Oh!

We had a close call yesterday. 
I had a major - and I mean major - accident yesterday morning.


I spilled Jane's cup of juice on the Mac keyboard. Like dropped it on the table and it splashed directly onto the computer. After about .5 seconds it powered down automatically.


"Oh no."


I immediately got some paper towels and wiped it down and then turned it upside down and shook it vigorously. Then I put the fan on it. I sopped up any drips I could see.


{The reason the Mac was on the table in the first place is because I was burning some cds of new music while fixing breakfast at the same time. Just multi-tasking here.}


"Ok." I thought. "It's been dripped on a little before; I'll just try and turn it back on."


Fail.


Tried again. Fail. It would turn on, but only for about five to thirty seconds before it powered down again.


So I called the hubby to see what I should do and took it in town to the computer medical center, along with our external hard drive.


{We back things up pretty regularly, but there were pictures and music from the last few weeks that weren't backed up yet. Like Jane's birthday.}


We waited a few hours for a diagnosis and received the news that it would still not turn on by itself and that it was most likely ruined. But they still had more diagnostics to do.


"Great. Like we can afford a new Mac," we thought.


After they took it apart, they determined that there were some damaged areas and parts of the motherboard were corroded. And basically it would cost $950 to replace the motherboard and another $100 for the labor. $1050 big bucks.


Or they would buy it back from us for parts for $125.


But after talking to my dad a few times {who, thankfully, had talked to a friend of his who owns a communications store}, we determined that maybe there was a possibility that it was not totally toast and that we should maybe take matters into our own hands.


That was the best advice ever.


We went in and picked up the computer {after paying them $94 for the diagnosis and retrieving everything from our hard drive} and brought it home. After dinner, the hubby took everything apart and gently {and very meticulously} cleaned it with rubbing alcohol. We let it dry and put it back together.


We said our prayers and tried to turn it on.


Success. And it stayed on for 30 minutes before the hubby turned it off himself.


Now, I know that only time will tell if it was really damaged or not. But so far, so good.


So my question is, were the computer technicians really about to totally and completely rip us off? Like extremely? Because that's what it feels like. Let's be honest, I trust that they most likely know what they're doing in most cases, but was this an exception? But why?


We could've payed half the cost of the computer to get it fixed or lost it completely for a mere $125, when in reality, nothing was actually that wrong.


I'm still a little sick about it. Sick that I caused such an unnecessary accident and sick that we almost got ripped off to the max.


I guess I can only be grateful that, in the end, we didn't lose anything. {Well, except for that $94.}