Today I went to the Mac store to get my huge  24″ computer fixed.  The first time I carried it in for service about two years ago, I pulled a muscle in my neck.  It’s pretty darned heavy.   I also looked like an idiot carrying it with two hands gripped onto the one handle whilst it was banging on my knees in front of me.  The next time I took it in, I scheduled an appointment with my husband to carry it in for me.  This time:

I had just had a manicure and massage (Spa Alexis), I was not going to ruin either.  So I pulled up to valet parking, took out my pre-loaded dolly from home (one of my all-time favorite purchases), stuck my computer on it, and away I went.

I sat down at the Genius Bar for my appointment.  When I told the nice guy, Aaron, what was happening, he looked a little puzzled, but he was so cool and smart, and mostly, PATIENT, that he figured it out.  I am writing a letter to his supervisor to tell him that Aaron deserves a raise as soon as I post this blog.

The first complaint I had about my iMac was that I would occasionally see colored rectangles on the screen that would build from the left to right and continue down, then the screen would freeze.  Then, I would get the “PINWHEEL OF DEATH.”  He burst out laughing and asked me if I would begrudge him if he didn’t type in “pinwheel of death”.  I said, “Yes”.  I told him that Liz had coined that phrase, and it was appropriate.   I don’t know what he typed in, but he was laughing as he did so.  I also told him to put in his computer log that I was not on hallucinogens.

Long story short, his perseverance prevailed.  When he told me he would like to wipe out all my stuff and start over as he found numerous software glitches, I winced.  He asked me when I last backed up.  I told him I tried on three different devices last night, but they all seemed to fail.  He looked them up, sure enough, they each said, “application failed.”  He discovered I had been backing up to my own hard drive.  Apparently this is almost impossible.  He said it was “amazing” how I could have done that.

I told him that I AM AMAZING IN EVERY WHICH WAY, INCLUDING BACKUP PROCEDURES ON MACS.  Where there is a will, there is a way.  He said he’d never, ever seen it done.  I have no idea how I did that.  I also told him that if the proper window had popped up in the first place, I would clearly have chosen the correct one (right)?

So I am sitting here at home now, on my MacBook Air, watching my huge Mac computer backup properly.  He said it may take 3-6 hours.  Then he taught me how to delete things from my desktop properly.  He said having all those things on my desktop (which I love for handiness) slows the booting up quite a bit on any computer.  Poo.  He also taught me that photos and videos are “deleted” differently than documents when dragged to the trash.

So kudos to Aaron, who has just met the most amazing woman on earth.

P. Sarah

P.S. Other uses my dolly came in handy for today since our spring broke on our incredibly heavy cedar-front garage door so I have to come in through the back door around the garden for now:

Really cumbersome heavy artwork - just barely fit into my car

Repeat caption above, but it's obviously not artwork!