by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here)
I was at the grocery check-out line, around 9:30 in the morning. The checker inquired as to how my day was going so far. I considered providing the expected response, “fine.”
In truth, however, I had driven to the store to escape the frustration that my Word files suddenly weren’t saving. When I tried, I was getting nonsensical messages such as, “Word cannot open document: user does not have access privileges” and “Word cannot complete the Save due to a file permission error.”
So I told her my Mac was having computer problems.
“Oh, I’m so, so, sorry,” she empathized in the tone more typically used for a death in the family. I felt better immediately: She really understood how terrible this was.
I get completely frustrated navigating technical support, whether online or by phone. You wait for hours with pseudo-pleasant music, then are asked all sorts of questions for which there is no answer.
I admitted I was tending toward waiting until my husband returned from work. Then I’d ambush him with the problem.
Ever cheerful, she suggested I head right over to the Apple store. “This time of day they’re probably not too busy.”
Her enthusiasm gave me courage, and I resolved to make the trip. I went home, changed into biking clothes, and slid my Mac into my backpack. That way, my trashed day would be improved by exercise.
I arrived before 10:30 and was awarded a time of 11:55. Prepared for the wait, I settled in to catch up on some back reading.
Pretty soon, my husband texted to ask if I’d completed an errand he’d requested. I had not, but a CVS was practically across the street. I walked over and accomplished another errand. I was starting to feel better about my day.
My Apple staffer was kind and efficient. “How long has it been since you shut down Word?” he asked as he typed who knows what onto my Mac.
I don’t know. I write articles. I write comprehensive financial plans. I dabble in haiku. When I’m not hiking or on my bike, I’m on my computer. That brought to mind the raunchy old (apparently apocryphal) Groucho Marx joke about cigars where the punchline is, “You gotta take it out once in a while.”
Force-quitting my Mac worked. Everything booted up splendidly. He even ran a virus scan and cleaned out some viruses. Then he proceeded to answer a couple other long simmering questions.
One concerned music that wouldn’t download; the other was about combining old family photos scanned into Google photos with my Photos.
“Any more problems?” he finally asked.
“Well,” I said, glancing at the desktop photo of my husband and me perched on a rock overlooking San Francisco Bay, “can you help me find these sunglasses?”
Riding my bike back up the hill to home, a jogger not much younger than myself passed me going up the steep grade. I was riding too high to be humiliated. It took courage not to wait for my knight to rescue me.
Maybe I only needed to shut down my computer. Maybe I should have known that. Nevertheless, my laptop works, and all is good with the world.
Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist
Karen Telleen-Lawton is an eco-writer, sharing information and insights about economics and ecology, finances and the environment. Having recently retired from financial planning and advising, she spends more time exploring the outdoors — and reading and writing about it. The opinions expressed are her own.