It’s that time of the year: tax time.That always gets me thinking about the saying about death & taxes. You know the one ” in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” I think we could add computer glitches to that original statement, which was written by Benjamin Franklin in a letter in 1789.
Last year, when I loaded the tax software, it warned me that I would soon need to upgrade my operating system. And yet, I still loaded it this year without upgrading, just n case. Of course, this year, it told me I couldn’t proceed any further without the upgrade.
As easy as it would be to upgrade to High Sierra, I was a little nervous. I worried about what could be lost, so I backed up my files and bookmarks before I clicked on that which needed clicking. After all the clicks and buzzes subsided, all was well.
Relief swept over me and a few days later, I did my taxes and felt doubly satisfied.
A few days later, feeling confident, I clicked on the Systems Preference icon in the dock that indicated there were updates and went forward with the updates.
Of course, that is when that hammer dropped.
I don’t know what I did wrong, but suddenly all was not well.
I followed the directions on the screen, quitting the installer, but the same message kept returning. I shut down the computer and hoped that, tomorrow, all would be well. It wasn’t.
I awoke the next morning feeling anxious. Once more, I tried following the directions. Once more, it didn’t work.
I felt frustrated, but persevered rereading the instructions in case I was misinterpreting the directions. Once more, I quit the installer. In a flash of insight, I wondered if I need to restart the computer myself, not just assume that quitting the installer would be enough. I clicked on the apple icon and chose restart. Sure enough, it worked.
Although I felt relieved, I still feel a little anxious each time I turn on my computer. Every day, the anxiety diminishes a little more, and I am sure, before too long, I will not worry at all – until the next time I see a number on the Systems Preference icon.
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