Life started happening early and didn’t stop, an intense and testing day. I woke up at 5 a.m., and as I had an early dentist appointment I wanted to leave time for blogging and working on my book tour. I drove to Granville to go to the dentist, and then I stopped to do some food shopping on the way back. When I got home, my bank was calling with the unsettling news that it’s software had picked up an attempt to log into my bank account, the IP address of the sender was a known hacker address, the bank shut down my online account and said I need to check my computer and Maria’s – our bookkeeper too –  for malware, change all of my passwords, find a security software firm that could check our machines.

Until our systems are checked (this does not affect e-mailers, subscription or social media systems, those are all run apart from my computer on separate systems with many walls and safeguards and no one’s information is ever stored on my computer  – I am not allowed to even enter those systems – and they are checked almost hourly for suspicious software. The blog software is protected by Mannix Marketing and they meet the most stringent security standards) we won’t be doing online banking, but the preliminary report was good, or systems seemed clean, so it was probably a random effort to get into our bank account or it came from some other computer that we do business with, or some enterprising hacker – the intrusion came from France – just took a lucky shot.

I found a good protection firm in Glens Falls – they work with Mannix, my blog designer –  talked to them, hired them, my computer will be out of service for a couple of hours tomorrow while tech engineers comb it. They said this kind of attack is rare on a Mac, they doubted it was on our computers but would check. Malware – it stands for malicious software – is used to disrupt or gain access to private computer systems, it comes in various forms of invasive and hostile software.  We changed some passwords, hired the security company to do regular checks – my computer systems are my lifeline to world, and Maria’s too, we need to be careful without panicking or going overboard.

After we got that sorted out, I had a one hour live chat on Facebook, another new dimension of the new book tour.  It was great, got more than 80 questions and Facebook invited all of the people who’ve ever been on my page to come and talk to me. A lot did. I’ve flown all the way across the country to speak to a small fraction of the people who gathered around my Facebook Page for an hour Wednesday to ask me questions about my life and the book. Then we rushed over to Battenkill Books to sign another 100 or so books. More tomorrow, we are steaming towards 1,000 the calls and e-mail orders are coming in. It is interesting, but the book tour seems to be rich mix of the new and the old, one minute I’m on Facebook answering questions to a lot of strangers from all over the country, the next I am sitting in a book store with a pen with Maria, trying to find the cover page and not miss any of the personalization requests.

Interesting the questions were very similar to those I hear at book readings in bookstores.

In between this, interviews, phone calls,farm chores,  scores of e-mails and other messages, it was one of those days where there is not a single empty moment, rare in my life.

I am learning over life that there is no such thing as a crisis, not such thing as a bad or good day, life happens all of the time, at it’s own pace, and to have challenges and issues is to be alive and engaged in the world. The tech company said they were sorry I was having this trouble, I said this is not trouble, this is life. This is a hard lesson for many of us, for me, to accept. A few years ago, I would have described this day in a different way: you won’t believe my day, what a  horrible and exhausting day, the goddamn bank. But it was not a horrible day, it was just a day.

I think the key to understanding technology is the accept the fact that it brings ease and change, but always takes away control and stasis. That is the deal we make with technology, it’s tragedy and glory. It always brings things, it always takes things away.

I have these machines that allow me to connect with the world in radically new and productive ways, they remain mysterious, unpredictable and sometimes even dangerous. My life is tied up in this machine, I will take very good care of it. I got anxiious thinking about my book tour, could I interrupt it if something was seriously wrong? I suppose so, but it is not coming to that, that is already clear. Tomorrow morning, just for good measure,  every bit of data on this machine and Maria’s will be scoured and sniffed and if there is any malicious software lurking around anywhere, it will be ruthlessly rooted out. My new security team says it is highly unlikely there will be this problem on my Apple, they want to make certain.

I’m a little fuzzy, I want to hole up with my book on Jony Ive, Apple’s genius designer and get up early to blog and post before the Digital Secret Service enters my machine from afar and takes it over with remote controls and stalks any evil and gives me an hour or two to walk the dogs, take some photos in the crisp November light.

I accept life on it’s own terms, I will not speak poorly of this day, it was another day of life, and I am grateful for every one of those. I am nothing but lucky and eternally grateful for the gift dealing with true life.