Blog Loss Scare!

So, I'm in one of my favourite business hotels in Shimada, getting some work done between work and going out for dinner with colleagues. I cruise over to Japan Rider.com and see - GASP! - no blog, just a hugely scary error message:

"Fatal error: Call to undefined method stdClass::set_prefix() [blah blah japanrider/wp blah blah] on line 268"

Now, I don't know much, but I know that errors that are fatal are never good! My admin panel and anything on the Japan Rider domain was inaccessible. Not good.

I did a net search, and followed a tip from this thread - http://wordpress.org/support/topic/288455

I accessed our Wordpress (blog) files via my hosting provider,  Bluehost (which is great!).  From the File Manager, I renamed the .htaccess file found in the root directory of the Wordpress installation (japanrider.com) to .htaccess.bak; and then, holding my breath, I went to my Japanrider.com admin panel and, voila - We  Are Back! I think renaming the file (the same effect as deleting it, except I can revert back if needed) forced Wordpress to create a new, non-corrupt file.

We've got years of precious blogging here, and this scare provided a wake-up call: we must definitely do regular backups!