Do you ever have those mornings when you're so mentally drained or physically tired you just want to pull the covers up over your head and skip that day altogether?

I do. Not often anymore, but I still do every once in a while.

On those mornings I remind myself that each and every day, good or bad, is a gift from God. We give educational and "tough-love" gifts to our kids, so I guess we shouldn't be surprised when some of the ones he gives us aren't all sunlight and butterflies.

I think back to my own words in a previous post I wrote (click HERE) and pray that God will direct my footsteps. I pray he'll keep me out of my own way… keep me from tripping myself up.

If I'm here, there must be a reason and I need to stop overthinking everything. I need to trust, have faith and give thanks.

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.

Prince Siddhartha Gautama Buddha


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Now to my Saturday Sweet! moments of the past week…

Saturday: hot Texas sunshine, cold water of Lake Travis, wind in my face

Sunday: group hug with dear friends, in prayer over too many tragic community stories

Monday: ping-pong on the porch; homemade vanilla ice cream; floating in a backyard pool and yakking with friends

Tuesday: word that your son has an upcoming interview for the job he really wants

Wednesday: watching your twenty-something son try on new running shoes, remembering the days in Pay-Less when they were all small, testing out new shoes by running down the aisles and jumping up and down

Thursday: blue skies, dry roads and an air-conditioned car when there are dozens of errands to run 

Friday: a few hours of unexpected (paid) work; figuring out something on your own; recovering what you thought was lost forever (see below…)

In yesterday's post, I shot a virtual arrow of distress out into Internet-world, asking for help. Only two people responded at all. Even though they didn't have concrete answers, I appreciated their support and suggestions (thank you, Deb and Liz!)

It made me wonder… Is anyone else out there? Do they just not care? Or is everyone else just as ignorant as I am about these things?

The latter made me feel better, so I went with that. (see my Update below!)

The good news is, I figured it out by myself. At least partly … maybe temporarily … but at least enough to recover the lost photos and save them onto my computer. It took a few hours and I'm not finished yet. Today I need to figure out a better system. 

Here's what I did…

I unplugged the external hard drive, waited awhile, plugged it back in, and then, barely breathing, checked the folder. My heart soared to see those precious photos back again. From now on, I'm going to keep my external hard drive unplugged unless I need it, although I couldn't find information about that written anywhere.

Live and learn… I'm just grateful I had a chance at a re-do on this one.

Update: Since I posted this, I discovered my sweet sister Brenda sent out emails to several professional photographer friends, asking if they could help. And another friend, Shirley, let me know she said a prayer but didn't comment because she didn't have any advice.

It just shows that things aren't always how they appear to be. My apologies and gratitude to both of you and anyone else who is trying to find an answer for me. 

And now, thanks to my oldest son, part of the puzzle is solved: The mystery photo of the two girls is one of his, from a semester he spent in Costa Rica. Now how it jumped from that folder (also on my external hard drive) to this latest one is still a mystery…

Anyway, here's my belated Friday Favorite Photo, recently recovered… a reminder of a wonderful day on the lake with friends (possibly my one and only day on the lake this summer) as well as a reminder that even on choppy, turbulent days, some bit of beauty, light or peace can be found.

Wishing you sweet moments on this Saturday!

DSC_0217sign (Medium)

 

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20 responses to “Rising Up, Grateful (plus some “Sweet!” moments and a belated Friday Favorite Photo)”

  1. Lady Fi Avatar

    Wow wow wow! What a fabulous golden-drenched shot!
    Glad you sorted out your problem… My husband is a computer geek and we have our external hard drive where my photos are stored plugged in all the time, so that shouldn’t be an issue.

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  2. Barbara Shallue Avatar

    Gosh, then I don't know what it is. Can you ask him how long they should last? Do you have them saved anywhere else? I'm trying to figure out a good backup system.

    Like

  3. Brenda Avatar
    Brenda

    Hey! You said only two people responded to your problem. I know you weren’t yet aware of my efforts when you wrote that, but I want credit for trying to help 🙂

    Like

  4. Brenda Avatar
    Brenda

    Oh yeah…that is an AWESOME photo!!!

    Like

  5. Barbara Shallue Avatar

    You got it! I heard from another friend who sent up a prayer, so I'm going to edit and give credit, accordingly!! Thank you!!

    Like

  6. linlah Avatar
    linlah

    I wouldn’t have been able to help either but I also just read it today and it appears the problem is solved. I have my photos on two external drives and that’s all that on those drives. I only plug them in to get photos. I also have them on my desktop computer, I almost lost them once and that’s all it took for me to save them in multiple places.
    Love the lake picture.

