So. How long does a blasted laptop last anyway? I pretty much know the answer, for me anyway. Four years is pushing it to the edge. My current laptop? Eet ees a napple. MacBook. One with mailing tape holding it together, no less. I am rough on laptops. That is all.

2003. (I think.) I opened up a New Yorker magazine and there, ladies and gentlemen, was an ad for an absolutely gorgeous 12-inch G4 Mac Powerbook. I was in love. I loved our strawberry iMac. The one that the three of us who were still living here at the Landfill were sharing. But, man, I wanted that powerbook. And one day, I bought it, thanks in part to The Commander, who helped me pay for it. We could afford it I think but I was working for a non-profit stipend in those days and felt incredibly guilty about buying anything for myself, even if needed it. And I did need my own laptop. I didn’t ask my moom for that money. She handed it to me. Thank you again, Mrs. Commander. I used that laptop to death.

Anyway. I ordered the dern thing. It was supposed to arrive overnight. I wanted to open it up and be using it when the GG arrived home from work. Surprise the heck outta my husband? Yes! Sigh. There was a snowstorm in Ohio and it did not arrive as planned. The next day? The GG was home. I had a trip to kzoo planned that afternoon to take Mouse to visit her kzoo college freshman sister for the weekend.

So. How could I keep this new computer a secret from the GG? He was in the back room playing with the strawberry iMac. Fedex (or whoever) came and dropped off three boxes. Powerbook, printer, and I forget what else. I pulled all three boxes inside and told him thank you. The GG did not notice. I opened the box with the computer in it and stood in the kitchen rolling up about a mile of packing paper to recycle, talking to him the whole time. I set up my new laptop and turned it on. Finally, the GG came out to the living room to pick up our cute little guinea pig and I think he jumped about a mile upon seeing my new laptop.

Mouse drove us over to kzoo that afternoon while I played with iPhoto et al. (Can’t believe both she and her older sis are now graduates of that college…) I love these Mac laptops but I get frustrated with how fast they get filled up with crap. My fault? Yes, but.

Tonight. I was charged to help Mouse with a prodject (intentionally misspelled) on her aging laptop while she was at rehearsal. I will not even begin to describe the agony of trying to use PhotoShop Elements on it.

You guys? You highly paid computer folk? You have to either make your computers last longer by making them more adaptable to the space and juice needed by new software (and larger and larger photos). Or you have to make them cheaper, so we can all buy them more frequently.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 9:01 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.