A Missed Connection

I lost an e-mail yesterday.  Completely.  It came from a man whose last name started with a D and ended, I believe, with an ette.  His name was not my address database, and I generally read e-mails first before adding people to my list.  After all, if they hate me or my books, there’s not much point.

I started reading the message. He was writing to say what an impact reading Second Watch had on his life.  I got that far into the e-mail when I realized that, with a new, day-old computer, my mail program needed to have a font adjustment.  I wanted to use a slightly larger font in order to savor the words, so I stopped in mid-read to make the change.  But then the font change window showed up and wouldn’t go away.  I kept trying to close it, and it kept not closing.  Then, when it finally did close, the half-read e-mail closed as well and disappeared into the ethers.  And I do mean it was gone.  

It wasn’t in my read file or my junk file or in trash, either.  And because all the computers and iPads in the household sync within a matter of minutes, by the time I tried finding the e-mail on another device, it had disappeared from there as well.

So this is an e-mail to which I have not responded and will not be able to respond.  If anyone out there knows this guy, please tell him I’m sorry and ask him to resend.  

9 thoughts on “A Missed Connection

  1. By any chance are your computers synced to the cloud? If so, maybe it is up there, hope he gets back to you as the book made a deep impression on him. My husband and I both loved “Second Watch”, brought tears to our eyes.

  2. I remember a cartoon of a woman sitting in front of a computer crying “Come back. Come back.” as the screen is going blank.

    I bet that man will send you another email if he doesn’t get a reply in a couple of weeks. He may not know about this blog.

  3. Morning, losing anything on the computer is the most frustrating action and can ruin your whole day. All you can think of is Where is it? My phone has a different filing system than my PC for e-mail. (I am always cleaning out out e-mail as we get so much junk) so if my husband looks for something on his PC, he cannot always find it. Well he can’t always find anything but that’s another story.
    We had our little poodle fixed this last 2 weeks have been interesting. He had to wear the collar of shame. Poor thing he was so miserable, we found a inflatable collar that works almost as well and is more comfortable. May was not a good month for Ernie and family. He may only be a year old but he is totally alpha dog in this household. If he suffers we all suffer… lol
    Have a great week.. Enjoy that Beautiful Washington State.. Jan..

  4. Well, drat! My beautiful granddaughter gifted me with her used computer, and to get it in sync with a couple thousand photo’s from family events, I went to Simutek here in Tucson for a transfer from my dying oldy mac…… The photos are safe! I may have lost some other stuff, but I will not be too unhappy! Trudge on and send us another of your well written and entertaining gems!

  5. I know how you feel. All this technology is frustrating! I lost a whole file about a year ago. Needless to say, the cloud is backing up my phone, pad, & desk top twice a day now. Hope you hear back from this gentleman.

  6. Kind of leery about “the cloud,” but I suppose I should get over it and get on with it. All this change, so fast…I even have trouble with the weather changing, and I’ve lived in Seattle all my life, so I certainly be accustomed to that!

    My dear SiL lost, completely lost, a bunch of precious photos when his mother board self-destructed. He was just about beside himself, because there were photos of family, his recently deceased wife (yes, my daughter)…fortunately friends and family members were able to replace most of them. Now they go into “the cloud” and on an external hard drive as well.

    I feel your pain!

  7. Going forward, I suggest using a cloud based service such as Dropbox with the “Packrat” option. Files, emails, graphics, photos, etc., deleted or not are all recoverable including the last 20 (I believe) versions or revisions. Backups/updates are continueous and “real time”. Dropbox has saved my bacon on several occasions. This is not an advertisement or promotion for this product and I am not in any way affiliated with Dropbox. I am a retired corporate network administrator who has seen the despair caused by the loss of work or memories and no backup.

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