Well, dear readers, sometimes you just have to give praise where praise is due, and whatever one may think of Apple products, they have the best customer service of anyone in that line of product. And let me tell you, I have a very clear memory of my days of Dell, who had the worst customer service ever, and the worst tech people ever, one of them causing me to erase my hard drive accidentally. Thankfully we were able to get it back, but it was a horror show. The day I switched to Mac was a great day indeed. I remember asking on this here site how hard the switchover would be. Some said it would be a very hard adjustment depending on what I do on the computer. I replied by saying I open Word documents and type and I surf the Internet. The End. At that point everyone said I’d have no trouble, since Microsoft made Word for Mac. I got my first Powerbook and never looked back. And anytime there was a problem, on that or any Apple product, a simple call would get it solved – usually simply, but sometimes it would take a while to suss stuff out. But the tech people were always nice, helpful, patient, and, most importantly, after they’d done what they could and couldn’t help they would immediately send you to an expert without a moment’s hesitation. My Time Machine hadn’t done a backup in almost two weeks, and I was certain it had to do with the new modem, resetting the Time Machine router and like that. I’d tried to look at every setting I could, went into preferences, reselected the disc, but when it asked me a question about that I was too insecure to try it and cancelled. So, I had two chat sessions with nice folks on the Apple Support site and they escalated me to a Time Machine expert and scheduled a call. Now, mind you I am out of warranty and Apple Care and they could have charged me for these conversations, but they didn’t. So, I got the call, he asked some questions, we went into preferences and he had me do exactly what I’d done on my own – reselect the disc. This time when it asked me the question he told me to click yes, and then he told me to try the backup again and voila – it found the disc and began “preparing backup.” He stayed on the phone with me for fifteen minutes, but it didn’t progress so he scheduled a callback for an hour later. An hour later someone called and I told them it was still preparing. They told me that was normal when it had been this long between backups and he scheduled another callback an hour later. Just before that call came, it finally began doing the backup, and the backup was really large – 28 gigs. Then the call came, I told them all was well and he said it could take hours to complete that large a backup. And for a time it was saying ten hours. But it did it in about ninety minutes and that was that, and it’s been working fine ever since. So, a big shout out to Apple and their tech people for really caring about their customers, even their out of warranty customers.
Otherwise, yesterday was a Tuesday. Being a Tuesday, I did Tuesday things. I was up at ten, did my morning stuff, then went and had some chicken tenders for my main meal. They were quite yummilicious. Then I picked up one package and came home. Then began the Apple stuff, which took a bit of time. I did some work on the computer and at the piano, and then began uploading all the stuff from this humungous thirty-CD Vaughan Williams set. I didn’t upload anything I’d already uploaded from the Boult set, even though these are mostly different performances. I did listen to a bit of the Vernon Handley readings of the symphonies, but Boult is the clear winner in performance and sound, although Mr. Handley is a fine conductor. I got through the first thirteen discs. I’ve heard a lot of Vaughan Williams but there is a lot of music here that I didn’t know, and I love discovering new things. And what music it is. My favorite piece, Serenade to Music, is here in all three of its guises – for soloists, choir, and the orchestral version. The latter is simply one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. It makes me ineffably happy and moves me to tears from its warmth and beauty. I enjoyed the oboe concerto and the concerto grosso, the romance for harmonica and orchestra, the variations for orchestra, the first string quartet, the handful of film themes, and on and on. He was very prolific. I’ve uploaded most of the orchestral and chamber music, and then after that comes all the choral music and his operas, which I’ve never heard. The set is an amazing bargain at less than two bucks a CD. The box is nice, but the only downside is that unlike the boxes with the complete symphonies, these CDs are housed in the cheapest plain white paper sleeves imaginable. But that’s a minor nitpick – it’s the music that counts and this music is, for me, as good as it gets. Then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched the first half of a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Vampires, or John Carpenter’s Vampires, starring James Woods. I’m really not that huge of a fan of Mr. Carpenter, who I see at Gelson’s all the time, especially his later work. I’ve never seen Vampires, but it seems typical of his 90s work – some fun, but doesn’t really hang together much. It’s certainly well done, and Mr. Woods seems to be having fun. I’ll finish it up today. The transfer is terrific and this film was shot with a lot of filters and it could have gone so wrong, but it’s Sony and they rarely get it wrong.
I went to Gelson’s, where I did not see Mr. Carpenter, and got a couple of small things to snack on, which is what I did when I came home. Then I relaxed with my pal Vaughan Williams, did some more work on the computer, finally hired a musical director (presuming the singers are okay with his schedule, which is a little off our usual path), and that was that.
Today, I’ll be up early and the helper is meeting her potential replacement and I’m sure they’ll talk and then she can train her and take the temperature of whether she’ll be a good fit and committed. Then I’m hoping to do a Costco run with the interim helper while they’re doing their training thing. At some point I’ll eat, I’ll hopefully pick up packages, and I’ll relax.
The rest of the week is meetings and meals, Friday we have a work session to get the sheet music for Welcome to My World all updated and finalized, I may have a dinner to do that evening, Saturday I’m attending the opening night of a new musical, and Sunday I think I have a lunch meeting.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, meet with the helper and her potential replacement, hopefully do a Costco run with the interim helper, eat, hopefully pick up packages, and do some work on the computer. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that an Apple a day keeps the problems away.