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Ahead this week is the beginning of a new month, APRIL, and hopefully the joys of spring that are associated with it. Because if we are lucky, Easter will be late enough that little children will not need to wear parkas and boots with their fancy outfits and the daffodils will be coming out of the ground and not from a florist's truck. But before any of that happens, we have to survive one of the most annoying non-holidays ever practiced: April Fool's Day. I could use this space to put in the information from Wikipedia© that would explain the origin of this practice, but instead I want to share with you some of the "jokes" that were played on me. It's not that I don't have a sense of humor (with three kids I really have to) but there are some situations that really AREN'T FUNNY. Like putting a virus on my computer!
That was the prank played on me by my younger son. He thought it was very funny, but the time it took my computer guru husband to identify it and repair the damage it had done to my system and my data it wasn't humorous at all. In fact when I first went up on Google© to get more information on this day, the first entry was a warning of a "worm" that would be sent out to infect computers. When I asked my husband what the difference was between a "worm" and a "virus", he said that essentially: A Virus is a program that piggy-backs on other programs. It can be attached to a Word or Excel file. Each time the file is run, the virus runs too. It attaches itself to other programs and continues to reproduce. An Email virus is a special type of virus sent as an attachment to an email message. It replicates by automatically mailing itself to everyone in the recipient's address book. A Worm uses computer networks to replicate itself. It searches for servers with security holes and copies itself there. It then begins the search and replication process again. A Trojan Horse is a computer program masquerading as a game or a "cute" program. However, when it runs it does something else - like erasing your hard drive or blocking your screen with a graphic that will not go away. (Credit Microsoft Computer Lynx) Years ago I was reading my Email as usual when I came across the words "I Love You". Thinking it was from one of the kids or a friend, I opened it. WRONG MOVE! I learned much later that it was the infamous "I Love You" virus that got people to open it for the same reasons that I did. I don't remember which was worse: what it did to my computer or the yelling frenzy that my husband started on about "opening things". But I learned my lesson. Yet some pranks are enjoyable. I am a Jeopardy™ junkie and watch the show faithfully every evening. Wheel of Fortune™ follows right after, and one year the TV producers thought it would be funny to switch the main hosts. So Pat Sajac read the answers on Jeopardy and Alex Trebec watched as contestants spun the wheel. I think the players had more fun than the audience, but it was harmless. This is not the case with all situations, and it is better to be suspicious before than sorry after. Another thing to be suspicious about is the weather. Even if it is April, don't put away the snow shovel. I have seen the white stuff come down as big, fat flakes even after Easter. Likewise the tile scraper that is supposed to be used for floors but works perfectly on ice: leave it within easy reach. Encourage your husband to leave the blower attachment on the tractor and not exchange it for the mower part yet. The lawn may have that winter-scraggy appearance, but the mower won't get your car out of a slippery driveway. But the real April Fools are those who put off sending in their taxes until midnight of April 14th. Looking through a year's worth of receipts and bills in the wee hours of the night is not conducive to accuracy, and the government is not forgiving. They do not take paying late as an April Fool's joke! Just Mom |
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