Life at the Lillie Pad

Feb. 27, 2008
My Very Stupid, Stupid, STUPID Mistake

Have you ever done something really stupid? I bet you never guessed by my title that this is what I'd talk about today, did you? Last night I made an ultimate primo mistake and while it's all good- sort of- now, I'm still just a smidgen angry at myself.

It involves technology. For those who know me well, you can already guess that this isn't going to be good. Bonita + Technology = Disaster. When I got my new computers a few weeks ago I vaguely remember someone saying that I needed to get virus protection pretty soon because mine was for a limited time only. Of course, a lot of rapidly moving water has gone under the bridge since then and, apparently, I didn't process that information well or completely. This week an email showed up in my box reminding me that I needed to do something quickly.

It was on my "to do" list for yesterday to get protected. However, a lot of other things were on the list too so it got sent to the very bottom which meant that I didn't get to it until last evening. Unfortunately, my technological genius of a son wasn't home. He was making a meal for homeless people at Room at the Inn. So, I decided that this task couldn't possibly be too hard. I mean, after all, don't they walk you through this stuff? I'd do it myself and have it all done when he returned home and wouldn't he be so proud?

Well, I got it done all right or should I say "undone". I went through the entire process, which was a little more complicated than I anticipated, but I was so proud that I'd maneuvered through it all on my own. I followed the instructions and removed the existing virus protection on my new desktop computer and installed the new version. When my son came home all I needed him to do was check behind me to see if I did it right.

When I told him what I did he said, "You did what? You uninstalled the current program on the desktop computer?"

"All by myself," I said smuggly.

"Why did you do that?" he asked with a sick look on his face.

"Because the new virus program told me to do it," I replied.

"Mother," he replied, "Why did you uninstall a program that was to last another two years?"

"But it wasn't," I explained. "It was going to go out in a few days."

"No, Mom," he said, "That was your laptop, not the desktop. You had two years of virus protection left on the desktop!"

Long story short, I managed to rid myself of a perfectly good, already paid for virus protection program on my desktop computer. I "paid" for a totally unnecessary one year program that I installed to the desktop, not the laptop. Thankfully, by the grace of God, we were able to install it on the laptop too so all was not completely lost.

This, folks, is why God gave me a technological genius for a son- because he wanted me to steer clear of technology!

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