My spouse is a cautious person. She’s the one who makes sure our life insurance policies are paid up. She dragged me to the hardware store to pick out a fire safe for the valuable documents. She foists vitamins on me in the morning. In other words, she always believes the worst could happen. And as Clare Booth Luce once said, “I’ve found that the difference between an optimist and a pessimist is that the pessimist is generally better informed.” In other words, my spouse is smarter than I am.

In that spirit, I think I’ve found the perfect birthday present for her: the Sentry Waterproof 160GB Hard Drive. This tough puppy lives inside a case that’s immune to dust, dirt and moisture. It’s been certified to handle 30 minutes at up to 1,550 degrees of heat and a full 24 hours of submersion in water.

You hook it up to your computer via a USB 2.0 cable and it automatically synchs files between the computer’s drive and its drive. Security features on the drive itself include password protection and encryption.

And should your drive ever experience fire or water damage, the company says it will attempt to recover your data free of charge and send you a new unit. I don’t exactly know the details on that, but it sounds reassuring, which is usually sufficient for an optimist like me.

Wonder if they offer gift wrapping…