The Progressive Death of a Macbook

My best friend talked me past my fear of buying on credit nearly three years ago when I purchased the 15 in Macbook that I use for most of my writing and blogging and general time wasting on the Internet. She convinced me that it was a reward for having completed my masters and securing a rather substantial pay raise in doing so. I hadn’t yet realized the money. My school district had established a policy of waiting to move people on the pay scale to mid-year where degree advancements were involved. I went from a B.A. 15 to a M.A. 30, so I suppose that deserved a bit of self-gifting. But I was never easy with credit. Over the years I had gradually lifted my self-imposed credit limits. It was sitting at an all time high of $2000 – and that’s total by the way not per card – because my parents had reneged on a promise to loan me the funds necessary for getting my masters in the first place. I’d had to charge the last few courses. The computer purchase was on my list of things to do in the spring, when I’d paid my folks back and gotten the credit paid off, but BFF’s arguments made sense. She pointed out that I really wasn’t as financially insolvent as I felt and that the sale price (one of those day after Thanksgiving things) made it silly for me to wait and then pay full price.

In the end the purchase was more a reward than I could have known. I had been using a desktop that was in my bedroom. When you are single, it really doesn’t matter where your office is. Dee was still sleeping with me and I couldn’t really be on the computer once she was in bed for the night because the light kept her up. The mac allowed me the freedom of wi-fi and I was able to be anywhere in the house. Without the freedom, I would not have been able to pursue my initial friendship with Rob to the extent that I did.

I often credit Steve Jobs – via the iPod/iTunes – with saving my sanity during the bleak months of hospice and early months of widowhood, but I guess he also deserves a nod for facilitating the courtship of Rob and I.

The mac though is suffering from the dreaded bluetooth is unavailable syndrome. It is a design flaw in the macs that Apple doesn’t seem to care enough about to fix because it strikes randomly and usually can be short-fixed for brief time spans if one is patient enough to put up with it and really enamored of her mighty mouse. The bluetooth issue will eventually result in the mac not being able to enter sleep mode because the bluetooth is constantly pinging for connection. Rob discovered that he could go in and either reroute the wire or disable it completely (that is the only real fix), but he wants me to find the paperwork to see if it is still under warranty first and then drag it over to the Apple store at the mega-mall. I am fairly certain that the latter will be a waste of time. I have availed myself of the genius bar at Apple’s stores before and found the techs to be just that – techs. If the problem is software, they might be able to help, but it it is hardware, they are useless and being where we are it would mean weeks without a computer because it would have to be sent away for repair.

Being without my mac is not all that much of a hardship. There are more computers in our house than people. In fact in my office right now, there are four computers. We may not watch television, but we are hardly media Luddites. I just don’t feel much like making the effort for the sake of being able to use a wireless mouse. It’s rather a small issue.

However, I will back up the data to the external hard drive and have at a search for the Apple warranty papers. Rob is actually quite busy with his mom’s computer issues (she drove out of her way on a recent trip just to bring both her computers her for Rob to repair) and this is keeping him from the stone work on the house, which has to be finished before snow flies. He discovered this last week that he could conceivable get his transfer after the first of the year and we don’t have time to mess around with the reno and the purging. It’s past time to be serious about getting ready for a big move.

I am a little disappointed with the mac. I used PC’s at work and dealt with issues constantly and expected better from Mr. Jobs and Co. Still, three years is a good run with a computer. I will run it into the ground though before doing anything as drastic as replacing it.