The purpose of my outlining the simple path I took was to point out that it is there for those who use iTunes if they will make a full copy of their current OS before installing a newer OS. It enabled me to recover from my mistake. Things are now back to normal with 10.8.5. I'm likely to stay there for a substantial amount of time.
I'm aware of the alternative methods and apps, but chose to go with iTunes after having some problems with SuperDuper using my hardware configuration.
iTunes? I assume you mean Time Machine?
