Better Late Than Never #Christmas #MacPro #GeekSquad

I finally received my Christmas gift from MG four months late, and MG got his gift from me three months late. Why? Or why bother at all with Christmas gifts at this late date? Better late than never.

MG, being the outdoor manly type, had his eye on a brand new, rather expensive handgun. I, being the indoor techie type, lusted after a new, always somewhat pricey MacBook Pro.

We agreed to wait until the prices on the items we coveted would drop enough to make them more affordable. We just didn’t foresee that it would take so long and almost gave up altogether.

My new MacBook Pro was worth the wait. It’s lighter, sleeker, and faster than my old Pro. The only drawback was that I couldn’t get my hands on it right away. I had to leave it with the Geek Squad at Best Buy to transfer the data from the old to the new. MG’s eight-year-old Dell Studio laptop, formerly my Dell Studio laptop, was dying of old age. We decided he would adopt my old Pro in its place (MG grumbled a bit about getting my old hand me down again), so we also had to do a data transfer from the Dell to the old Pro. As a consequence, I was computerless for two whole days. ::sob:: To add injury to worse injury, I was carless as well. I had to take Majel in to the Ford dealership for service and leave her there because of the problem between the key fob and the motor that kept her from starting. I was temporarily barred from both the autobahn and the infobahn. It made me wonder how the pioneers managed to survive.

Pick up day came at last. I thought I had the Geek Squad Agent take care of everything when he set up my new MacBook Pro. He installed Kapersky anti-virus (free) and a newer version of MS Office (discounted). He set up MG on my old Pro, and MG traded in the old Dell. It seemed we were good to go. Happy, happy, happy!

When MG and I returned home, I immediately got my new toy out of the box and commenced playing with it—and with the old Pro too—and having fun, fun, fun. As usual when computer setups are concerned, the fun didn’t last long.

First off, my external Apple bluetooth keyboard wouldn’t pair with the new MacBook Pro. Their keyboards are slightly different because the new Pro doesn’t have a DVD ROM drive. There’s a key for that on the external keyboard, not on the Pro’s. Bummer. I’ll have to buy a newer version of the external keyboard.

I noticed that the new MacBook Pro and old Pro have the same computer name. I didn’t realize that the file transfer would duplicate computer names or I would have asked the Geek Agent to put the old one in MG’s name. ::groan, palm slap::

I tried changing the old Pro’s computer name myself according to the Help files’ directions, but it only worked for its recognition on our home network. It didn’t work for the old Pro itself. Since I booted it up second, it became Jolanas-MacBook-Pro(2). ::gnashing of teeth::

I was going to delete most of my stuff from the old Pro so MG would have plenty of space. It’s a good thing I didn’t start with my manuscript files. In my frustration over being unable to change the old Pro’s computer name, I forgot that all my Apple devices were set up to Handoff and Back to My Mac. Anything I do on one is duplicated on the others.

I had a slew of items in my Reminders. They helped my ADD brain get through the day without forgetting what I’m supposed to do. I knew that if I left them on the old Pro to keep popping up they would drive MG insane. Naturally, they were the first things I thought to delete. I did so and then watched in blood-curdling horror as they disappeared from my new MacBook Pro as well! Realization dawned and I grabbed my iPhone just in time to see them vanish there.

Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!! Curse you, Handoff and Back to My Mac! This can’t be happening!!! It can’t! It can’t! 

It happened all right. Oh yeah. For sure.

I disabled Handoff and Back to My Mac—too late, of course. Now I have to rebuild my Reminders lists, if I can remember any of the reminders I had on my Reminders lists. Actually, that is only a minor inconvenience compared to what could have been a major disaster had I deleted my document files first. ::shudder:: That is the stuff nightmares are made of.

Speaking of nightmares, as if losing those reminders wasn’t punishment enough, I have to learn a new word processing app as well. I’ve used Word for Mac 2011 without problems for several years. I now have Word for Mac 2016, and I’m using it to write this post.

Unfortunately, those unmerciful Microsoft nerds have changed everything again. Why must those tech sadists toy with us like this? Nothing is where it is supposed to be. I just discovered that the spelling and grammar checkers are not even installed. ::grrrrr:: If you find any errors in spelling or grammar in this post, blame it on the Microsoft nerds and the Geek Squad Agents. Thanks to them, it appears I will need to take The Tour to discover the method behind this update madness. Warning: Sharp Learning Curve Ahead.

O joy, and a belated Merry Christmas to me.