Restoring My Mac: What I Learned

Thanks so much for all your good wishes, which calmed me down enough to do some net research. Best single resource is http://thesafemac.com
( Tons of details inside )

Old Goat Thoughts: I remember when I got all my software from the Info-Mac Archives. Which, it turns out, are still online
http://www.info-mac.org/viewforum.php?f=14
thanks to an enterprising person who's reusing the Info-Mac reputation for their products.