What losing all my documents in a Windows update last autumn taught me

So last autumn I was one of the people who lost all their documents by upgrading early to the October 2018 update. One thing I did after that was to purchase a 128 GB SD card to put in my computer's slot, where I keep all my documents, pictures, music, etc. I also use Dropbox and an external hard drive. The idea, of course, is that I back up, and frequently, at least once a week, on at least two of those. I did backup to Dropbox before the deletion, but not as frequently, maybe once a month, so I lost a couple of weeks' worth of data. Now I don't have many documents, and they're not earth-shatteringly important, except for things to do with the Cthulhu game that I have been playing weekly since July 1991 (hello, 28 years). So that's the main thing I have to back up. I've gotten it down so I only have to really back up those files I update. My friend, who uses my old desktop and I back up his stuff on an external hard drive, has tens of thousands of documents and another tens of thousands of pictures, along with some videos and lots of e-mail. So, his is much more of a process, as he routinely changes where things are on folders and is constantly editing--again, mostly to do with the game.

I did the latest May update with no problem. It was not pushed out to my computer immediately, as it had been flagged for some reason or other, probably due to my Dell. I knew it would not update with the SD card or any USB media attached, but that's fine, as the whole point of having the card is to lock my documents away at the time of update, so I'd planned to remove them anyway. But all in all, it was a much smoother process.

After the fiasco last October

when I lost all my documents doing a Windows update, I was somewhat trepidatious about doing the May 2019 update.  But, one thing I changed in the intervening months was that I had put all my documents on an SD card in my laptop, with Dropbox as a backup (the latter had been the case for the documents I lost, and with the exception of a couple of weeks' worth, I saved most of the rest.  Backups are important, people.)  Anyway, I had heard that the update wouldn't install with a USB drive or SD drive because of an issue with remapping the drives, but that if you disconnected the USB or ejected the SD, it should work fine.  Since ejecting the card had been the plan all along, I did so, downloaded the update in about two minutes, and had the whole thing updated within five.  It was the easiest Windows update that I've ever done, and it seems to be working correctly.

I did it this morning because I'd woken up at five and was just awake, and couldn't go back to sleep.  So  I got up, took a shower, got ready, and did the update.  I left the house at about 6:20 am, stopped by Kroger for caffeine, and went into work, getting there about 7 am.  So I  have until 8:30 am to just chill and do what I'd like.  I've gotten my personal e-mail squared away.  I'll check social media and the news.  I'm on my hotspot on my phone rather than the hospital's WiFi because I promised a long time ago not to use the hospital's equipment to blog at all after someone had a conniption over something I'd written during a break at work.  So, it's my equipment, my connexion.

Okay, let's go see what's going on in the world.  I did see on my phone that Teresa May, the prime minister of Britain, has resigned.  I don't care for her policies, or for the idea of Brexit.  Not that it matters, I suppose, given that I'm not British and they don't care about my opinion.  But she certainly was very polarising.

Happy new year!

Sorry, I wrote that and then was drawn away to mince onions, which means I have now retreated to the safety of the computer away from sulphurous compounds that irritate eyes and nose.  The last thing on my list of things to do while off is to back up the computers, so I'm backing up the desktop and blogging on the laptop.

I have been off since Friday and I've mostly either run some errands or relaxed, visited friends, etc.  Last night was a very quiet New Year's Eve.  We visited a friend who got us all Subway sandwiches, and then I hung out with the cats and watched the ball drop and YKWIA spoke on the phone with a friend in the Chicago area.

The following new year's resolutions are on track:

1. Reducing soda intake.  I drink way too much diet soda.  I'm going to limit it and try to transition to some coffee.  I did drink one today, but considering on the weekends I've been drinking two 2-litres and some days at work I have five out of the machine, I definitely need to work on this, both from a health standpoint and money one.  So I'm going to try to limit it to one a day, then taper off to coffee, and then taper that further over time.
2. Blogging!  No more waiting two weeks or a month between posts.  Granted I was sick a good portion of last month, but my blogging was pathetic.  I'd like this blog to flourish, and it really hasn't been of late.
3. Watching my blood sugar better--testing, taking medicine, and not eating so much out of the snack machines.  I did take all my medicine correctly earlier, but this will really get tested at work.

Today I have:

1. Done my friend's laundry.
2. Done all the dishes.
3. Made bread (in progress).
4. Backed up the computers (in progress).
5. Gone to Kroger (three times), once for sweetener, once for bread yeast, and now I'm going for a zucchini.
6. Bought a MegaMillions ticket.
7. Ordered a game for a friend who gave me his Amazon gift cards to do so (he doesn't have a computer, but he does have an Xbox One S, and I checked to make sure this Xbox 360 game, which is older, should work).

Well, I think I'm going to get wrangled further into cooking, as I've been interrupted about four times just writing this post.  But hopefully 2019 will be a better year all around and I'll have more to say about it than 2018.  I'm going to go now; I'll try to write later.

Today I:

1. Took a friend to the grocery.
2. Helped another with some issues he was having.
3. Took a nap.
4. Cleaned my desktop keyboard.
5. Did the game notes.
6. Copied music from my phone to the desktop.
7. Checked the music on the laptop to see if it was up to date.
8. Removed some duplicates.
9. Backed up the documents, music, pictures, and videos from the desktop to an external hard drive.
10. Made some macaroni and cheese.
11. Baked some oatmeal bread (yummy!)
12. Loaded the dishwasher and did a load.
13. Straightened up a bit here and there.