Who says software isn't punitive?

Ok, I'm really close to having our computer rebuilt. I have wireless working, and both email accounts, and most of our data back, and even a few nice-to-haves (welcome back, Firefox!). But I still have to load the Adobe Acrobat publisher, and this fills me with trepidation.

My husband once said, "the weather isn't punitive," which always cracks me up when I think about it. I had just commented that because we'd had such a lovely weekend, we were likely to have rain all week, or some such thing, and he was pointing out that the weather doesn't do that. It doesn't say, "ha ha! With my left hand, I give unto you a sunny weekend, but yea verily, with my right hand shall I give you drenching rain for seven days, for nice weather comes at a price."

Similarly, you might think that software is not punitive. But you would be wrong. Acrobat and I have a long and unhappy history. That software hates me. I don't have anything against it at all, I think very highly of the Adobe Corporation and all of their fine products. It totally started this grudge. Ask the IT guys from the last place I worked - they know. They, who work with computers day in and out, will be the first to say that Acrobat and I have bad mojo together - very dangerous cross-mojo action. I'd say "hey, I need to update my laptop with the new version of Acrobat, do you want me to do it myself or...?"

"No no!" they'd say quickly. "We'll take care of that for you. STEP AWAY from the Acrobat CD."

But when I became self-employed, I had to be able to produce PDFs. So, I bought Acrobat, and for several days it sat on my desk, and we eyed each other warily. "Ok," I said, "You don't like me, and I don't much like you, but we're going to have to learn to live together." I installed it, and for many months we have had a shaky but manageable relationship.

However, the last significant thing that happened before my current operating system crashed was that Acrobat downloaded a "major update." I don't have any proof, mind you, but I'm suspicious.

So wish me luck. And, if any of you out there know how to intervene with the Acrobat gods, or can get some inside skinny on how on earth I've offended them so - please, I can use all the help I can get on this one.