I’m moving quickly through the grieving process for my PowerBook, which was ripped from the safety of my arms tonight to be sent off to Apple for repair.
I’m no longer able to make the pilgrimage to the Mother Ship’s satellite Apple Store at a mall near me. I sent my husband to the Genius Bar on Sunday night because the Apple Tech I’d spoken to on the phone knew as well as I that the PB needed to be repaired, but a repair can’t be authorized until obeisance is paid by journeying to the Apple Store Genius Bar. There, an Apple Genius pronounced that all it needed was a new power adaptor, which he supplied.
I was so thrilled to have the little darling (the PB, not my husband) back home that I didn’t quibble…although, with only 98 day left on my AppleCare, I was having some pretty dark thoughts.
Sure enough, the very next day things went from bandaged to blatantly broken. Although…the new power adaptor worked to perfection! Still, that wasn’t particularly helpful when the display showed nothing but garbled horizontal lines. It seemed like everything else was working okay, although I can’t be absolutely sure since I really didn’t have a GUI. Tough to troubleshoot without a GUI.
So, another call to Apple Tech Support, another pilgrimage to the Apple Genius bar. My husband called about 15 minutes after the appointment time to ask if I had everything backed up on the PB, “Because they’re sending it to Apple, and they may have to erase the hard drive.”
Now, I’d been doing backups so I said, “Yes, I have it backed up.”
Then my husband asked about my password and I gave it to him, but he couldn’t understand me, so he handed the phone to the Certified Apple Genius, and I gave the password to him.
Then I sat here worrying about all the potential losses if I’d forgotten to back up anything. I’d cloned it. I’d backed up everything I’d downloaded since the cloning. But was I really, really, 100% sure?
Then I started worrying about all the personal pics and vids, all the email, all the caches with receipts and passwords, and biggest worry…my keychain! Oh, bloody hell, why hadn’t I erased the HD before I sent it to be pawed over by strangers? Why? Why? Why?
Uhhhhhh, because I had no GUI to facilitate a wipe and re-install? Could that be the reason?
Oh. Right. Might as well be calm and accepting. The pictures of the dog, my husband, the Christmas tree, and last winter’s ice storm probably aren’t going to stolen by baddies and uploaded to internet porn sites. Probably.
As I was breathing deeply to calm myself, my husband walked in and told me that they had needed my password so they wouldn’t have to erase my hard drive, so I was probably safe in that respect.
Now I just have to face six to seven days of misery without sweet little “V-s-Computer.”
I’m bereft. :-(
Oh, my darling PowerBook, come home soon and I swear I’ll put back the desktops with the polar bears that you love so much. I’ll never ever use you without the Cool Pad. I’ll buy a tiny little fan and keep it pointed at you, even in the dead of winter, even if my hands turn to ice. I’ll never run two video conversion apps while surfing the internet, downloading podcasts and watching videos ever again. I won’t kink your power adaptor cord. I won’t let you slide off the pillow on my lap. I won’t fall asleep without putting you to sleep too. I’ll vacuum your keyboard every two hours. I’ll use the energy saver settings. I will not go to the Apple website and make you display pictures and specs of new MacBook Pros. I will be sensitive to all your needs.
It just occurred to me that this is probably the way my husband feels every single time he has to sit and wait while I get another stent installed.
*sigh*
I’ll be nicer to him too.
