After a safe journey home, I had a somewhat harrowing afternoon. While doing a routine system upgrade on my computer after our return, my computer discovered some problems with its files. For quite a while I thought that it might not re-boot. I was having trouble remembering the password to the backup drive, which would be needed in order to restore the contents of my hard drive. I keep an encrypted file of passwords. With nearly 90 applications and online sources to which I am registered, it is impossible to keep track of all of the passwords. And I try to change them often, but that means that memorization is beyond me. Unfortunately, however, while I have that file on my computer and backed up on my hard drive, I could not access it with my computer refusing to reboot.

The good news is that I was able to use some disk utilities to restore the hard drive, re-boot my computer and make both a hard copy of my password directory for my fireproof file and create a cloud document that I can use to retrieve passwords in the event that I have the problem in the future.

The fright that my computer might be dysfunctional was brief, but long enough to remind me that I need to be diligent about back up and about keeping my computer files organized.

It was also a reminder of how dependent we have become on these machines. I knew that if this particular computer were to fail it would be several days before I could get up and running with a new one. And during those days the blog wouldn’t get published. There would be some work at church that would be much harder to do as well if my computer were to be down. A similar set of events would occur if the computer were to be stolen. I’m good about backups and data wouldn’t be lost in the long run, but it sure would be a hassle in the short run.

It is good to have everything back up and running and a little scare was just right to remind me that I need to keep up the discipline of care for the computer and its files.

This laptop is seven years old now and it is probably the last computer I will have with a hard drive. Solid state or flash memory is replacing hard drives. This improvement will mean faster computers and ones that are more reliable and less prone to failure. The danger of such machines, of course is that we become so dependent upon them and then get careless.

I guess I need the occasional power failure or computer scare just to remind me that I can live without a computer for a few days at least.

One of the fun things about yesterday was watching the parade of empty cattle semis returning to Montana. We didn’t start counting soon enough, but we began to notice that there were a lot of trucks with cattle trailers heading west in Southwestern Montana yesterday. From Broadus to the South Dakota line we must have passed more than 50. Part of the parade is the incredible support and generosity of Montana ranchers. Many donated cattle to help South Dakota cattlemen who had experienced deep losses during the blizzard of a couple of weeks ago. I’m sure that there were also cattle that had been brought into South Dakota for sale. The bottom line is that you can’t count out the cattle ranchers of South Dakota. The storm was severe. The losses were great. But they are a hardy and tough lot. They’ve gotten back to work and it takes more than a blizzard to get the best of them.

We also passed a convoy of six trucks hauling round bales headed west in the same stretch of highway. It is early in the season. We often don’t have much winter weather at all before January or February. Big blizzards and severe storms, however, are the stuff of stories and we love to have a few good stories to tell as we go through this life’s journey. The great blizzard of ’13 will give us things to talk about for years. Along with the tales of loss and of inconvenience, I hope we remember to tell the stories of helpful neighbors and resilient ranchers.

While we were on our trip, I was talking about the storm with a friend who is a Montana rancher. He commented that the old timers were a lot tougher than our generation. They weathered the big winters without help from the outside. They often went weeks and more without any contact with other folks. They didn’t have electricity to lose. They lived in tiny homes that were poorly heated and had to feed cattle in sub-zero conditions and white-out blizzards. Perhaps they complained at the time. We don’t really know. What we do know is that by the time we had come along and they were telling the stories about the hard times in the past, they spoke of founding churches and gathering toi support neighbors. They told stories about growing strong, surviving, and making a life for themselves in a new place.

Having to spend a few hours sorting out a computer problem seems rather tame by comparison - hardly worth mentioning. At any rate, I’m back up and running and ready to publish this blog and get on with my day.

For the rest of the week I’ll be thinking and preparing for a funeral in Reeder, North Dakota on Monday. The church up there is small and struggling and from time to time we go up to help with a funeral. It has been 35 years since we moved up there to serve two small churches and 28 years since we moved away. But the friendships and bonds that we made in our years there are strong enough to last a lifetime. It is an honor to be invited to return and to share the goodness of the folk in that place.

We’re back home, back at work, and ready for new adventures.

Copyright © 2013 by Ted Huffman. I wrote this. If you want to copy it, please ask for permission. There is a contact me button at the bottom of this page. If you want to share my blog a friend, please direct your friend to my web site.