No, that's not my "IT" guy but they seem to be in the same species and here's why!
The good news is I have my system working again, the bad news is I still don't know the cause of the glitch, so we may have to deal with it again.
While talking to somebody else in the office about this problem, he asked me that since my machine is using XP, why don't I use the Restore function available in XP and simply restore the whole system to a point prior to the glitch! Wow, now isn't that something you would think the "IT" guy would have had some knowledge of and want to try before he says "Just buy a new machine"?? Anyway, as I now know, XP periodically and automatically creates these system backups, probably at least twice a week, or you can create a specific restore points whenever you want. Then it's a simple thing to have it restore the system to how it looked at a previous time. So, that's what I did. After some reconfiguring needed to connect to the network and pathing to a new server, the glitch is gone!! So, my recommendation is anybody out there running XP, become familiar with this function and create specific restore points as necessary.
I wish I knew the cause of this problem, but at least I know that if it happens again, within a hour, I can be working again. If this becomes a constant and recurring problem, I'm hoping we can do enough troubleshooting to correct the cause. For now, I'm just happy to be working again and we saved the company from having to buy a new machine.
Thanks for everyones help and suggestions. If anybody has a similar problem and finds a true solution, I would still really like to hear a bout it.
Ken