Did I mention my Mac Pro died? I was typing mid-sentence when the whole computer froze, nothing I could do but hard reboot, at which point it went to a rectangular icon, not the Apple, and told me to contact Apple support.
I tried the recovery utility options, downloading a RAM boot drive. It saw nothing to fix, meaning no storage. I was looking at a total loss of access, with no viable boot process.
I was pretty demur (that word is going around) about it, not nonplussed, calm.
After all, I was on a beautiful Oregon farm in a luxury trailer with a loyal and happy dog. I was learning tractor skills.
And back home in Portland, I had the external drive TimeMachine on my desk. I didn't think it would help at all with the dead Mac, but if/when I got a new one, I'd have access to the old files. I was proud of myself for taking it in stride, although I did reach out to friends and family with snippets of what was happening.
One of the more positive results, and I need to tell Terry about this at the Equinox gathering, since he gave it to me, was the Apple iPad turned out to be more capable than I'd thought. No, I wouldn't use it to do my Python work, but in terms of telecommunications and staying organized, it held up under pressure. My skills improved.
Secret: when the GUI seems bonkers, rotate the screen 90 degrees as in "long tall mode" the GUI improves, even if the keyboard is then at the wrong angle (relatively).
Once back in Portland, I resolved I'd need to visit the Apple Genius Bar downtown and get a read on whether the Mac was repairable. But I took my time, pondering my options. What if I could get by without a powerful Mac. I have older computers, including an older slow joe Mac Pro. I wouldn't wanna teach my Python classes on the slow ones, but what if I wasn't gonna be teaching any Python classes soon?
That was the question: was the course in question (Python + Data Analysis + Data Visualization), for Clarusway, still a go? We hadn't touched base in awhile.
From the beginning, it was considered contingent, based on getting the peeps, the students.
I have the workflow sketched out in a generic fashion in my Code School Blueprints album, developed after some years working for a startup code school (within a bigger company). I'll embed those slides here, why not?
Faculty hangs out in a holding pattern, learning new skills, prepping, until a course is chartered (like a charter flight, instructor = pilot). I'm in a holding pattern with respect to that particular course, while working on other projects.
I've nudged the company with some queries and will likely hear back shortly, but then this happened: the dead Mac Pro sprang to life.
I'd plugged it in upstairs, in my office (a real office, declared on taxes some years, not a bedroom, except for the snake), and walked away, knowing it'd get as far as the "contact Apple support" screen.
I didn't check on it for at least two days.
But then it was time to feed Barry (the python) a mouse, so I walked to and from Tropical Hut on Divsion, across Chavez, around noon, and at some point decided to hit the spacebar. The Mac sprang to life, at the usual login screen. It had booted! It lived!
The first thing I did was do another TimeMachine backup as the best I had was not entirely up to date.
Ever since, I've been enjoying poking around in familiar territory, my working environment for the last two to three years. I feel like I'm reunited with a country I'd steeled myself to maybe never see again. She's been working ever since.
I'm hoping she won't go into a coma again, of course. Probably next time I visit that farm, I'll leave her here and just use the iPad. It does Zoom. I still had my meetups. Coding in Python can wait, when tractors become the priority.
