Life was not particularly dull today. That is, it was dull until about noon. I got up and faaarrrred up my laptop. Everything was all right. Took a walk, came back and got back on my laptop. Everything was all right. Went to work. Everything was all right.

Went home for lunch. That is an unusual event in itself but we were expecting guests tonight (yes, really, us) and I had some stuff to do and things were kind of drifty at work so I took off for a bit. I walked into the Landfill Chitchen, did my stuff, and faaarrrred up my laptop. Everything was all right. For about 60 seconds. Aaaaannnnnndddd then. My trackpad was hosed. AGAIN!!!! I re-a-started my laptop. The trackpad worked for about 60 seconds. I re-a-started my laptop again. The trackpad worked for about 60 seconds. Later, rinse, repeat. My anxiety level started to rise. That trackpad was the THIRD trackpad I’ve had in this very expensive piece of you-know-what. I shut it down one more time and forced myself to settle down and drive back to work.

Arriving home at the end of the day, I was hoping against hope that I had imagined the lunchtime laptop experience. Started it up again. Everything was fine. For about 60 seconds. Alas, trackpad failure again. The last thing I wanted to do in the remaining couple of days before the xmas holiday was to W-A-I-T around at the Apple Store “genius” bar (AT THE MALL!!! THREE DAYS BEFORE XMAS!!!) for yet another “genius” to tell me that I just needed a new trackpad. I’m sorry but I know that this is not a trackpad issue. I think that the hardware goes into a failure mode and stops “TALKING” to the trackpad. Or starts talking to it in some other language. Or whatever.

Well, sometimes you get lucky in life, don’tcha know. As luck would have it, my laptop failed on the very day that Sam the Archaeologist and THE GURU were scheduled to stop for dinner. And, of course, the Guru couldn’t help but get caught up in the laptop mess. Because that’s what he DOES!!! He was all over it, looking into what processes were running, etc., ad infinitum. The GG was looking into “genius” bar appointments for tomorrow (good luck). The only ones available were in the afternoon or evening, NOT good times for me. We were looking at Friday morning and then… Hello? There was one available tonight at 7:45 PM. The Guru said, “take it!” This was waaaaayyyyy above and beyond the call of duty but we did take it and the GG and the Guru trucked on over there while Sam and I (and Mouse, for a while) hung out here with whine and much-needed talk.

The outcome? New trackpad (#4) but this time with the promise that if it happens again, they will figure out what we all believe is an underlying problem. I am eternally grateful to the Guru for helping out here — especially for believing me when I said I didn’t think it was just the trackpad and being willing to schlep my laptop over to the Apple Store on the spur of the moment. The stars seemed to be aligned in some rather strange ways today.

I am not happy about the genius bar employees freaking out because there was a scrap of dried blood on the top of my laptop. Fer kee-reist, the GG was on a kick of sharpening long-dull kitchen knives around here throughout the weekend and I wasn’t really paying attention and, yes, I cut my finger. My finger is fine but it bled profusely until we could get a bandaid on it. Fingers do that and, well, fer kee-reist, it isn’t the first time I’ve bled on a laptop!!! (I was so disgusted by that little incident that I didn’t consider it blahg fodder at the time. Now I do.) I am also not happy that they apparently threatened to void my warranty because there were a few crumbs of food on my computer. I use my computer IN THE KITCHEN!!! IT IS A LAPTOP?!?! How many people use their laptops at Starbucks or wherever??? Sorry geniuses, but your computers need to be able to withstand a few crumbs. I do CAREFULLY keep liquids away from my laptop. I accidentally spilled a few drops of coffee into a DecWriter III terminal in about 1982 and I have been careful about that ever since. Not happy that the geniuses found a way to make me feel small even though I was not there. Sigh…

Dear @Apple, I hope there isn’t another chapter to this story.

Goodnight! Godspeed Sam & JCB and thank you again about a thousand billion times. Love.

And peeeeeeeeace will guide the plaaaanets. And love will steer the stars.

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