You're right ... my wife is a blessing, far more understanding and patient that I would ever be.

In thinking about the causes of this frustration, perhaps it is caused by our need for things to be in order. In combat it is life essential that everything be in order and that everyone do what they are supposed to do. When some piece of equipment fails or someone fails to act properly, it costs lives. Maybe we get hyper attuned to this and it carries over to insignificant things.

I've known vets who just came all unglued if they keyed the wrong digits into the microwave ... way out of proportion to the problem. Kind of scared me, too, and I had some idea of what was going on. You can imagine what it is like for those who don't understand the deep background.

Thanks for the tip on self talk. I'll try to do more of that when these frustrations come along ... at the moment, it's an issue with the telephone modem in my PC ... will these PC problems never end? Off-the-topic -- I think I'll buy a Mac and ditch the Microsoft problems once and for all.

Back on topic -- this PC business is another example of my level of frustration. When these things go wrong, I feel like I want to actually throw the PC out the window. If it didn't cost so much, I probably would -- but on the other hand, that's going back to my years of anger and I know it would do no good (lol, but it would sure feel good to watch it hit the ground!)...well, until I realized what it would do to my charge card.

Thanks so much to all of you for feedbacks and posting. We're not in this alone.

T.