Temporal Mechanics

I've spent an entire afternoon trying to restore the data on a corrupted hard drive. And I'm not entirely sure why.

I only use it for Time Machine, to keep my computers backed up — at worst, I won't lose anything more than files that had been discarded over the past several months (and even then, that's only if I should suddenly need them).

But it's been comforting, somehow, to know that should the need arise, I could travel back in time.

I must have spent an entire other afternoon trying to preserve the back-ups that had accumulated from my previous iMac when I set up the new one. I never did get that to work, despite detailed instructions — what I lack in expertise, I more than make up for in following detailed instructions — and I finally had to just give up and start from the beginning.

My ability to move backward in time stopped at precisely that point. I would be able to go no further.