I won’t call it a “bad day” because no one I love died or is in the hospital or lost their job or anything momentous. It was not a cruel day or a day the weather was so ferocious that we didn’t get our walk. I walked a couple of miles. I showered this morning. My class did fairly well.

Subaru insists on sending me emails, though I have asked them seven times—as of last count—to please stop. I am still saying “please.”

Trump . . . well, I should be used to it by now. I refuse to let that freakish crank ruin my day.

It was not a “bad” day because the whole day was not bad. It was irritating because I had to talk to several automated voices and three people about my computer and none of them helped me.

The irritation is about my laptop, which I use on battery for about 12 hours every day. My “early 2013” MacBook Pro alerted me that I will “need a new battery soon” and we thought we’d take care of that tomorrow by driving into Portland to the Apple store.

My husband Gary insisted I call ahead to be certain they have the battery I need. Simple, right?

At this point I should probably mention that my last Apple laptop lasted for close to a decade and I burned through three or four batteries. Replacing them was simple: flip the closed laptop over, click open the battery cover, pop the old battery out, slide the new one in, replace the cover, and done. I did it myself each time in half a minute.

My new laptop has ten tiny screws in the back. I realized when I got it that I would need to take it in to have the battery replaced. I was not happy about that but I still was under the delusion that this would be simple because simplicity is the reason I have been loyal to Macs for going on 30 years. Someone would unscrew the back, pop the old battery out and slide the new one in, replace the cover and done.

Oh, no. It seems I need an appointment. They need to be certain they will have the battery I need. After passing through two sets of menus at the Apple national number and another set of automated voices locally, no one can reveal a thing about that battery. They “cannot release stocking information.” Do I live near a Best Buy—no. Can I go to my local Simply Mac—no such thing locally, but I tried calling them too. Bring it in so they can diagnose the problem and then order the battery? They each want my phone number, my email and name, the model and serial number of my Mac, but they either can’t order it until they have my laptop or can’t tell me whether they have the battery I need for my Mac.

They suggested I mail it in.

Well, no, my life is on this computer. I am not mailing it in.

Then I must make an appointment. In northern Oregon only two stores have available appointments, one at 6:30 pm Saturday and the other at 1:30 on Wednesday at another location. I do not object to the $126 price, but we are old people here. I can’t ask Gary to drive home in the dark on a Saturday night. I won’t do that myself. We are asleep by 8:30 on a Saturday night. And Wednesday I have to be at school. How about next week? I asked. No, Apple can’t make appointments more than 7 days out.

Seriously?

That little blue and green explosion on the screen above? That’s my patience right about now.

I never thought I would say it, but it might be time to jump brands.

. . . and the new Subaru. We admitted to one another today that the only way to open the hatch is with one electric key,—the other key does not have a hatch release button at all. There is no keyhole and no interior release for the hatch. So we’re fine unless the key battery dies.