Blank screens give me the creeps --- and scare me, too. Whether it's a TV screen, a computer monitor or my PDA, a blank screen can only mean trouble and I mean with a capital T.

So, yesterday morning, when my Palm Pilot PDA wouldn't turn on no matter which button I pushed; and when it wouldn't synchronize with the desktop software, I pretty much panicked. It contains everything important, from appointments to address list, calculator, documents, etc. I'm pretty much one-handed without it.

When I bought my first one via eBay about 3-1/2 years ago, I found it hard to make the switch from my DayTimer notebook to this itsby-bitsy handheld computer. The following year I upgraded to a Tungston e2, but still couldn't seem to completely switch over. But then I had an injury that made it difficult to carry or hold the now-heavy Daytimer. In fact, I could barely hold a piece of paper. Consequently, it forced me to transfer everything to the Palm Pilot, which turned out to be a good thing.

They say that the advantage of an analog clock is that your mind can tangibly see what's past and what's coming as well as the present time. Whereas, a digital clock shows only the current time. Similarly with the paper calendar, one can tangibly turn pages and see on paper what's come before, what is now, and what is to come. Using a PDA is similar to the digital conundrum. In fact, I find this true with some things on the computer. For example, sometimes when I'm writing an article or report, I prefer to print out what I've done so far and spread the pages out on the table and read from the paper(s) rather than the screen.

Anyway, back to yesterday's morning's panic about the blank Palm Pilot screen. The web site didn't seem very helpful. My question didn't seem to easily fit the FAQ provided by Palm Pilot's support section. Yesterday afternoon I stopped by Office Depot to talk to a "real live" person. He didn't exactly know the answer; but he assured me in a don't-hold-me-to-it sort of way that lightly pushing the reset button on the back of the Palm Pilot would bring everything up. But he also warned me that holding it down too long would in fact reset it to zero, as it was when I bought it.

Finally, this morning I knew I simply had to do something. So I bravely stepped up to the plate and lightly pushed the reset button. The screen flashed the Palm icon and voila! everything came back. How many times can I say ! I proceeded to synchronize it with my desktop Palm software and everything was updated perfectly. Thank goodness that I back it up regularly!