It is going on 3:30 PM on my side of the “pond.”  (My spouse, however, is on the other side of the “pond,” that body of water known as the Atlantic Ocean, and will be there for two weeks now.)  The Geek from Best Buy left about half an hour ago.  He got here right on time at  his scheduled time of 12:15 and got to work.  First thing he did was to get into the computer using his magic program and he backed up all my files to the external hard drive I own.  That was the first hurdle accomplished, and a necessary one.

Then he proceeded to try to figure out how he could get that Kensington wireless mouse/keyboard  software off my computer and restore Windows Vista to its former pristine condition — WITHOUT having to wipe my hard drive.  That was a challenge.  He said that this Kensington software was as tenacious as any virus he’s ever seen in boogering up my operating system.  (No, he hasn’t seen Kensington do this before, but he has now!)  He was just ready to give up and wipe the hard drive when he decided to try one more thing: a Vista recovery program through Gateway.  It worked.  My computer is back to its original operating condition, all without having to wipe the drive and reinstall any software.  It’s all as it was.  I’m even using the Kensington wireless mouse and keyboard.  (He said that the erratic mouse which prompted my husband to stick the CD into the computer was due to a dirty lens.)  He said that using the Kensington wireless mouse and keyboard is fine –  just don’t stick any software in the drive!  Well, you can be sure that we won’t be doing that again!  The result was kind of the equivalent of sticking Crayolas in the toaster!

So, I’m back in business!  Yay!!  At a tune of only $348.  (Not so “yay.”  But it could have been worse.)

It’s good to be back.  Anything going on here while I was “on the dark side of the moon?”