Starting Again

Now that the Amagansett house is taking shape (new deck, wood floors and butcher block counters sanded, garage door opener that actually works, replace worn siding and one window [it has been about 30 years after all), I was beginning to make plans for more travel and adventures.  I just hadn't expected it to start with a mini disaster here and there.

First I crashed my iPhone.  When you don't know an app from an OS, that's easy to do.  That, of course, happened just before I was set to leave for the Midwest for Thanksgiving. I wasn't keen on driving without a phone available for calls and for information.  I know, I know.  Once upon a time we stopped and used pay phones.  The problem with that is that pay phones hardly exist anymore.  At least ones in working order.  Besides I'm an iPhone and Google convert and no longer like being separated from my devices.

So, in an attempt to be efficient, I made an appointment with the Genius Bar that was not too far out of my way as I left Long Island.  Watching my time carefully, I drove up about 15 minutes before the appointment and was met in the parking lot by an Apple employee explaining that all their systems were down.  Apple store systems not operating?  What is happening to the universe?  Not to worry, he said.  All the appointments had been transferred to the Roosevelt Mall store.  Back in the car for a 20 minute drive to a store that looked like the last shopping day before Christmas.  I've seen crowded stores but this one was seriously crowded and mostly by aggravated Long Islanders who didn't like having to change the location for their appointment (one lady, unfortunately ahead of me, had to describe what she termed an hour drive -- somewhat difficult to comprehend when her original appointment, like mine, could not have been more than 20 minutes away at slow speed).

The customers were not doing anything good for the New York or Long Island image.  The Apple folks, on the other hand, were acting like real New Yorkers.  They were coping.  They listened patiently (how they did that part I will never know) and kept the lists and found the next available Genius.  The punch line?  My iPhone was functioning and had my contacts back within half an hour.

Onward to my first stop -- but more on that later.