Missing…

Nothing. Zilch. Silence.

Now, much as I appreciated the chance to get organised for a long day at work this morning without having to worry too much about it, it was going to bug me all day.

My inboxes are never empty. Ever.

Morning coffee sees me sit down to at least sixty emails… and an early night will take it to three figures as a rule. A goodly number of them areWordpress notifications for the blogs I follow but even they were missing. It seemed a little coincidental that nobody had written anything at all overnight… especially as there was nothing from anywhere else either.

The only things in there were a handful of mixed emails from friends, students and people trying to sell me weird and wonderful things I am the wrong sex to require.

I gave up on it after a reboot and went to work. Periodic checks via the phone throughout the day were no better. Emails were getting through, but only an infinitesimal proportion of what should be there.

Which seemed weird. Was there something happening in the world I had missed? A major disaster, a holiday I’d forgotten about? Had I inadvertently blocked incoming mail? No, not that… there was still the trickle…

There is something completely surreal about that level of silence when you are used to the constant ‘noise’ of incoming mail.

By the end of the afternoon, when I should have dealt with the best part of two hundred at least, I’d had a mere dozen emails. And, though I complain like hell about the state of my inboxes, the hush was really getting to me.

Had I published something that had offended hundreds of people? Had my account been tampered with? Blocked? Cancelled? Something had gone cockeyed somewhere along the line and I really couldn’t get to grips with it. It just goes to show how much we have come to rely on the contacts we maintain through the aether… and by now I was gnawing the proverbial fingers to the bone.

Of course, the phone is elderly and unreliable. I couldn’t check any where else to look for an explanation. It would all have to wait till I got home, walked the dog and sat down with a coffee.

I thought I’d do the obvious and clear things a bit… the cache, history etc…you never know… and while I was at it empty the spam and trash folders. Which is where I found the three hundred missing emails… and heaved a sigh of relief. Call me an idiot, I never thought to look in the spam folders.

How they had ended up there I do not know, but at least I now know where to look if they disappear again! Of course, I have to go out again shortly, so it looks like a long evening when I get back. I may be gone some time…