My Computer Got a Fever…

This is a long story, but I hope I have made it amusing.  I do promise to show a little knitting at the end.

All was going swimmingly here at Molecular Knitting, but then my computer CPU got a fever and shut itself down.  Repeatedly.  We’re talking over 240 degrees Fahrenheit fever.  It wasn’t pretty.  Archie, my computer’s sobriquet (after Archie Goodwin in the Nero Wolfe mysteries), went to Houston for Apple to fix (we have Apple Care).  Archie needed a new logic (mother) board and two new fans. Fine–I didn’t have to pay for it.  But then the Apple Care people forgot to send Archie back! After being prompted by M (yikes!), they sent it back overnight. On Thursday, July 3rd.  How nice.

So, you are thinking, well you got your computer on Monday, July 7, so why is it July 24 when you finally blog?  Well…I think I would have received Archie back on Monday, July 7 if DHL had delivered it to the address on Archie’s box, which was the department I work in at the university.  However, since “almost all” the Apple computers coming back from the repair place in Houston go to the Apple Store (30 miles from where I work and live), that is where the courier took my computer.  When I complained, DHL sent the courier back to the Apple Store  and told me I would get Archie back on Tuesday morning, July 8 (and they were very sorry).  Well…I think I would have received Archie back on Tuesday morning, July 8 if the Apple Store hadn’t denied having my computer, and the courier then let the matter drop. When I didn’t get Archie Tuesday morning, I called DHL, where I was told that they would try to get me Archie by Wednesday morning, July 9.  Uh, No. DHL would retrieve my computer and deliver it to me on Tuesday, July 8.  Giovanni at DHL was very upset, so I spoke to his boss, who was very apologetic and promised to call me back in 15 minutes.  1 hour later, I called again, and the boss was at lunch.  I told Giovanni I expected his boss to return my call by 2 o’clock.  At 2:15, I called, and the boss was very apologetic and claimed to have lost my phone number.  He would go HIMSELF to the Apple Store to get Archie, and Archie would be delivered to my home that evening.  Since M had recalled Apple Care, the Apple Store had found my computer (like magic!).  And DHL delivered Archie to me at home that evening, twelve days after leaving.

Archie had had his hard drive wiped. Time Machine took overnight to put it all back on.  Then M went to install the software update (needed for work) that he had been installing when Archie got his fever.  Guess what?!  Archie overheated several times, shutting himself down. M did all sorts of things to make sure we didn’t have a corrupt operating system, blah, blah, blah.  Then he told me to do the best I could for a week  while the computer recorded it’s temperature (and M finished a grant).  Well, Archie didn’t overheat, but his trackpad was now BROKEN. It had been fine before his trip to Houston.  Now the trackpad tried to scroll sometimes when it wasn’t supposed to, so moving the cursor in Excel meant I didn’t really move the cursor, but the worksheet would scroll from column C to column UUU.  Nice.

M called back Apple Care.  Words were exchanged. I didn’t understand much of it, but I know that when M said things like “Does Steve Jobs know you are telling people to manually reinstall and not to use Time Machine?” and “This is not Apple Corporation at its finest,”  M was mad. Apple Care said they would like Archie back.  So back he went, and this time Apple Care didn’t forget to send him back, and DHL had learned that they needed to deliver Archie to the correct address the FIRST time.  So, in less than 72 hours Archie was back with me again.  His trackpad is working, and they didn’t wipe the hard drive, so M didn’t have to update any more software.  So for now, we are back in business.

While Archie was gone, I read a lot and knit a lot.  But as this is a long post, let’s just take a little peak at my second attempt at the yoke from the February Lady Sweater by Pam of Flint Knits.  I changed my raglan increases to YO, K1, YO (from M1, K1, M1) and will do them until I get enough body stitches (no row of eyelet increases for those familiar with the pattern).  The yoke as written in the pattern was too short for me.  Reading From the Top Down by Barbara Walker (recommended by Pam for this project) helped me see how I could fix this (btw–BW has a top down, seamless, set-in sleeve method that I am dying to try).

There are two great things for me about this project other than the whole getting a cute sweater out of the deal. First, the pattern is free. Second, the yarn is almost free. It’s Bryspun Kid ‘n’ Ewe (discontinued) that I bought SEVEN years ago when I first learned to knit. I was supposed to buy lace weight and I bought worsted weight because I was confused about the whole stitches per inch thing when knitting lace (skinny yarn, big needles–how odd!). Yarn seven years in stash is free in my book. So, I’m hoping this works out–a double free sweater!

I also have two FOs and I’ve made some significant sock progress, but that will have to wait. I hope Archie hangs in there, so I can tell you about those things soon.

Happy Knitting!