The Miracle of the Mexican MAC: An Unplanned Adventure with Technology

1. Apple sends email telling us the MAC needed a new hard-drive.
2. Hard drive miraculously ordered and changed before leaving for Mexico with assurances that getting it running again would be as easy as 1-2-3.
3. Computer set up in Monterrey and “restore” of back-up attempted.
4. Back-up aborted because new hard drive needed an update--update not possible because computer not “restored” yet. So much for “easy as 1-2-3.
5. Landlord brings his Vonage phone over to our house to call Apple Help Line.
6. After hours on the phone and two different technicians, the new hard drive is finally updated and another call is scheduled to “restore” the back-up data.
7. The telephone line in the house goes down for three days--no phone, no Internet.
8. Telephone line repaired in record time (less than a month) and another call to Apple Help Line is made through Yahoo Messenger.
9. The Internet crashes after one hour and the call ends in the middle of the “restore”
10. New day, more calls to Telmex on Internet.
11. New day, new call to Apple Help Line, two more technicians try to restore--bad message: hard drive is corrupted and no data can be retrieved.
12. Senior Advisor for Apple, Joe, is called in for consultation.
13. Two hours with Joe on Yahoo Messenger trying a multitude of methods for retrieving corrupted data. Joe is going home so L & J are left with instructions to try alone.
14. New message (in a cute new box): the back-up is corrupted.
15. Borderline hysteria pondering the loss of nearly 15,000 family photos dating from the early 1800s.
16. New day, new call to Joe, Senior Advisor for Apple Help Line. Joe and I are now best friends. I have his private email address and phone number. 
17. Joe tries five or six new ways to retrieve the data with no success. Two hours later I have seen more computer intestines, windows, extensions and computer coding than I ever thought possible to imagine let alone create.
18. The Internet crashes. We call Joe back. He tries one more last ditch effort to retrieve the lost files.
19. Joe finds the lost files! They are real! They are accessible! They are not corrupted! 
20. Joe teaches us how to manually move our dearly beloved lost files back into the computer. We are successful! We have photos, email, calendars, and family videos. We were lost and now we are found--truly it is a miracle: A miracle that we ended up with Joe; a miracle that we had Yahoo Messenger and could talk for hours for only pennies; a miracle that this could happen across countries through some magic thing in the air called Internet. We are grateful for technology and for very smart people. We think we need to invite Joe down for the Christmas holiday.