I got a new laptop at work this week. It’s been waiting for me to cut over for a few weeks now, but the prospect of reinstalling all my department software in the week leading up to Release Day is terrifying. And at least one of those software packages is a giant C-U-Next-Tuesday during release week without any extra crunchy shenanigans tossed in for good measure. This week, I have some things to do, but really, if I wait until next week and something goes sideways, we’re into Christmas break, and I’d be wholly and completely screwed.

So this week it is.

Part of the effort is to back up the files on the about-to-be-upgraded laptop.  My daily writing task work is pushed to a repository every day, so I don’t need to back that up any further. So, I dutifully looked at all the files I’ve accumulated in Work In Process and Accessibility Miscellany and To Review Later professional development folders and got rid of the flotsam and jetsam that I don’t need any longer. No more tips and tricks for software that we don’t use. No more progress reports on stretch goals from years gone by. No more onboarding checklists. What remained, I put in the OneDrive location on the about-to-be-upgraded laptop, and handed it over to my IT guy. In return, he handed me the shiny new laptop, helped me configure the applies-to-everyone software, and sent me on my way.

When I attached all the peripheral things (Monitors and keyboard and headsets, oh my!), I configured which of the 3 displays I wanted to work on, and I went to look for all the stuff I jumped to the OneDrive location on the cloud. Except nothing was there.

[insert ominous music here– Duhn-duhn-duhhhnnn!]

How is it that the cloud location attached to my authentication on one side of this laptop transaction is not the same location attached to my authentication on the other side? What the F*ck??

There may or may not have been some muttering curses aimed toward Microsoft, technology in general, and The Great and Mysterious Cloud, and I’m not really sure what a battalion of fire ants would do to the cloud anyway, but here we are.

I sent a note to my IT guy and asked his thoughts on where my super-precious pile of backed up files are. Tyler hasn’t gotten back to me yet. So they’re floating around in the either for now.

I mean, if that stuff is truly missing, that’d suck, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world. I’ll accumulate more stuff. It just means that I’ll have to start over on some research. Not ideal, but certainly doable.

This Advent, may I value things that continue to be valuable, and may I have the wisdom to know when it’s time to let things go.