Time for resolutions, which I try not to make. I feel like making resolutions sets me up for failure and I do not enjoy going into the New Year failing. Life throws out enough challenges to overcome without adding my own. The thing about life’s challenges is that we never anticipate them. I also find that when I anticipate a challenge it often doesn’t materialize. So maybe the only New Year’s resolution I need to make is to quit spending energy anticipating challenges and save my energy for the challenges life presents on its own.

However, there is one New Year’s resolution I must make because of a life challenge that was thrown my way during the Christmas holidays: to get an external hard drive and back up the data on my computer.

I was working away on normal things on my PC (meaning I wasn’t randomly surfing the internet) and it suddenly froze and wouldn’t reboot. Fortunately, I have a local computer repair shop, PCE Computing in Maple Valley, for all my computing disasters. I packed the PC down there, confessed all my computing sins and left it in their capable hands.

Besides the normal post-holiday blues, last week was an emotional roller coaster with my hopes being raised and dashed with each report my obsessive calls solicited to check on my computer. It was going to be fine and then the hard drive unexpectedly failed and disappeared off the face of the earth during the diagnostics.

At least it was at the computer repair when it happened.

Not to minimize death, but I felt like someone I loved was in the hospital on the edge of death all week; constantly dying on the table and being resuscitated every few hours.

Death was finally declared and as I was in the shop arranging to have a new system built, the “heart specialist” walked in and offered to take over the defibrillator. I declined his offer and decided to pull the plug. If the computer was going to leave me, I was not going to prolong its suffering.

I arrived home in tears knowing I hadn’t backed up any of my important data: columns I had started and hadn’t yet finished, pictures I hadn’t printed, video clips of my kids’ concerts I couldn’t figure out how to get off the PC. It was a devastating feeling that I had lost part of my kids’ childhoods because of my carelessness.

So instead of letting myself wallow in grief over something I personally couldn’t control, my daughters and I began to plan a spontaneous New Year’s Eve party. There is nothing like a party to lift a person out of a depressing mood.

Then I got the call that all my data had been successfully recovered, I immediately made my New Year’s resolution… back up my data. My neighbors showed up for the party even if it was a barbecue and campfire in frigid weather. OK, I let them in the house after a half hour, s’mores and spraying of silly string.

All will be well this New Year. Not only will I start this year out not making any personal resolutions, I will resolve to protect the things most important to me. This will be a good year.

Happy New Year!

Gretchen Leigh is a stay-at-home mom committed to writing about the humor amidst the chaos of a family.