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  7. Gail Avatar

    Oh my gosh! That last photo took my breath away.
    I love the way you find sweet moments throughout the day. What a great exercise. I think I need to incorporate that into my life right now!
    I’m so sorry I have fallen behind on reading and commenting on blogs. I started from the newest first in Google Reader, then saw I missed an important post of yours asking for help. I will look at the post and see what’s up.

    Like

  8. Barbara Shallue Avatar

    Don't feel bad – I see on my Google Reader count that I'm 117 posts behind! When I finish transferring photos, I'm going to try to catch up there. 

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  9. Barbara Shallue Avatar

    After almost losing mine, I totally understand saving them in multiple places, although I should have known better and gone beyond good intentions since I actually did lose a book once that I had been working on for a year, but didn't have backed up anywhere else. I'm transferring my photos to a new external hard drive now (I think the other one was going out on us) and will probably just keep photos on it and unplug it, too. I'll need to get another one soon – my computer doesn't have enough storage for all of my photos!

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  10. Rae Sinor Avatar
    Rae Sinor

    I responded somewhere…Not a real suggestion of how to help but I know someone that could help you!!! Where was that that I Responded??? Maybe on your facebook post! I don’t know, but glad you found them. That would have been terrible! Love you honey! PRAYING!!!

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  11. Barbara Shallue Avatar

    I never saw it! Thank you so much! I'm pretty sure it's my external hard drive going out on me – I've spent hours transferring the files to a new one because some of them I have to do individually. So I hope that's all it is and I'm grateful it gave me some warnings. Once I get them transferred I'm going to back them all up somewhere else. Just haven't figured out where. AND I need to get off my butt and start printing out the most precious like the ones of my kids and parents. You and Patti have fun this week, by the way! I'll be closing my eyes and pretending I'm with you every once in a while 🙂 Love you!

    Like

  12. Juana Avatar

    I was trying to get a hold of my son in law, he is great at this stuff, but our hours (Spain-U.S.) didn’t coincide! I think if people read and don’t comment sometimes, it’s because it shocks them and don’t know what to say at that time. You got lots of friends that care!
    Glad you have your photos back, and that photo is FABULOUS!!!!!!

    Like

  13. Shrinky Avatar

    What a lush, glorious photo, I am so glad you managed to retrieve your lost files! My external hard drive crashed a couple of years back, and I still grieve my lost photographs! I now double save EVERYTHING I value, just to be safe. I’ll keep everything crossed for your son’s up-coming interview, please do let us know how he fares?

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  14. Barbara Shallue Avatar

    Oh, I'm so sorry about your lost photos!! What do you use now for your second backup? My computer can't hold all of mine, so I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to use to backup the new external hard drive.
    I'll keep you posted on his interview. Thanks!

    Like

  15. Barbara Shallue Avatar

    I think you're right about the comments – I just felt so desperate and helpless at first!! Thank you for trying to reach your son-in-law!!

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  16. Hilary Avatar

    I see you’ve mostly figured out the mystery.
    I protect my images by keeping a backup drive plugged in at all times. It backs up every hour automatically… just adding what is new to the pre-existing data. I also keep my photos (just the ones used on my blog) at a photo site.. Flickr. I hope you figure out a system which works for you.

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  17. Barbara Shallue Avatar

    Well, I had been backing mine up on an external hard drive we had plugged in all the time – except that's the ONLY place I had them because the files are too large for my computer, and that drive started going out on me. I've thought of uploading more to FlickR or one of the other online storage sites, but right now I'm still trying to rescue the ones on the old drive and stick them on the new. I might watch for a sale and double up on externals. I don't know…. (big sigh)…

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  18. Wolf Pascoe Avatar

    I store my photos on two backup hard drives as well as my main hard drive. The really precious ones I also have on DVD, which you can get over 4 gigabytes of storage on. And I use Dropbox, which gives you 3 free gigabytes online, and I pay for Sugar Sync (another 30 gigabytes) also online.) I’m going to check into Apple’s new iCloud service when it comes out in September–there’ll be some free storage there. Multiple is key, even though it’s a pain.

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  19. Barbara Shallue Avatar

    My main drive can't hold all of my photos, so I'm thinking I'll go with two externals. I have 2 gigabytes of online free space available through my virus protection package, but my photos take up way more than that!! And storing things online makes me nervous for some reason – you feel secure about it, I guess? I've heard of Carbonite, but not Sugar Sync. I'll have to look into it as well as Dropbox. Thank you!!

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  20. Ruby Badcoe Avatar

    Can’t help but feel your heart beat fast when you know you could lose your files at any minute, LOL. Those photos need to be protected. I’m glad you’ve learned your lesson about that external drive: never unplug it unless you need to!

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