Seriously. Just a calendar, that's all I want.

Question

Hi. First time question-asker here. OK, so, I made the utterly regrettable decision to upgrade to Mavericks (looks like I'm a year late to join in that chorus) when nothing was wrong with the last 10 OS's, and then everything got messed up. Yadda yadda grrrr etc.
My question here is about Calendar. It would open but crash under Mavericks and even sacrificing all my existing calendar info, it wouldn't let me add any new events without hanging up and crashing. I tried a bunch of apps, closest it came was CalenMob but then it hung/crashed the same way. Busy Cal (trial) is great, and it accessed my existing list of events (which means that's there somewhere) but I really can't justify spending $50 on an app only to replace the built in OSX one which is now useless.
This is dumb of me I know, but in my frustration I deleted iCal thinking I could find it again and reinstall it, which evidently isn't so simple, and I'm not looking to reinstall all of Mavericks again for something so small.
I should add I don't use the Cloud, have no use for it or plans to go there. I don't need my dentist appointment to hang out in outer space. I just need a super basic calendar, self-standing, on my computer. No syncing, no clouding, just a grid of squares that I type words into, really. We can see things a metre wide from outer space and computers that would have taken up a whole building not long ago fit in our pockets, I feel like this should be achievable. And yet...
I'm fine with giving up on iCal and I'm ok with starting from a blank slate, but can someone recommend a full version freeware calendar that doesn't require updating, or know where I can re-download the iCal files on their own? I'm not looking to put money or much more time into this. I'm still kind of in disbelief that Mac would let something so basic slip so thoroughly through the cracks. It's this or going back to a good old pen and paper. Thanks.

Answer 1

Thank you both. Yes I tried Calendar, if it's the same one that lives in the menu bar, with no luck on similar functionality (I couldn't add events). I'll try it again to see how much I can customize it. And thanks Eric, yes I do have old backups, I was hoping to find any full self-contained app that I could just install and use instead before overhauling or reverting the whole OS over this, but it looks like that's what my options are down to so I'll either go there, keep looking for a working freeware calendar or give up the ghost. Just thought there might be something simple I hadn't tried, like a file I could download and replace. Reading about Mavericks just now, I see I'm not nearly alone in regretting the upgrade.
This is my first and probably last post here, so while I'm at it - Someone in the Mac world needs to know that with the constant upgrades, patches and fixes required (apps to fix apps etc), they are getting further and further from the simplicity and user-friendliness that made Macs better than PCs in the first place. I think the pressure of having to reinvent yourself and your product once per business year makes you miss the point that there's only so much a computer NEEDS to do, and you were already doing it, amazingly. I could be 10 OS's back and still doing anything I need to day to day. It's the problem of true encryption vs. speed that they should be working on if they want to reinvent the wheel, and even that they only need to do one time. Same with Iphones. I have my wife's old 3G and it's perfect. I don't need a new one every year BECAUSE you did such a bang up job with the last one(s). We're getting into planned obsolescence territory, making useless or even retrograde tweaks just for the sake of it, which is further and further from that Steve Jobs magic, and again - what made people like me switch over from PCs.
OK, end rant. Thanks for the advice folks. We'll see what happens.