‘Tis the season of scary stuff: ghosts and ghouls; tricking and treating; spooky spiders and other freaky frights.
None of the above actually scare me but there are other things that do, such as:
Virtual vanishings. I recently downloaded Yosemite – Apple’s new operating system. It’s free so I thought, yah, and then the thousands of photos I have stored on my MacBook went AWOL when I could no longer access iPhoto, so I thought, ?@*!. Cue a lengthy phone call to Apple after which I can once again open iPhoto. Praise be because I have no copies virtual or otherwise of said photos. I have learnt a salutary lesson on the importance of back up and so I don’t panic next time something similar happens I have just ordered an external hard drive.
Lemons without pips. They are probably a zillion times easier to juice than lemons with pips but I worry about where the pips have gone. Bred out I think is the answer. Now life is a complicated thing and there are lots of things to stress about and obviously whether a lemon is pipped or unpipped is not one of them. But, still and all, I prefer my foodstuffs as close to nature as intended so I’ll stick with pip-filled lemons
Sales assistants. Well, only when they are assuring me that an item of clothes I am trying on fits because inevitably this happens when I have doubts about whether it does or not. And sometimes I persuade myself it does when it doesn’t. *ruefully looking at the contents of my wardrobe*
Jokes. Or, I should say, jokes that I don’t find funny. I am total rubbish at fake laughter.
ID’s and passwords. Life was so much simpler back in the day when multiple log in’s weren’t part of daily life. Mostly I write these gatekeepers to online life down but sometimes, having greater faith in my memory than is warranted, I don’t. Thank heaven for the forgot password button on most sites.
Happy Halloween!
Just Add Attitude 
Oh I love Halloween, we have so much fun here in my neighborhood. I was thinking of loading Yosemite, now I am thinking not. Can’t afford to lose my photo’s no external memory here. Great post!!
I like it too with it’s autumnal themed decorations. Some people have gone to town and whole houses are decked out in Halloween bits and bobs so there is loads to look at when I am out walking.
I probably didn’t make it clear in the post but I was re-united with my photos. When I updated to Yosemite, I was asked to upgrade iPhoto but when I tried I got an error message and I couldn’t access the old version either. When I spoke to Apple the solution was to move the iPhoto in my applications folder to trash, empty trash (I worried were my photos gone for ever) and then download IPhoto again from the App store. Magically once iPhoto was re-installed I had access to my images again. The person I spoke to (Bradley) at Apple was very helpful but it all took a long time as he had to check things out with his colleagues.
Thank you so much.
Hi B
I love the photo of the door with the ghost.
I am with you all the way with lemons without pips not to mention lemons/oranges with wax all over their skin. We had hens for a while and used to feed them all our vegetable waste – the skins of the lemons and oranges never rotted down and the hens avoided them as the most scary foods ever seen! Hx
Hello H,
Thank you so much.
Your hens were very discerning. And how scary it is to hear that the lemon and orange skins never rotted down. I am with you on the wax on lemon skins, I always try to find unwaxed ones.
*waving* Bxx
All those things are horribly scary! I do have an external hard drive. My problem with that is remembering to have it ready for my scheduled back-up. I failed to remember last month. 😦
I am awaiting delivery of my external hard drive. Note to self: don’t forget to use it! Clever you having one already and having a back-up schedule. 🙂
Not really clever. I learned the hard way that an external hard drive is a good idea. I nearly lost everything in a computer meltdown a couple of years ago. 😦
That must have been truly scary: we have so much on our computers. I am praying I don’t have a computer meltdown before the hard drive arrives. 🙂
Fingers crossed!
😉
Oh, and I also managed to delete all my playlists from itunes. 😦 That was last week.
Oh, that’s such a shame, so sorry to hear that. 😉
It was time for a change in style, anyway. 😀
I hope you are enjoying the new music. 😉
Very much so. Actually I downloaded some of Mike Howe’s music. Do you follow his blog?
