I have not been successful in repairing my PC but at least today I found quite a few things lost in recent days and weeks.
To begin with, I 'lost' tons of emails. In the process of shutting down without closing programs (unable to do so with a black screen), two days of emails just disappeared, then magically reappeared again this morning. Where were these emails hiding for two days? They were not in my inbox yesterday! At least yesterday I shut down everything and restarted this morning, never mind that it took a dozen attempts to get my screen back. This is driving me nuts! I may end up reformatting my hard drive just because I cannot deal with this, but that is the solution of last resort.
I lost my passport. I knew this a few weeks ago and downloaded the forms to get it replaced. I never got around to filling them out and sending them in. Good thing too, because this morning my passport reappeared- in a spot I had checked many times. I am not blind and nothing was covering it up. Am I losing my mind? Oh wait! I already said the PC problem was making me crazy, so maybe the answer to that is 'yes'!
Then there is my tripod. I had two but one has been missing for years and I think maybe I gave it away. That 'feels' right. The second one went missing two weeks ago. This afternoon I found it. The only consolation is that I found it in a spot I had not looked at before.
So that is the story of lost and found, except to repeat the old adage, "of all of the things I lost, I miss my mind the most!"