Dog Ate My Homework...Uh-Oh

Wow! Two blog entries in one day! Must mean I have something to say, eh?
Wish that were so. In fact, I am writing this because I'm a bit frustrated by things at the moment and it's probably better to do this than throw a baseball through a window to get my frustrations out. Though the baseball is gonna remain an option, okay?
So like late last week Marco noticed that a couple of the hardwood floorboards in the living room were buckling. We ignored it as it looked like work. But then the kitchen floor began to shift. Me Marco and Italo all knew there was a leak somewhere but as my busted belly wouldn't allow me to crawl around under the house I certainly couldn't look into it. And Italo's been working on his mom Chepa's plumbing, crawling around under her house, so he didn't want to do it. And Marco had already fixed a leak in the sink last week, so he didn't think he should have to do it. So we kept ignoring it and the persistent hsssssss that seemed to be coming from under the house. Heck, could have been a snake, right?
Well, anyway, last night when the water leaking from under the house began seeping onto the kitchen floor, we couldn't ignore it any longer so we turned off the water to the house.
Marco's been under there as Italo's at work today. Pipes are old. He's gonna try to seal it just with duct tape for now until Italo can take a look. But meanwhile we can't take showers this morning, so we all sort of stink.
But that's like a normal problem.
The real problem is that my computer just ate my entire interview and notes file for a cover story I'm supposed to turn in today. Just says: Due to a faulty connection (or somesuch) Word cannot read this file.
Now I've got what I've got written on another file, which is fine at the moment. And I've got such a good memory that I could probably reconstruct much of what was lost, or at least the salient parts. But as this is a local political story there are libel to be repercussions: I've been asked to provide copies of my notes to the paper's legal team on more than one occasion, to give them ammunition when libel suits are discussed.
But I no longer have those notes. I no longer have those interviews, or even those phone numbers at my fingertips.
I'm praying the file in question is just tired and will open later today. Or the computer tunchis--ghosts--are playing tricks with me. Like the coffee pot that refused to work when I returned from Peru in July. I just waited a month, cooking coffee on the stove in a saucepan, then tried the coffee pot again and it worked first try and every try since then.
But if this is something worse than that--and this is certainly something I've never seen from a computer before--well, then I'm dreading what I'll tell my boss.
Cause she needs that story and the people of this town need that story printed and she ain never in a million years going to believe my computer ate my homework.

POSTSCRIPT: Marco worked his butt off in the tight, wet, muddy confines beneath the house. He didn't manage to get the broken pipe changed but did locate the small hole, used duct tape to close it, then sealed it with a pressure patch he made from a screw-tightening clamp. And so far it's holding. So we all took showers and smell better around here.
For the story notes, I went into the hard drive and discovered that the drive had very nicely made several copies of them for me. I love this old souped-up Mac G3 I've got.
So I'm back on the story, all clean and fresh, happy with the world again. Turns out to be a great day after all. HOORAY!!!!! Hope all of you get a couple of nice surprises as well.