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While You Were Away…

Jul-16-2004 » Filed Under: Homefront

I thought some of you might appreciate the following story.

[Link to Full Article]
By Heidi Home Alone

This vignette describes the trials and triumphs of spouses of deployed service members. It is one of several we will present, authored by a group of 1st Cavalry Division spouses who write under the pen name “Heidi Home Alone.”

FORT HOOD, Texas, July 15, 2004 — Well, here we are a good four months into this little exercise called deployment! My lawnmower and other yard tools have come to an agreement: basically, I don't use them and they don't frustrate me. But I have yet to get the same cooperation from my computer and printer.

My computer and printer must have had a little chat session and decided they both would make that annoying little error box appear on my screen. Why is the computer asking ME questions? Doesn't it know that my husband knows all the computer stuff and I am just hoping to be able to write letters and answer email for a year without issue? My computer asks me questions such as “Are you sure you want to delete this?” or “Are you sure you want to change that?” Well, NO! I am not sure about anything! It gives me a headache thinking about all the possible things that could happen once I hit the “enter” button.

I would really never be able to explain to my youngest child that I erased all her pictures from birth. And no, I do not have copies of them in a scrapbook like the five books that her brother has. Their daddy decided to get a digital camera and after that, my scrap booking days ended. I did not have to put them in a book to clean up the clutter of pictures and negatives lying around. They were all very neatly organized by date, in the “My Pictures” file on the computer.

I know that I could print them off and put them in a book, but how did I know the computer would declare war on me and ask me if I wanted to delete all of those precious pictures when it KNOWS that I don't? If only I had started some of those activities on my “things to keep me busy while my husband is deployed” list. Her scrapbook is somewhere on that list, but my computer won't print it.

It continues...


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