Hedgehogs & Computer-itis

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have issued several warnings to the public about the danger of Salmonella. The “Don’t Kiss or Cuddle Hedgehogs” warning was issued in January 2019, and today the CDC warned about the dangers of backyard poultry.

“Don’t let backyard poultry inside the house, especially in areas where food or drink is prepared, served, or stored. Poultry should not be kept in day cares, preschools, hospitals, or nursing homes. Don’t kiss backyard poultry, or snuggle them and then touch your face or mouth.”

The CDC didn’t need to warn me about hedgehogs and backyard chickens.  I have never and will never kiss hedgehogs and backyard chickens, let them into my house, or snuggle with them.

I’m also not in the habit of kissing or snuggling up to my computer, but it still has infected me with a virus and a bad case of computer-itis. I’m late writing my blog for May because my email has been most uncooperative—in fact, it quit working in Outlook all together.

Enter my two late bloomer husband’s attempt to fix it. His well-meaning efforts fell short when he allowed an unknown computer tech company access to my computer. They immediately started fixing things that didn’t need fixing and selling him an expensive plan to beef up my anti-virus and malware protection. 

And my email still did not work.  In fact, my email inbox showed that I now had 43,000+ unread messages.  My computer is only six years old and every email and spam message since 2013 suddenly showed up in my inbox. Yikes!  I thought that stuff was long gone. I even beat Hillary in the number of deleted emails.  How come they couldn’t find hers?

My inbox was over stuffed and no new messages could arrive. In the past few days, I’ve deleted over 12,000 messages —50 at a time—anymore and the email locks up.  I found over 1000 Costco messages and an equal number from Amazon and other stores, along with hundreds more from every online site I’ve visited.  Do these companies have nothing more to do than to bombard my inbox with their ads?

In addition, my Facebook messenger site was hacked by someone sending out messages in my name.  Some of my friends let me know of the suspicious activity.  Now I need to change my Facebook password.

I’m actively deleting my consumer and shopping history, so that I can get back to business.  How much of my life has been controlled by my online usage?  It’s a reality check.  Computers help us in wonderful ways, but create their own set of problems.  At some point I also need to delete hundreds of emails from my cell phone before it shuts down.  I spend too much of my time on line to the exclusion of other important efforts and spiritual pursuits.  I think God has gotten my attention and I’d better listen.