Confronting The Flashing Amber Light

I’m not fond of amber lights. They’re too demanding.

My Acura dashboard amber light popped on indicating that my SUV needed attention even though it didn’t. Pat, the mechanic, had tuned whatever needed to be tuned. Rotated whatever needed rotating. Changed whatever various liquids needed to be changed. What he didn’t do was reset the amber light. The odometer had registered the required digits that triggered amber light to light.

It was an automotive reveille and amber light needed an “at ease.”

I called Pat. He reassured me that all was fine. Acura passed her checkup. I should ignore it!

I tried.

I failed.

Amber light nagged my peripheral vision. I drove back to Pat who silently shook his head and reset it.

I started the car. No amber light. All was well with my automotive world.

As disrupting as an amber light was, a FLASHING amber light was more so. This time my Apple AirPort base station sported the alert. 

It could be an update. 

It could be damage. 

It could be something so horrible that it would bring down the entire Wi-Fi!

And there was no Pat to call.

So I Googled “flashing amber light on Apple AirPort base station” and there it was- directions to address the issue. All I needed to do was to UNDERSTAND them.

First I needed to open “AirPort Utility which is in the Utility folder of your Applications folder.” (Here’s a hint. Just because “App” begins with the same letters as “Applications” they’re two different things. “Applications” isn’t as much fun. There’s serious stuff in there.)

Once I found the Utility folder I had to read about the issue in the pop-up. Then I faced crossroads. I could either “choose the setting to ignore the issue” or “click Edit to open the settings window.”

As tempting as it was to ignore it I didn’t.

I clicked on “updating” and “downloading” buttons several times. “Error 6727” foiled my attempts to appease amber light.

So I Googled “what is Error 6727.” A 2012 response suggested plugging the base station directly into my computer and retrying. 

This route was fraught with ways to seriously go awry with the cords alone!

If only my stern teacher face would correct computer behavior as it did a second graders’ behavior.

If only my sharp command would stop the computer from stealing my time as it stopped Maggie Shedog from stealing my shoes.

Then I remembered the stern-teacher-face-sharp-command computer equivalent. 

I shut down my Mac Pro!

Then I restarted it. Updated, downloaded, and scared off Error 6727.

No flashing amber light on the base station. All was well with my technological world.