Today my brain is pesto.  Yesterday–Day 1 after arrival in the US–said brain was lurching about in my skull like a snail that had just crawled onto a pile of salt.  I thought I was doing amazingly well for my first day: up at a reasonable hour after a good night’s sleep; seemingly coherent (operative word here being ‘seemingly’); staying awake all day.  I now realise that I wasn’t doing half as well as I thought.  Hindsight, it turns out, means the ability to look back and see with absolute clarity just what an ass you were.  It would be okay–mildly amusing, even–if I hadn’t heard or done anything important; anything that required remembering.  But of course, it wouldn’t be about me if that had been the case, would it?

My Excellent Visit to the Apple Store

My niece, Mary (with whom I am staying) very generously, and patiently, gave up half a day of her precious Labor Day weekend to take me to the Apple Store.  Of course, it helped my case a bit that it meant she got out of helping clean out the garage, but that in no way diminished the significance of what she did.  Taking me to a computer store less than a day after my marathon journey was never gonna be fun. Except, of course, for me.  I had a ball.  From the smiles and smirks on the faces of many of the sales people and the customers, I think a few others were enjoying it too.

I should tell you that I had been anticipating this little shopping excursion for quite a few weeks.  I had decided to take a punt on the Aussie dollar remaining high (more on that later) and wait to purchase my new toys in the US rather than buy them in Australia before I left.  Once I had decided to get an iPad2, and a MacBook Air, I was in a frenzy of anticipation.  Imagine my excitement when I got to the Apple Store.  And imagine the excitement on the face of the young man who greeted us at the door, when he asked if he could assist us and I replied that I wanted to buy an iPad 2 and a MacBook Air.   He couldn’t have been more helpful–or more enthusiastic. His delight matched my own.  It’s nice to see people enjoy their work, don’t you think?

So many decisions to make.  Even though I thought I knew what I wanted, I hadn’t anticipated all the possible ‘extras.’  A cover for the iPad?  What kind?  What colour?  A cover for the MacBook?  What kind?  A bag for it?  Do you want Apple Care? Tuition?  All of these decisions were fun, of course, but then we got down to the brass tacks, as they say.  Not the cost–we aren’t there yet–but the details of my existing accounts, passwords, email addresses…  Oh, dear.  Suddenly we weren’t having fun anymore.  The truth is, I have too many email addresses, and way way too many passwords to remember.  That’s not all that unusual, but in my case it is further complicated by the fact that some things are linked to Australian accounts and some to American accounts. And of course I can’t remember which is which.  And it hadn’t occurred to me to bring along the list of usernames, passwords, and Apple IDs I had carefully updated before leaving Fossil Cove.  Worst of all, unbeknownst to me, my brain was still squirming around on a pile of salt.  I thought I was fine, but everyone else in the place would have known otherwise.  And Mary, bless her heart, stuck with me the whole way.

My fingers seemed to be afflicted by whatever it was that had inhabited my headspace.  I couldn’t type a simple password.  After twenty-seven tries, you would have thought it would sink in that I was not entirely… at my my best, shall we say.  The story does have an ending.  At least for the poor frustrated tech guy at the Apple Store: I finally left the store.  I spent a lot of time bonding with my new toys last night and today, and I think I can say that I’ve got them both working, but I’m not making any rash assumptions. I don’t know whether it was all down to travel fatigue or just low blood-chocolate.  I plan to treat for both possibilities.  Just in case.        MM