Well, this week we had an honest-to-goodness blizzard. I know sometimes we like to talk about any heavy snow as a blizzard, but there is actually an official definition. Here is the definition according to the National Weather Service:
- Sustained wind or frequent gusts to 35 miles an hour or greater; and
- Considerable falling and/or blowing snow (i.e., reducing visibility frequently to less than ¼ mile)
In New England language, a “wicked big snow storm.” So what did we do? We stayed inside and watched it snow. It’s important to learn to pace yourself, especially when it comes to large amounts of snow. If you don’t really, really need to go somewhere, stay home. If yo must go out, take it slow, you’ll get there eventually. When the snow is over, clean it up at a reasonable pace. There are a lot of heart attacks each winter while cleaning up snow. Take your time, you can move it all eventually.
Life is all about knowing what you can and can’t do, and when you can and can’t do it. Snow, or for that matter, any significant natural event, is good at reminding us of these things, if we’ll listen.
Considering that things can happen to our homes and our computers, this week I backed up all the home computers onto a pocket drive. This is a hard drive that is literally small enough to fit into your shirt pocket. Next week, I’ll drop it off in our safe deposit box. This is what all the computer experts recommend: off-site backup. Hard drives have become very reliable, but they still crash – taking all your data with them. I’ve chosen the pocket drive route because it puts me more in control, but there are a number of on-line backup services that will let you back up your computer to their “vault.”
In any event, back up your computer. get an external drive and keep a backup locally, and do something off-site. Someday you’ll thank me.
Suburban Home Journal 