Suzy Says

This “day” madness will have to end at some point – how did this happen? – but in the meantime, I’ll just go with it.

The sunny days have continued in Hooterville, and in Northern California, sunny days mean cold, starry nights. Lately it’s been below freezing every night, from 28 to 26. The orchids basically live in the bathroom now, and the cats sleep with me every night. Roscoe is the only one who sleeps under the covers with me, and sometimes I hold him like a teddy bear, and sometimes I have the luxury of feeling him stretched out along the length of my back.

And sometimes he bites me.

Relationships are like that.

This morning I got up in the pre-dawn darkness, partly due to my inability to sleep well when I know I have to travel, and partly because of the Evil Genius demanding to go outside.

I packed up Miss Scarlett, and let the motor run for about 10 minutes to get the hard frost melted enough to scrape off the windows. I drove carefully on the icy Ridge, as warned by Megan, and there were several “ICY” signs on Highway 128, replacing the usual (for this time of year) “FLOODED” ones. I almost pulled over to take pictures of the frozen grass and frosty trees – and the frost burning off the trees, looking like smoke – but I had a date.

A date with a Genius.

It all started when I decided – probably foolishly; technology has been turning me into something of a Luddite, if a Luddite can have an old version iPhone – to upgrade my operating system. I still have House Cat, or whatever OS it was 7 years ago. When I was in the City two weeks ago, I asked about upgrading my OS and learned that I had to order discs. Yes, actual discs. The entire disc concept is so antiquated that the Apple stores themselves no longer carry them.

Getting the discs delivered was not all that easy, either. I had to have them sent to the property where I live, instead of the mailbox. Things that arrive by UPS or FedEx are delivered to a semi-decaying shack, so I stuck my “please leave it without signing” notice and hoped for the best. The package was there on Tuesday night.

I tried to install it after I got home, but I discovered that there was a disc stuck in the drive. I tried everything, but alas, nothing. I made an appointment with a Genius at the Apple Store in Santa Rosa for Wednesday at noon. I left the house at 9:15 and arrived at the Apple Store about fifteen minutes early. The Genius took my aged MacBook away to fix it, and appeared half an hour later with the disc and my MacBook in his hands.

Cost: nothing, including parking.

I have to say: I am so unused to malls at this point that I almost died when I stepped into Macy’s. The entire mall seemed to be suffused with perfume. Ugh. It was horrifying. On the other hand, the Apple store made me want to buy everything. I totally covet the MacBook Air, but I’m not too crazy about the black keys.

I grabbed some lunch – or breakfast, or both – traveling makes me nervous, and I hadn’t eaten, and then got back on the road. Somehow, it was after 3:00 by the time I got to the modest motel, but I knew I had to keep going and get to the Legion of Honor exhibit that I missed on my last visit two weeks ago. Sitting down would have been fatal at that point, so I got back in the car and drove there.

I will address the visit tomorrow. I ended up driving back to the modest motel in rush hour, past my not so modest former apartment. I forced myself to go and get a coffee from Notes from Underground, thinking that I would rather do it then than 6 am tomorrow.

My plan for tomorrow: get up at 6 am, caffeinate, take shower, put in contacts and put on make-up, take cab to Drybar to blow out my hair; another cab to BART; meet my boss; get photos done. Eventually take BART back.

Wish me kitty-free luck.