When it rains...

Last night, I couldn't sleep. This happens from time to time, as many of you can attest. I have a notorious tendency towards insomnia which I usually quench with hours in front of the computer, walking in the interwebs. Last night was no exception; facebook be praised. So, imagine my surprise when, at about 5 am or so, Lupe's MacBook swirled its little rainbow-coloured disk of doom and the hard drive started clicking.

"Uh oh"

Restart yields no love. I suck it up and switch Lupe's iPhone to Data Roaming, feeling my wallet taking hits as every second ticks by. Support dictates that I need a startup disk, which would be swell except it's buried in a storage unit in Portland, Oregon while I sit in a dark room in Melbourne, Australia and freak the f out.

I work on this for about an hour or so before I give up and wake up Lupe to tell her her computer's f-ed. She takes it well enough for 5 am but doesn't sleep much the rest of the night.

So, bright and early this morning, we decide to hunt down an Apple Store in Melbourne. According to Google, there is only one: in a mall in Chadstone about 20 minutes by car. We opt for a bus because we have no car and it takes us about 45 minutes or so. We get to this massive mall where we find the Apple store and they are, by far, the most accommodating, customer service-oriented Apple employees I have ever encountered. It is no secret that I have held my own personal disgruntlement against Apple, its employees, and its functionality. (For example, when I tried calling Customer Support via phone I was confronted by an automated system that asked what I was calling about, transferred me to another automated system which then asked me if I was calling regarding an Apple product. Uhhhh, I'm pretty sure if I wasn't calling about an Apple product, I would probably realize I was in the wrong place after 5 minutes waiting on hold while Apple tried to sell me crap I don't need). BUT! The kind people at the Apple Store in Chadstone were so helpful, I took back some of the venom I have spewed in their company's direction over the years. Unfortunately, they didn't have the HD I needed for a replace/repair. Suuuuuck! But wait! There's a store about 20 minute drive away at the other, ever more massive mall in Doncaster! Another 45 minute bus ride later and another (less friendly) Apple Store encounter later and we're told it might take 2-3 days to repair. Mind you, we leave in a day and a half. PANIC (part deux)!!!!

We commiserate at a Groove Train over a pint (yes, they serve beer in the mall) and talk about trying to replace my iPhone with an Aussie iPhone since their 3G[S] has functionality that the US versions lack and come pre-jail broken. They also cost $900 AU so.... yeah, no. But they call while we're eating and we rush back over there only to find all is well.

Fixed computer.

Whew.

I had an external HD backup with us that was fairly up-to-date so all of our applications are back on, no photos lost, not music lost, very few documents lost.

Oh. My. God.

What a day.... First my phone then the 'puter. I thought I was cursed, I swear. But Lupe kept the faith; she promised me everything would work out fine and, hey! Lo and behold, they did.

I don't often talk about my wife in these blogs. I told her that this was because I wanted this blog to be a little more from a personal perspective. But, to tell the truth, my personal perspective is usually along the lines of "The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Head for the hills for all is LOST! Auuugh!" My wife is the voice of reason I don't have for myself when my crazy starts to show through. She is so much more bad ass than I am, it's dumb. I cannot, for the life of me sometimes, figure out why the hell she puts up with my juvenile, neurotic, panic-driven dumb-ass self. Right now, she's bugging me to get off this newly fixed computer and go get our laundry in a calm, overly patient voice while forcing me to comply so I must be going but damn! I love that girl.

sigh

-d@n