That’s good. I don’t follow Mick Howe’s blog, I will google it and have a look. ‘)
Much sympathy at your Apple upgrade scare. There has been much cursing in this household too as Apple wreaked its worst!! Back up that portfolio. Happy Halloweeen. G.
Thank you G. I hope you resolved the issues you had with the upgrade. In fairness Apple were really helpful although I am not encouraged to try further upgrades. Yes, I will do that back up, even if it takes me hours to figure out how it’s done. #techchallenged. Bxxx
Oh gosh, the idea of losing all your pictures is definitely a scary idea! In fact, you’re making me want to go home and back everything up right now! And yes, I agree that sales assistants are a little scary. Especially when they are those overbearing ones that seem determined to help you out when all you want to do is browse the aisles 🙂
Very scary indeed! But thankfully all ended well. Your new profile pic is lovely – the wedding dress? I hope you will post some pictures of the day on the blog.
I can be difficult to browse in certain shops when everyone want to ‘help’ – I much prefer being left to browse in peace. 😉
I bet that little episode took ten years off your life!!! I must get one of those gizmos for myself. Keep up the good work.
Ann x
Hello Ann,
I laughed when I read your comment. Yup, ten years at least! I am just glad to have everything back on the ‘puter. Thanks so much and talk to you soon. Bxx
The door with the skeleton looks great!
It happened to Stefano too a few years ago. He totally freaked out! Now he has an external hard drive and he is obsessed with backing up everything!!! 🙂
Hello Francesca, I too like the door with the skeleton. Halloween decorations have gone up a notch or two here in the past decade and I saw some amazing sights. Usually when I didn’t have my camera with me! It’s a great shame about Stefano’s lost images as he is such a good photographer. I hope you had a lovely Halloween. 😉
I’ve never seen lemons without pips!
This is the first halloween we have neighbours in walking distance and I hope nobody knocks our door on friday because we have nothing prepared:) That’s scary.
I hope you had a lovely Halloween. I was unprepared as well. Last year I bought a load of sweets and chocolate bars and no one call so this year I didn’t get anything in. And, of course, then a few people called!
Oh, that’s a hilarious roundup of them little horrors 🙂
And just for the record:
1. I have automated backups and two manual backups. I never, ever store anything in any cloud other than set up by me/ the boyfriend.
2. Pro pips! 🙂
Speaking of horrors, I’ve discovered – late to the party – the BBC crime series called Ripper Street. Set in Victorian London, shot entirely in Dublin!
Hello and no, I haven’t seen Ripper Street but I can well imagine that parts of Dublin could easily be used as a stand in for Victorian London.
Thanks for the tips. My external hard drive arrived but it’s still in its box. I have it in my head that’s it going to be difficult to set up. Most likely it’s easy enough. Ah well I must do it tomorrow! 😉
Today most devices are quite easy to deploy actually 🙂
(And off she went to cook some mushroom risotto)
I hope you enjoyed your mushroom risotto.You are so right, I did the back up yesterday evening and was pleased to find doing it was easy peasy. A case of anticipation being worse than actuallity! 😉
Glad you’ve tackled it 🙂
Speaking of tech, how is your photography course going?
Thank you.
The course is going ok-ish! 😉
Your list is definitely the scariest I’ve read today! Because for me, real life is scarier than fantasy. Actually, it’s more of everything than virtual or imaginary life.
Real life wins hands down! I only have to think for a few minutes about what’s happening in the world to realise exactly how scary it is. 😉
Not too worried about lemons and pips but back-ups and passwords – both induce a cold sweat and palpitations on occasion…
I know that feeling. I occasionally clear cookies on my computer and next time I want to access the blog or whatever else I have a few seconds panic when I discover I am going to have re-enter my username and password. Usually because I have temporarily forgotten where I wrote them down. 😉
I don’t have any backups for everything on my MacBook…I must definitely do something about that. And oh those forgotten passwords, thank goodness for that button is right as it seems I use it at least once a week. 😀
I did my first back up to an external hard drive yesterday evening. I am not sure how it’s used should everything be wiped from my Macbook but hopefully I’ll never have to find out. And, yes those pesky passwords. *sigh* 😉