Thanks, Ira. I really did want to give up. Hopefully it will be as easy as you say when the time comes.
Rita
Actually Rita, you may glad down the road that you do have Time Machine. It really can be a lifesaver/timesaver and is not that difficult to use.
Your particular retrieval from Time Machine was slightly more complicated because you were looking for a single sticky note, which does not exist; rather, as the help above tells you, the stickies are kept as a collection in a database and the location of that collection was not particularly obvious.
In the future if there is one "normal item" (whatever that may mean :/) ) that you want to retrieve you just go to the place/folder in your computer setup where that item is currently found (or should have been until you deleted it), enter time machine, and go back in time to when the item is present or in the version you want, and Restore it. It really is a smooth process.
