A Weekend I need a Vacation from...

Today I feel like a patient who's just been released from the ICU, or at least recovering from a long illness.
Grateful to be alive, though still feeling fragile, and looking at the world with a new viewpoint.

To start my tale, the three week old computer had a massive crash on Friday which threw me into a total panic; though I have virus protection, just the dire warnings all over the screen were enough to scare me into all sorts of backups and fixes that probably did more harm than good. By Saturday evening I was back up and running for a few hours when suddenly PC went into what I can only call a relapse. Shut itself off incorrectly and caused all kinds of "fatal errors" that wouldn't allow it to open ANYTHING  with an exe extension. No fixes, backups, downloads, nothing.
Another round of anxious hours followed as I pleaded with it to pull through, reminding it that it was too young (and had cost way too much) to die such a death.
Sunday morning came, I left it struggling to upload a repair update and went off to church and a Cultural program (more on that coming up) and when I came home at 7:30 PM it was still where I had left it, no further upload progress made.
I resorted to an online "fix" using the Other User side of the system, and it seemed to help, though it keeps popping up regularly to remind me that I need to pay 39.95 to  do the job properly.
So PC is still with us, but I am holding my breath! I would love to throw money at everything that guarantees it's life and health, but I am already paying double what I used to pay just in basic maintenance, DSL and virus protection, and can't help thinking wistfully of the nine year old computer that ailed nothing in all of it's long life except for a lack of memory capacity that finally did it in.
Anyway, the good part of the weekend, in between computer nursing, was a Cultural program that I attended yesterday.
We have a large (70+ families) Bhutanese/Nepali community in Scranton, and until yesterday I didn't really know much about them, or really where Bhutan is, or anything about their culture.
They are an amazing group of people, so warm and vibrant and ready to be active in their new city.
They have been in refugee camps in Nepal for 18 yrs due to ethnic cleansing and tyranny in their own land, and were only placed here by Catholic Social Services two years ago.
The program was long because they had to thank everyone for coming, many many times, and after three hours of program and gratitude they served native dishes and didn't rush to get finished so that the program could continue.
But it was worth it. We saw traditional dances from the children, instrumental music, devotional songs and then more dancing, speeches of gratitude, and a video presentation of their struggles along with amazing shots of their former country, which seems to be built into the side of the mountains!
Each invited guest was given a handmade Special Guest badge and tended to as carefully as if we were guests in their home.
I regretted deeply not bringing my camera, (sick PC had driven most rational thought from my head) and will definitely bring it to the next get together.
More on this wonderful group of new friends as I get more involved in their community projects.
Have a good day everybody!