I should have just stayed in bed today.

My computer wouldn't start last night, completely dead. Made a Genius Bar appt. at the Apple store down in the cities for this morning. Got there, it's in a busy mall, no parking, tried calling the store to have someone come out and bring the computer in (it's a tower and weighs about as much as a concrete block, and it's a service they offer). Automated phone system, I hate them!!!! I finally gave up, went and found a parking spot, got to the store, which is packed. Told the blue shirt I needed someone to pick the computer up, went back out to the back parking lot, drove the car around to the service door, unloaded the computer, drove around and found another parking spot.

Got back into the store, told a blue shirt I had a Genius Bar appt., she said the appts. were only for 15 minutes, I kind of lost it and told her I was there on time, but wasted too much time on their blasted automated phone system trying to get someone to get the computer. She grabbed a higher up blue shirt, he said, oh, yah, her computer's over by the counter. So I stood around for a half hour waiting, my shoulder is just killing me (it doesn't like driving anymore), a tech got to me, I explained it was dead. She grabbed a power cord, plugged it in, pushed the start button, and the bleep-bleeping thing started up. I was thinking nasty thoughts about my son, because before I left home with the computer, I had suggested trying his cord (we have both the same model computer) and see if it would start up. The nice blue shirt lady ran diagnostics on it, and everything came out fine.

So after a couple of side trips, I got home, miserable drive through the rain, and we went out to do the chores.

No baby calf in sight.

I was going to walk out to the east pasture to look for her, and to get to that pasture, you have to go through the gate by the entrance to the cow barn, which when it’s wet, gets a little mucky. Did I say little? I took a couple of steps through, and got stuck. My foot came out of my boot and I’m flailing in the air, trying to keep my balance. Well, of course, I couldn’t. My foot landed in the muck and sunk down into cold, wet muddy muck. Flailing around, still trying to get my balance, screeching. Christian, on the other side of the barn, yelled to see what was wrong. I’m still flailing, one foot in muck, the other in a stuck boot. Well, the boot stayed stuck, my foot didn’t. Out of the boot, into the muck along with the other one, with me still screeching, trying to keep my balance and hoping if I fall, I land on my butt and not my face. About then Christian came running around the barn and saw what was happening, and grabbed me. He was nice enough to grab first and laugh second.

Hosed my feet off, got back into the boots, went back to the house to get walkie-talkies and the truck. Drove out to search the pasture, and thank goodness Ingrid was pretty easy to find. Trucked her back to the barn and got her locked up with Mama. From here on, we’ll let Daisy May out, but keep Ingrid locked up in the barn.

So, got back into the house and cleaned up, got my computer and plugged it in. It came on!! I had thought I was going to have to order a new cord, since they didn’t have any for sale at the Apple store. So Christian got all my hard drives put back in, got it over to my desk, got all the externals plugged back in, pushed the button to start it up. Nothing. Dead as a doornail. Not quite, though. We notice a red light coming on when we tried plugging it into a different outlet. Googled it, and that red light shows there’s power going to the computer. But it’s not turning on. Sigh. Will be going back to the computer store, but NOT tomorrow! Hopefully a week morning will be less hectic there.

But two positives from the fiasco today, I picked up an adapter so I can plug my laptop into my big monitor, so I can actually see what I’m typing, and when I picked up my computer at the store, I saw a sign by the service door saying that it was a loading and unloaded area, with half hour parking!! Yes!!

When the new MacPros come out, I’m getting one!!!! 9 inches tall, 6 inches in diameter, and it weighs 11 lbs.!! Oh, be still, my heart!