Technology and I seem to be experiencing some minor relationship issues... talk amongst yourselves

Image courtesy of Stock.xchange - http://www.sxc.hu/photo/815492



So Tech and I seem to be having some kind of falling out at the moment.

In the past week:

• my heart rate monitor has mysteriously stopped working - not gone blank as would indicate a battery having gone flat, but just spontaneously jammed - and I can't find a reset button on it anywhere
  
  
• my iPod and my computer spontaneously stopped talking to each other - right in the middle of a sync, Vista suddenly managed to lose the drivers and informed me it no longer recognised that weird, totally unfamiliar USB device I'd plugged into it (incidentally, this problem, at least, was easily fixed by reinstalling iTunes)
  
  
• My antivirus, has suddenly started recognising a whole host of the games files I sometimes play (and have been playing for at least a year) as some variant of Win32 Trojans - despite them all having been absolutely fine up till now.
  
  

• Plus all manner of weird and interesting stuff happening with the tech I use at work, although that happens to everyone, so is more likely to be issues with our various systems, rather than a personal vendetta on behalf of the tech gremlins against me and all my issue to the n^th generation.
  

Truth be told, I have a sneaking suspicion that along with all the other changes in my life, this may the Universe clocking me upside the head with a giant clue-by-four, behind which is the sacred and spiritual message, "Yo' honey, y'got too much crap y'don't need in your life. Stop thinking of this dren as necessary to your wellbeing, and start focussing on the stuff that actually matters a damn, why don't you?"

So while I *am* trying to do something about fixing each thing (except the heart rate monitor - for that I'll need to dig out the instruction manual... wherever that's got to now), I'm also being mindful about the whole experience, and noticing that I don't *need* whatever-the-particular-piece-of-tech-might-be in my life to be happy. Yeah, it's fun. And it gives me some manner of pleasure to have and to use, or I wouldn't have or use it in the first place. But it categorically *isn't* what you'd call a necessity. So there's no point in getting all frustrated and annoyed when it stops working. Life is what it is - what happens, happens. And life's about far, far more than little pieces of tech.

Plus, some things are actually better without. I went to Spin class this morning, and it was a completely different experience for me to base my intensity directly on how my body was feeling and reacting to the pace and resistance, instead of relying on my heart rate monitor to interpret the level at which I should be working for me. I actually had a really good class today, and my body is loving me for it (even if I suspect my quads and adductors are going to be complaining loudly every time I stand up, sit down, or walk up and down stairs for a couple of days)

And if a sense of perspective is the only good thing I take away from this little episode of tech-fairy victimisation, I think it's still well worth it. Yep, yep, getting back to what matters is all good... now where's that damn heart rate monitor manual...