First, at the outset, let me acknowledge the first worldly-ness of this problem. Still, it was stressful and traumatic in ways that I think my parents generation would find mystifying. It highlights our utter dependence on technology now, how central it is to all our lives. Especially my life. Not saying that’s a good or bad thing. But there it is.
Fox and the Pilot gave me my MacBook Pro for my 40th birthday, nearly exactly five years ago. I’d been through a series of PC laptops, that constantly seemed to choke at my photo library and word processing needs. Finally, after many tech support visits, paid in pizza, our friend, Jason, said to me, “Courtney, you really need a Mac.” And since I had rather a big birthday coming up, my MacBook Pro arrived in due course.
And I took to it like a duck to water. This isn’t an uncommon experience, of course, especially for creative types. Jobs knew what he was doing and designed his machines with a breathtaking intuitiveness that PCs simply lack. Plus, it had Scrivener which is simply the best novel writing program ever designed.
So, for the past 5 years, I’ve used my Mac daily for everything. I wore out the keyboard and the hard drive. Both were replaced. I wrote all 8 of my published novels on it and most of the 9th. I wrote nearly 400,000 words of fanfic before I got the courage to write my original work. It’s been a very trusty constant companion.
I knew it was wearing out. My penchant for having 72 tabs open and every app running overwhelmed it a lot. It crashed often. I backed up more often. Still, I thought I could wait for my birthday in August–another big one–45! And that maybe, instead of the portability of the MacBook, I’d go for the iMac and go easy on my aging eyes.
Last night, I meant to update Safari and clicked the button for el Capitan by mistake. And poor old Mac just choked. I spent two hours with some very kind people at the Genius bar today who shook their heads sadly over my wheezing machine. They were able to take it back to factory settings but the video card and hard drive are unstable at best.
So, I got a 27″ iMac with all the bells and whistles. And it’s great (if enormous!) And I know I’ll love Big Mac just as much as I adored Mac I. And I’m astonished and grateful for the wonder that is Apple’s Time Machine. I have all my photos and music. All my documents are in Dropbox so the writing is fine.
Still, a little sad tonight for my first Mac and thought I’d storify my tweets as I waited at the genius bar today, just as a memorial for a little computer that done good.
The saga of my MacBookPro’s deathbed
The saga of my MacBookPro’s deathbed
https://storify.com/courtneyhunt71/requiem-for-a-macbook
