Techno Horror!

Friday began with a community dog walk on a magnificent morning. I think these walks are the source of fleas that have infested Sheba. Her biting of herself and scratching is driving us both mad so I sought a treatment at the vet’s—$48 for one pill that she’ll need every three months.

I called Patsy. At 2:30 yesterday it was 24°! She enthusiastically agreed to meet me (and Sheba) at Drumbeg for champagne at four. I took potato chips to munch on while we talked through Happy Hour on a beautiful ocean-side hillock. 

We sat on a bench on the top of the hill. A gentle breeze kept us fresh in the hot sun. It was absolute summertime perfection to be together drinking Veuve Cliquot inthe view, not looking at it. That’s how to enjoy life on ‘my’ island. I’m very lucky to have Patsy to ‘play’ with.

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Saturday began early in horror! I lost access to Google.

Some kind of virus took over my browser. I cannot use Google. I tried everything in my power to fix the problem and finally decided to try asking for help from Apple and, miracle of miracles, when I hit the support button, I was asked whether I wanted to chat or talk to a technician.

I chose to talk to a technician and my screen asked me to type in my phone number. I got a call immediately from a young woman in Texas who hooked into my computer so she could see my screen. We deleted programs, ran diagnostic software, re-set a zillion things and nothing worked.

We ran a Malware program and that didn’t work either so she suggested I download a new operating system (Mojave). It took an hour-and-a-half to download and install the new system and still, when I tried to use Google, it wasn’t working!

I’d arranged with the Texan technician for a call back at 10:30 to check that everything was working. A new woman called and she saw that Google was still not working. I was super disappointed. We tried a lot of things I’d already done and then she gave up.

Transfer to supervisor.

I go through everything again with the supervisor. None of her additional checks and tricks work either so she, too, gives up.

Transfer to senior supervisor, Cody.

Cody does magic. It took an hour and fifteen minutes but he finally solved the problem. All in all, I was occupied with Apple from just before eight until noon but I was sincerely relieved to have access to all my image and research resource sites. Now everything is working but looks different because I’m using Mojave, the newest Apple operating system.

Once everything was resolved, I took Sheba out for a long walk and reveled in the beauty of nature after the stress of the morning. I hate having technology problems.