Two Days I Don't Want to Repeat

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Monday I thought I was getting off to a great start Monday. I got up early and paid a bill online and checked my bank accounts and ate breakfast. Then I looked at the scan results from my antivirus program. That's when the day started to go south. The scan said I had three rootkit viruses. Those are very nasty pieces of malware that keep track of your keystrokes and pass them to bad guys. The only problem was that when I looked them up the file names in the reports I wasn't sure if they were really malware or were essential programs for booting my computers. The support sites were full of code and tech speak I didn't understand. The antivirus program let me choose what to do with each one -- delete, put in chest, or keep. I wasn't sure what to do. I did another scan with a different program and while it was at work I decided to make a Zazzle product on the iMac while I waited for the PC scan to do its thing. The iMac had updated and wanted to restart, so I restarted it. While it was restarting I think I went to the kitchen for some hot tea. After the iMac computer was back up I made my Zazzle product and tried to make a couple of Twitter posts. By this time the scan of the PC had finished and it appears the Malware program didn't find the viruses I had decided to put in the chest. I had decided to put them there finally because they seemed to be outdated programs even if they weren't viruses. I have Windows 7 with 64 bit operating system and the virus name had 32, not 64 in the title. By this time my headache had started. Next I made a new start-up disk and created a new restore point. Then I shut down the computer, hoping and praying it would restart. I let it sit for a bit while I read and waited for my headache to subside. When I finished my book I decided it was time to boot up the computer. It still scanned clear, so I wanted to add a bit to my blog post. I wanted to add a certain kind of Amazon native ad that had a photo of the book I was blogging about. For some reason I still don't understand, the custom ad part of my Amazon affiliate stripe had disappeared, so I decided it was time to set up the scanner I haven't used in four years to scan the book cover. Had to find and download the driver and software. Had to connect the scanner. I scanned the cover. Then I decided it was time to check my email. I started to work my way down, but it was about 9:30 pm when I got to the most important email that had been sent at 6:30 am. I was a notice with an attached legal document with instructions to sign it and return it that day. Too late. And I had questions with regard to how to change something on it. So I shot the sender an email to see if I could return it the next day. Just in case, I scanned it while the scanner was still connected. Read until I was ready to collapse, about 2:30 am. I was dead tired, so I took my night pills and went to bed, hoping no one would call too early. Tuesday Call from dentist to change appointment time came at 9 am. I had so much to do I didn't even try to go back to sleep. I checked the email to see if the answer about what to do with the legal doc had come, and it had, so I signed and scanned it and returned it by email. I still wasn't positive my computer was virus free, so I started checking to see if I could get a better deal on ID theft insurance to replace Lifelock. I signed up with Complete ID, an Experian program, through Costco. I lost everything I'd entered on the first page when I stopped to read the terms so I could check the box that I had. That took me to a different page and wouldn't return me, so I had to start over. Then I got to another page where I had to verify my ID by answering a bunch of questions that only I would be able to answer. Except I couldn't answer them all either. Here's why. It's now 2018. They wanted to know who financed a mortgage in 2003 and how much the payment was. If, indeed we did have a mortgage, it has long been paid off. I have no idea how much the payment was and I don't keep those records when they are no longer needed for taxes. Then they asked about who provided a car loan in 2010. I'm not even sure we had a car loan then. I guessed and got it wrong. So I called their help number and the clerk asked my some different questions that I guessed correctly. After finally being verified, I spent at least an hour filling in all my credit card, bank, and medical account numbers and a couple of other things that need monitoring. Then I did the dishes and fixed lunch. I ate lunch around 3:30 while watching TV with Hubby, and then I started this myLot post. I had written about three paragraphs when the computer got weird and I saw that Windows wanted to update. I slowly started to shut down all my programs; Chrome had several non-responsive pages I had to wait for as they slowly shut down. I copied my unfinished post to a text file to make sure I didn't lose it. Then I shut down the computer so Windows Update could do its thing. After it had finished and I restarted the computer I did another quick Avast antivirus scan and it didn't function normally. McAfee wasn't much better, and Zemana also didn't want to work. Bad sign. Then the internet connection disappeared. I tried rebooting the modem. The lights all came on but I still couldn't get on the internet. By then I was beyond caring and ready to throw the computer out. I went back to my book until bedtime. Wednesday Slept until 8:30 and had so much on my plate to do before my 12:30 dentist appointment I didn't dare go back to sleep. I checked all my ethernet cables and rebooted the computer. The connection had come back. The scans worked and came out clean. Go figure. I was very thankful. Checked email and then ate breakfast and read reviews of antivirus programs until time to leave for the dentist. On the way home from the dentist I stopped at Planet Fitness to check them out and took their short tour. Then I went to the market and remembered I had forgotten to restock my wallet. I had only $8 -- just enough to buy the yogurt Hubby needed, a few more bananas, and a package of the grapes that were on sale. After arriving home I fixed and ate a late lunch, read a few minutes, and headed off to my Bible study group. The computer still works so I'm going to post this before something else goes wrong and I can't. Sorry this is so long, but it's three days rolled into one post. I hope your week began better than mine, but if it didn't, feel free to vent. And be sure to share anything good that happened.