"THE DAY OUR MOUSE UP AND DIED"

A MODERN-DAY COMPUTER SAGA

"I'M MAD AT DELL...AND I'M NOT GONNA TAKE IT

ANYMORE!"

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You'd think, wouldn't you, that the mere purchase of a new

computer would be "a piece of cake"--- "a big bite out of a

juicy apple," or some other nice metaphor!

NOT! You've got to set them up, learn how they work, and

then the biggie: recover "tons" of photos, family history, 

documents, recipes, miscellaneous minutiae, and various

other unremembered items...ad infinitum (and likely nauseum),

from your old computer!

For you see, our old Dell PC, having actually lived beyond its

allotted years (whatever they are), was filled with information

and data to the point that it was balking. It was tired. It was

slow.....................................you had to wait for it. It was a bit

like some old timers I know. It seemed to forget stuff.

We even got worried and joined "That Great Carbonite Club

in the Cloud," for a fee, of course. Whether our info stays

there, or floats away, is yet to be ascertained.

I knew we were in computer trouble, big-time, when I drove

into the driveway one day, and the Beloved Editor (doing her
best Peter Finch imitation from the movie "Network"), stuck her
head out a window and screamed---"I'm mad at Dell, and I'm
not gonna take it anymore!"

One morning, alas, our Dell died. just up and died. I mean---

it wouldn't even turn on. To tell the truth, it had been a real

trooper...had been even splendid in its younger days. It 

deserves our grateful appreciation...in spite of later frustrations.

So with these prelims, hereby hangs a further tale.

I, a totally illiterate-computer-dummy, a non-techie, saw an
iPad Christmas of 2010, and immediately said:"I want one of
those!" My wife loved it so much that I got her one, Christmas
of 2012.

Our iPad experiences, plus our reading of Steve Job's 
biography, plus the advice of many friends, led us to become
Apple enthusiasts! 

A mere several days after the day our Dell died, she came

home with a big box, containing our new Apple iMac. We

wrestled it into the house, and set it up in the den, so I 

wouldn't be a computer widower as she was learning the
ropes.

Uh oh, now a new learning curve was coming up. 

So far she has been to four classes at the Apple store.

Once she took the new iMac with her down there, as if to

the ER. Then on return home, it wouldn't come on. Like

new parents, we were very worried, but it finally did---just

a new computer asserting its independence!

There in the den she has been spending hours of learning,

experimenting, setting up "files," attempting to recover 

lost data from "Carbonite," as well as all the other things

involved in getting used to the new iMac.

I am accustomed to all kinds of verbal lingo as she meets

the challenges and frustrations: "Oops!" "What in the world?"

"Are You KIdding Me?" "Yay!" "Would you believe...?!"
"This is totally alien territory!"

But a CRISIS WAS LOOMING...sit down dear reader, for 

this one. And let me remind you, that the Beloved Editor---

I consider to be a computer expert of the First Magnitude.

That is what makes this tale so strange.

One night, recently, she sat down to do computer stuff,

and suddenly she cried out: "Oh, oh, no! OUR MOUSE

IS DEAD! It won't work. Oh wait, it's moving, but jumping
around and doing weird things--- every-thing is all 
"cater-wompus-like!"  

After working with it a while, she said: "Well, the 'magic mouse' 
is shot,"and a brand new one at that. I'll just have to use the
trackpad 'til I can get a new one."  With that, she shut down the
computer with the thought of addressing the problem another
day.

Dear reader, I know you are on tenterhooks to learn

the outcome of this serious dilemma! Well, I forgot

all about that mouse problem overnight and was having

coffee the next morning when my wife came walking

into the kitchen looking a bit "sheepish." She said: "Well,

the mouse wasn't dead after all!  It was me! I goofed up

last night---I had the mouse turned the wrong direction! It
works fine. Our mouse is ALIVE!"

There are times when husbands know instinctively, not

to talk.

I nodded, lovingly.

Stay tuned...

*******30*******

BY MIL

10/17/13