LIFE BY LOUIS: Of forgotten passwords

I have been on my annual leave and it was time well spent in my village back in Matimbei. I always make sure that my leave coincides with important activities in the farm.

I prefer to be present during the planting season because you may send seeds to the farm workers to plant for you as you as I monitor via phone from the office.

Come germination time when everyone is celebrating the sprouting of healthy seedlings, my farm will remain furrow.

Upon further investigations, I will discover that the farm hands ate the seeds and just dug and buried empty holes. I will similarly be crying when other fellow farmers are enjoying a bounty harvest.

But my worries are not just about my seeds being eaten by unfaithful farm hands.

My biggest nightmare is returning to the office and discovering that I have forgotten my computer password. 

It has happened to me a few times before.

The last time I was so ashamed of myself that I did not want to ask for help for what was going to be the umpteenth time.

POSSIBLE COMBINATIONS

I sat there trying all possible combinations until the computer locked me out. Being locked out means I can’t work because all the work revolves around systems and applications.  

I placed a call to the IT department and a young man picked my call. After he understood my problem, he noted my location and promised to resolve. He promptly showed up with thin rimmed glasses loosely hanging off his nose. I later learned that those IT workers with unkempt hair and harassed looks are called geeks.

 "What is the issue again?" he posed while giving me a measured look that already made me feel like a suspect.

I fearfully explained that I had forgotten my password. 

He took his time to digest that bad news as he twisted his braids thoughtfully like a NASA scientist trying to figure out why the space ship was not accelerating out of gravity.

“Why did you forget your password yet you should be using it every day,” he asked indignantly.

"I was on leave and my aunt is unwell and my only grade cow has had foot and mouth disease. Plus I have a small baby boy who cries a lot at night," I pleaded. He could not understand these old villagers’ problems, but he let it pass.  

He took my seat and attacked the keyboard in a flurry of quick punching movements. He opened a few tabs and checked my cookies and browsing history, Sadly, I had forgotten to delete those items that may sometimes carry incriminating evidence.

He stared amusedly at some sites I had visited that promised to hook up bored young men with rich old women who own yatches and beach front bungalows.

I looked at him apologetically, he was definitely going to discuss those findings with his supervisor. He was also probably going to mention those discoveries to his female colleagues about what this dirty old man had been up to.

He had to log in as the administrator. He knows his password is golden as it can allow me unlimited access to sites for jobless lonely youths looking for single rich women interested in marriage. 

To confuse the hunt, he furiously typed in a full sentence of a password complete with uppercase and special characters. He then requested me to put a new password, and watched in pity and disbelief as I keyed in louis2018 as my new password.

It was probably the silliest password he had ever seen. He took the next few minutes uninstalling some movie and music applications I had downloaded, much to my chagrin. 

"It won't happen again," I promised him as he took off to resolve more serious matters. I settled down happy but mortified. This time I plan to make my password to match with the name of my favourite cow, that way I will be less likely to forget while I am on leave.