my account. During the 80-some-odd hours
I worked with Microsoft representatives to get
access to my files in OneDrive, each person
with whom I spoke assured me with confidence
that I would soon get access to all of my files.
Except for a file that was purportedly taken out
of my drive (this I was told directly after the sus
pension transpired), which I was fine with. What
ever file it was that so claimed my account being
taken from me (and, as if I even have the time to
do this, I will continue to fight this absurd screwing
this monopoly has so successfully given me), I’m
fine with it being gone. I certainly didn’t upload any
thing intentionally that fits any problem in the guide
lines for storage. Nor was I sharing any of the files in
my entire drive, save a couple of smaller files that
I shared with my partner, which only included our
own silly stuff, and all of the information we’d been
through thus far toward getting his citizenship here
in the United States so that he can live with me.
I lost all of my material possessions when I was
50 years old, about a year after I’d been evicted
from my home of 13 years. I could no longer
pay for the storage unit that held them all—which
was, mind you, all I could take from my old apart
ment before being assaulted by my old property
manager. All of those possessions that I had still
managed to hold on to were then apparently auc
tioned off. I miss none of these things much, except
perhaps the hundreds of books of poetry that sat upon the
shelves filled with the books that I’d read in their entireties.
These books always served as a backdrop behind me or who
ever was sitting on my old living room couch at any given
time. Because, for one thing, it turns out that I’m not
that materialistic. But, also, all of my old photographs,
I had taken and those my grandmother had given me, and
my dozens of journals and the four or five boxes of flat
memorabilia that I had dragged with me from place to place
were photographed and made into electronic files that I
could keep, all of which were in my Microsoft OneDrive,
for which I payed a monthly subscription for many
years. Now I have access to none of that, and which
even after the 80-something hours working with reps
in earnest to help me retrieve these files. A nd the
latest letter I received from Microsoft on the subject
says the decision is final. Suspension upheld. And I still
have no idea why. Each person I chatted with online
or spoke with on the telephone said I'd get it all back,
these impresssions of the substance left from a life
that had lasted then half a century, now approaching
60 years. It isn’t much. But they were mine. They were
me. And I (actually) trusted Microsoft, for whom I’ve spent,
or have been the primary responsible person who has helped
them accrue tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars
over the years for each product I’ve been responsible for
whomever I worked upgrading products or purchasing from
them, as well as for each personal product I’ve actually
used, practically since the inception of Windows. How
does one begin to fight such a monster even over such
vague bullshit claims, when I am just a poor man (made
much poorer by their that heinous act). A monster with hands
inside of my old and brand new laptops in such ways that almost
no action that machine makes doesn’t pass through them in some
way. I will fight this, even though to build up to getting in touch
each time is a war I have with anxiety. But I will keep trying,
if for no other reason than the corruption and tone deaf customer
service that has become the standard. If anyone has even
the slightest educated notion of what I should do next, please,
I’m an easy person with whom to get in touch. But right now
I’m at a loss, stalling too long until my next attempt at getting
all I physically have of my history, spanning just a few short
decades of nothing but, to me, the most important details of it.