Getting catastrophe in perspective

Last night I went from euphoria (thinking I had managed to synchronise my handheld electronic diary with my new MacBook) to despair (discovering that it didn't really sychronise, attempting a different approach and losing a good half of my calendar appointments.) My attempt to restore these appointments by synchronising with my old PC laptop instead resulted in most of the data deleted from my old laptop. I have not gone into meltdown over this because I think I have a way to restore things from a backup without having to type it all in again.

Remarkably I retired to bed in a calm (if sombre) mood because I was able to put this disaster in its proper perspective. What do I need a computer for?

• To write and print documents - I can do this (though admittedly I've not managed to get the printer to work properly over the home wireless network).
• To communicate by email and access the internet - no problem.
• To keep up-to-date records of church members and such like - I can't yet do this on the MacBook because I need Windows to run Microsoft Access and though I thought I'd got it working it has all gone pear-shaped. (A reinstall didn't fix it and I am considering a reformat of the windows partition if I can work out how.) But I can still do this on the old PC.
• Managing my diary and 'to do' list - needs some urgent repair work.

The point is that a total computer catastrophe would not prevent me actually getting on with life, dealing with people, preaching and attending meetings. There are still people in the world who manage all this without recourse to technology. Neither does a computer failure detract from the list of riches I made the other day (see here).

Today, apart from attempting to recover my calendar data, I have more important fish to fry: the circuit preaching plan, the preparation for a new circuit and tomorrow's parade service all need some urgent attention by tea. Then tonight we've been invited to a party - and the computer hasn't.