I suspect you think I’m obsessed with finding dependable WiFi after reading my posts whining about it. I’m not obsessed with it exactly, but I have been seriously perturbed about it for some time–until now. More about that later.

Ever since My Macho Guy and I moved to the lake, we have been bedeviled by poor cellphone reception and slow Internet speed. When we decided to create a wireless home network, we added a weak wireless signal to the list, creating an electronic mediocrity trifecta.

That inadequacy was magnified when our Firstborn and family visited over the 4th of July holiday. Strangely enough, the last WiFi disaster we endured occurred over a 4th of July holiday.  I hope this does not become an annual occurrence. It’s not the way I would choose to celebrate our country’s independence.

There are six in Firstborn’s family, each with an iPhone, an iPod, an iPad, and a MacBook. All those devices, plus MMG’s and mine, taxed our inadequate wireless network to its insufficient limits. We each kept losing the WiFi signal and having to sign on again and again to our network.

Frustration was mounting. Discontent was brewing. Rebellion was imminent.

Firstborn, the family computer guru, decided to investigate. He followed me downstairs to my home office, aka The Michigan Triangle, where objects enter never to be found again. We swept the mounds of paper and books aside, uncovering two chairs–to think all this time I believed I only had the one.

I pulled the Geek Squad paperwork on our home network from my overflowing file cabinet and Firstborn studied the setup. The system has a gateway router and a 2TB Apple Time Capsule that acts as modem and backup drive. Upon inspection of the hardware, Firstborn discovered one problem almost immediately. Both the gateway router and the Time Capsule were set up as modems. They were fighting each other and that messed up our wireless signal. I told him the gateway wasn’t set up that way; its modem function was disabled by the Geek Squad Agent. The Geek Squad paperwork bore me out. Then the lightbulb clicked on. The original gateway had failed and our ISP’s tech must have set the new one up without disabling the modem function. Firstborn corrected the error, bless him.

We still had a rather weak wireless signal because of the way our house is built. Even though the time capsule has a strong modem, it still wasn’t strong enough to penetrate all the walls and the ceiling above. Firstborn declared that we deserved better and dictated the necessity of a trip to the hallowed halls of Best Buy, also home of the Geek Squad gods.

There we found WiFi salvation, thanks to the Geeks. Salvation came from Netgear® and its name is Orbi. It is a triband, whole home WiFi system that maximizes Internet speed, and its signal covers up to 5,000 square feet. Orbi comes with a WiFi router and a satellite (attractive enough to put on one of my living room lamp tables) for whole house coverage. We get a full signal throughout the house, outside the house in the front and back yards, and even get a strong signal on our pontoon boat when it’s near our house. I think I’m in love.

Of course, Firstborn installed Orbi for us immediately upon our return from Geek Squad Olympus. He roamed the house testing the superior signal and extolled the virtues of the system in rapturous terms, proclaiming he would buy the system for his own home. Everyone in the family was delighted to use his/her electronic devices without incident. Firstborn, Geek Squad, and Orbi saved the day and made a successful visit possible. Thanks be to all three.

The chance that you will hear me whine about my WiFi system again is pretty much nil. I imagine you’re relieved to learn that.

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.