Yesterday at work, I sorted all of my paper clips into groups, first by size and then by color. Next, I typed in numbers that look like letters on my calculator. Then I cleaned out the last few hand-written contacts I had in my Rolodex.

At noon, I took a nice long lunch and came back for more meaningless tasks including un-sorting the paper clips and loading the copy machine with as much paper as it would take.

How did I manage to have such a dull unproductive day? What punishment was I being given to have earned such tasks?

Our computers were “down.� I’m no computer wiz but I think “down� is bad.

Early in the day, we lost the Internet connection - not good. Productivity slowed down a bit. Then we had to turn off our machines altogether – wicked bad.

I thought I had maintained enough of my hard-copy life so that I could function without the computer. Not so much.

As the day wore on, I realized that I’m virtually handicapped without the computer. Files I need to get to are not available, e-mail is not available, even the phone numbers (how ‘80s) of people I needed to call are not accessible.

Even my day’s tasks and to-do list are stored in the computer. What am I supposed to do?

I wasted a whole day, eyes glazed, staring at the blank screen. Eventually, I went home to my home computer. He was there waiting for me, almost like he knew I had a bad day, and he was going to make up for it with Internet access, e-mail and phone numbers.

I promise to never take you for granted again, dear computer. I know you’ll always be there for me, right?

Amy Lewis and her computer are going away for the weekend