocery store, put gas in the car, fill the bird feeders and BACKUP YOUR COMPUTER FILES regularly.

We've lived in this house for almost 33 years, and have never had any problems until last Friday.  I was out for about 2 and a half hours running errands and when I returned home, a window in the back of the house was standing wide open with the screen raised. You guessed it, big enough for someone to enter the house, which is what happened. We were broken into and robbed. The first thing I noticed missing was my laptop. I called the police, just fuming. How DARE anyone break into my house! OH NO! I hadn't copied all my Galapagos photos from August to the backup drive yet!! In fact, it appears that I hadn't made any backups since about last April, so most of 2011 is gone. Anything I blogged about is on Picasa, but the original photos are gone along with all the slide shows I'd prepared for various organizations. Laptops and software can be replaced (a time consuming activity), but other things are gone forever.

Accompanied by the police officer, I discovered that my entire jewelry box was also taken, but that's all. Have you ever tried to list the contents of your jewelry box from memory?  The one good piece was individually covered on insurance, but everything else will be subject to the deductible. Most things were gifts, or purchased from the artist and one of a kind. I've been browsing the jewelry websites just to be reminded of what I had and try to get a feel for the prices for the insurance company.

So wake up and hear the rooster crow!  Get busy and back up those irreplaceable files NOW!  A removable hard drive is a good start, but what if the house burns? Then you would be in a worse condition than I am after the theft. Back up your back ups and put them someplace else for safekeeping. Write down the serial number of your computer, camera, etc. and put them in your off site location. That's the first thing the police wanted to know about my laptop. And for God's sake, go lock all the windows in your house!  Nothing like locking the barn door after the horse is gone, I know, but maybe someone else can benefit from my negligence.