Welp, it’s four in the morning. Can’t sleep. Can’t get anything done. Sometime after dawn, a tech from Best Buy is supposed to come over and try to fix whatever is wrong with my Mac system. But I don’t hold out much hope.
Yesterday evening BB had a very sweet lady with a Filipino accent call and try to coach me on the phone. This futile activity dragged on for two or three hours.
Guys. If I thought I could fix computer stuff myself, I wouldn’t have paid you $200 for a repair contract!
I have two computers: an ancient iMac — a large desktop that I’ve used as a substitute for television ever since they took free TV away from us, and a MacBook laptop that I use to keep myself entertained during most of my other waking hours. These devices work on a system called iCloud. One of the services provided by Apple is an email system called MacMail, which I use in gay abandon.
Week or ten days ago, the email system went berserk. I do not have a clue what is wrong with it…i are a english major, i are not a IT tech!
I’ve gone around and around and around with this thing. Cannot get it fixed — if anything, attempts to do so make the mess worse. The MacBook is now completely disabled. I write this on an ancient iMac desktop, which I use mostly as a television, because sitting in a desk chair for any length of time causes more pain than you wanna know about.
Trying to at least stay online with email correspondents, I went over to Gmail. That has gone haywire, too, and now Google won’t let me into that account.
Soooo…. It looks like my blogging empire will soon be dead. Apple’s email system, which keeps me in touch with friends and business associates, is already dead. This may be my last Funny about Money post…if it goes online at all.
Arrividerci, then. Be safe. Be well!
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
I certainly hope this isn’t goodbye! Good luck with the Best Buy tech.
The poor guy was here a good three hours. They’d allocated 45 minutes for his visit…
The MacBook is now running again, provisionally. But it’s not long for this world.
Pretty clearly, at this point I’m going to have to do one of two things:
a) Buy a new Macbook, to the tune of $2500; or
b) Replace it with a PC…much, much, MUCH cheaper at Best Buy: https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/slp/weekly-deals/laptops?jumpid=ps_con_nb_ns&utm_medium=ps&utm_source=ga&utm_campaign=HP-Store_US_BRA_PS_CPS_Intel_CCF_Google_All_SEM_Phrase_Notebooks&utm_term=hp%20laptops&matchtype=p&adid=454944446354&addisttype=g&cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=676231417&cq_con=36060701913&cq_term=hp%20laptops&cq_med=&cq_plac=&cq_net=g&cq_pos=&cq_plt=gp&ds_rl=1231771&gclid=Cj0KCQjwvLOTBhCJARIsACVldV2crsxYJHoVxHVweTrOZYXKlXT-UPT_GBeU35oei2S03WdcvdsKV0EaAoJDEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
At this point, my inclination is to shift back to the PC universe. I’m about Appled out, thank youverymuch.
When my desktop froze up during an update, I realized how dependent and addicted we were to a computer. I was lost with no access to my bills or files. I had a backup portable drive, but you have to have something to download it into. No access to the online Internet encyclopedia.
After taking to the computer repair shop and getting an estimate of a week for repairs, I went to Costco and bought an HP Chromebook laptop.
Best purchase I ever made, $200 on coupon.
They were able to fix my computer and recover my files. But since my desktop is too old for Windows 11, I still have to find out about a new system. At least I have a few years to think about it. And the chip shortage needs to be over.
That’s exactly what I’m thinkin,’ too. Assuming BB can get the MacBook running, if I pick up an HP there I can just hand it over the counter and say “please copy everything into the PC Universe.”
I’m told a PC can connect with and read MacMail. If that’s the case, then I wouldn’t even need to pester all my friends and business contacts with a new email address — just set MacMail to forward to gmail.
Meanwhile, mostly I use the desktop as a TV, and as a fallback in times like this. It’s even OLDER than the MacBook, but I imagine it’ll last awhile. I hope.
So glad to see from your comment above that you’re not knocked completely offline as you had feared. I don’t comment often, but I do read, and would be sad to see FAM go dark, especially without a way to get in touch.
Be well, and may the computer hassles clear away soon.
Hi, Sherry–good to hear from you! Hope you’re doing well these days.
Strangely, the whole computer conundrum seems to have cleared right up. The MacBook is still at Best Buy…possibly the WhizBangs there have already done something to it to unhang the MacSystem and at least allow me to get into my email.
Customer service at Best Buy is SOOOO superior to Apple’s customer (dis)service that I’ve made up my mind to trot over there and get a new HP model. Then maybe I can hand it over to their service people and ask them to clone the internet connection and whatever else needs to be copied over. Then in due time replace the Apple desktop with a desktop PC.