If I had to rescue three things from my burning building, what would they be? That's easy - my jewelry, for sentimental reasons not financial ones, and my two trusty companions: Ruby and my computer.

Today’s blog may be a short one because I’m not sure how much time I have left…

It all starts on Sunday night when I decide, in that back-to-school spirit, to organize my office.  One of the must-do things is to back up my computer, which I confess, I haven’t done in a while.

In the middle of the back up things look funny and I power off. That may have been my fatal mistake. When I turn it back on, everything is gone. No email files, no photos, no documents, no iBank, my favourite accounting software.

Not only are they gone but the computer doesn’t recognize me any more, only allowing me to log on as a guest.  I check the backup. It looks like it’s there, at least some of it, but access is blocked.

Panic ensues.

I don’t sleep, thinking of all things I’ve lost. By morning, I’m calmer. Most of my older photos are on the external hard drive and newer ones are on my iPad.  Documents I’ve currently been working on have been emailed to other parties, so they have copies.   Thanks to my iPhone/iPad, I have my contacts and my calendar, and I’m in possession of my dog and my jewelry, not to mention four walls around me and my health.

The Apple support line tries to help but we don’t get anywhere. I head to the Apple Genius Bar yesterday and spend two hours there with two different technicians – one had to go for lunch – and they manage to save most of my files.  (Keenan, I think I may love you.)

I’m told to go home, back everything up and then, return asap. Disk Utility shows errors and it’s time to ERASE THE HARD DRIVE. Now if that doesn’t instil fear in every desk jockey, I don’t know what does.

Six hours later, it’s all backed up. At least, I hope so.  I also printed out a bunch of stuff, uploading things to google docs and, in sum, overcompensated.

This morning, my email launches but won’t stay open.  Many of my settings have been scrubbed.  I check my photos, nothing’s there. Clearly, this ship is sinking.

My Apple appointment is at 2:30 and I’m nervous. Did the back up work properly this time? Will my work emails from 2008 still be there? Will I ever know what I paid for my brown couch?

I’m making light of all of this because I am trying very hard to keep my computer problems in perspective. Humour, remedy, etc. etc. But I do want to take the time to thank the folks at the Genius bar. Yes, it’s their product that’s crapping out on me (only three years old) but they do offer a great free service.

Wish me luck!