Long trip to Mac-Shack

Yesterday (Thursday, November 8th, 2012) was an absolute killer of an errand.
I had skipped it the previous day, because I had already had my poor dog endure well over two hours in my van, and Mac-Shack might add 1.75 hours more.
I can no longer leave my dog home with my wife, because my wife no longer exists. She died last April.
So now it’s abandon the dog alone in the house, or take the dog with me.
I had taken the dog for a long walk that morning at Baker Park in nearby Canandaigua (“cannan-DAY-gwuh”). The walk took over two hours.
I had to go west from Canandaigua to Honeoye Falls (“HONE-eee-oy;” rhymes with “boy”'), a small village west of where I live. Canandaigua is east.
I had to shop a supermarket in Honeoye Falls. It’s the only supermarket that sells what I needed.
Canandaigua to Honeoye Falls is about a half-hour.
I then had to drive all the way north to the suburb of Henrietta south of Rochester (NY), a 45-minute trip.
In Henrietta I had to shop a natural-foods store, the only place that sold what I needed.
From there I was gonna drive all the way to Mac-Shack, another 35-40 minutes.
This computer, a MAC, has a system backup function. It’s called “Time-Machine.”
The computer backs up everything every 30 minutes or so, so if the internal hard-drive fails, everything is backed up to another hard-drive, external in this case. So I’m safe and everything can be recovered.
My system was no longer backing up. In fact, the external hard-drive’s icon was no longer on my desktop.
A trip to Mac-Shack, my computer-store, except Mac-Shack is in faraway Penfield, at least an hour going, and another hour getting back.
I had already made my dog endure well over two hours in my van. It wasn’t fair to make her endure almost two hours more.
So I skipped Mac-Shack and drove directly home from Henrietta.
That was two days ago. I still needed to go back to Mac-Shack.
I figured I would do it yesterday after working out at the Canandaigua YMCA.
When I work out, I hand over my dog to old friends at a grooming-shop. They daycare my dog.
Better for her to be in daycare than enduring a long ride in my van — plus the possibility of a long wait at Mac-Shack.
I could have skipped part of my workout to save time, but I did all of it.
My workout blows over two hours. I’d left the dog off at doggie-daycare about 10:45 a.m.
Workout finished, I began the long trek to Mac-Shack. It even included a short segment of the NY state Thruway.
Mac-Shack consumed about 15-20 minutes. They determined my external hard-drive wasn’t defective, and still had plenty of space.
If we USB-ed the external hard-drive direct to my ‘pyooter, the icon showed up, and backup resumed.
It looked like my USB hub, an antique, was defective. I purchased a new hub.
That external hard-drive had been connected through the old hub.
Problem solved, back to doggie-daycare to retrieve my dog.
But via Mighty Weggers, the only supermarket to sell calcium-fortified grapefruit juice, which I needed.
But not the Weggers in Canandaigua; that was the wrong direction.
I would pass two Weggers returning from Mac-Shack, so I would stop at one. Add 15-20 minutes to my return.
But of course the Weggers I stopped at wasn’t the Canandaigua Weggers, a store I know.
I found the grapefruit-juice, but little else on my list.
I figured I could shop the Canandaigua Weggers on Saturday, after working out.
I picked up my dog about 4:15, almost two hours later than usual.
It was already getting dark when I got home; 20-25 minutes just to get home.
So I barely had time to walk the dog out back.
Usually after working out at the YMCA, I eat an orange, some muffins, and I take a nap.
No time for any of that! I was getting home two hours later than usual.
Since it was getting dark, drop everything, walk the dog, and make supper.
Now that I live out here, 25 minutes from everything, I loathe the long trips to Mac-Shack.
This was true even before my wife died.
But Mac-Shack has “Andrew,” a really helpful techie, who I prefer to work with.
And now that my wife is gone, I always have the dog-problem.

• “Canandaigua” is a small city nearby where I live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” It’s about 14 miles east. —I live in the small rural town of West Bloomfield, southeast of Rochester.
• “Penfield,” previously a farm-town, is now a suburb east of Rochester.
• I work out in the Canandaigua YMCA Exercise-Gym, appropriately named the “Wellness-Center,” usually three days per week, about two-three hours per visit.
• The “Thruway” is a toll interstate from New York City to the Pennsylvania state line west of Buffalo. It’s the main east-west highway through New York state. —It more-or-less parallels the Erie Canal, avoiding mountains. Across western NY it’s Interstate-90. South of Albany to New York City it’s Interstate-87.
• “‘Pyooter” is computer.
• “Mighty Weggers” is Wegmans, a large supermarket-chain based in Rochester I often buy groceries at. They have a store in Canandaigua.