Failing

I inherited a work laptop- and i had just learned to love it, despite its Mac status for all the things it could do for me, like post pictures to Blogger easily and I could then sit in my comfortable arm chair and email people and the whole world awaited me, like being able to take it outside, and write my novel. And as my boss was fond of saying, and I gave you a computer... like it's the grail. Like I loved Macs. Like this was a gem of all gems, the kind I now realize it was.

Now however with a couple slams to the ground its viability has been marganilized. Outwardly terrified I went in search of the Mac store, avoiding the Grove and going to my beloved old school Glendale- where a shiny Mac store and an hour and a half wait, awaited me. I signed in with cute foreign boy, thinking he loves mac, this isn't ever going to work. Look at all these people who love macs... said the forlorn PC girl.

I expelled myself into the mall, where I barely venture nowdays- I'm much better off. Really cuts the Lust, Contempt, and Materialism down to a halt when you have no idea what glossy things are out there to desire. I had Panda Express for lunch, regretting instantly that I didn't go to hotdog on the stick, and knowing that I will most likely have to go on an independent trip just to quench my longing for that nostolgic fair. So, so tasty.

Upon rearrival at the Mac store I got bumped up to a whole bunch of no show-giver-uppers. Yes. Thank god. Also, I mental noted that cute foreign boy had spelled my name with two rr's... sigh. Then, cute local boy called my name and he looked at my sad ragged used to be shiny G4 and said, this has been dropped. I looked remiss, and shrugged my shoulders, like isn't there something you can do? Mr. Genius Man? (as i was at the Genius Bar).

After some time and some plugging in and out of various things he actually got out a stethescope. Yes, I'm serious. A bright shiny silver looking stethescope. He listened. He tinkered. He listened again, and in all finality, with his head still inclined, he said, your hard drive is failing. Do you hear it? Do you hear the sound it makes when its on, a loud reticent hum. Yes, I said. It's always done that, I said.

Taking off his stethescope to further pose the reality of the situation to me he said, It's going to die. There's no coming back from this process. It's also possible that the situation is exaserbated due to a loose battery connection, in addition to PMU problem but essentially it has to be replaced. (Nodding my head, and wondering how old my Mac Genius was I asked, So now what?) He said, if we fix it here it's going to cost over $800 so you might as well buy a new one. We do have a consultant that would charge maybe $2-300 dollars to replace the harddrive, check the loose connections...

I thanked him, took his card, slipped off the bar seat and smiled. It wasn't my fault. I might've, perchance, hastened its demise- but it was ailing already- unstable, faulty... close to failing, already expelling the loud hum of last days. I took the news back to my boss, who had that sad look like, there's no way in hell I'm buying YOU a new laptop, but perhaps we can pay $200 to have it fixed. There is no such thing as good timing in regards to death or paying more money for things- rare inevitabilities that cause grief and a shrug of the shoulders.