Evanston: good apples
Evanston: good apples
When I dropped my MacBook off at the Apple Store Monday evening, I was told to expect it back in two or three days. So I was pleased when I got a call Tuesday that it was ready. I drove over and found that not only had the disc drive been replaced, Leopard OS was installed, and they had replaced the palm rest which had become slightly discolored. I was told that replacement discs for those which had been scratched by the old drive would be sent to me by mail.
We live within a few miles of an Apple Store, but I don’t know of any other computer--or any other electronics for that matter--for which I would have received such quick service.
Mine is an early MacBook and more than a year old. The $250 I paid to extend the warranty to three years has been more than recovered by this one incident.
Back home I used a Time Machine back-up to restore my data and settings. This took about two hours, following which all problems were resolved and everything works as it had before last Saturday.
There are rumors that Apple will come out with a new sub-notebook next month. If so I might buy one, particularly if it has dramatically reduced power consumption, which would be useful on the boat. I’ve also considered buying a MacBook Pro. Even placed an order when they updated them several months ago, but cancelled. For me MacBooks have several advantages over Pros. With a plastic instead of an aluminum case, they have much better wireless reception, important when on the mooring in New Zealand. The hard drive is easily user replaceable. I’ve upgraded three times to bigger and faster drives. And I prefer the keyboard. Last year’s MacBooks can only use 2 gbs of RAM. The current MacBooks can take 4 gb, which would be useful at times. So if the specifications of the sub-notebook are not attractive--or if it doesn’t even appear--I might just buy another MacBook. This is the best computer I’ve ever owned.
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The other apple in the photo is also good, and I’m glad.
For several months, both here and in New Zealand, I’ve found only bland apples. Not rotten, but almost tasteless. I like apples. I eat one most afternoons. But these weren’t any fun. I was beginning to wonder if it was me. Happily it wasn’t. For the past couple of weeks, the apples I’ve bought have tasted like apples.
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I dressed up like an adult last night, put on my Harris Tweed sport coat, white shirt and a tie Carol bought me last summer at the Art Institute. Also some shoes I bought almost a year ago and hadn’t worn, and went to Carol’s office Christmas dinner.
As I have commented here before, I lead a mostly silent life. The average person speaks 5,000 words a day. On the boat I speak less than a hundred, even when I go ashore. Here I am alone most of most days, and Carol and I do not chatter incessantly when she is home from work. My throat feels the unusual talking I did last evening.
On the poetry page of the main site, you will find this written during five months alone at sea aboard EGREGIOUS in 1975.
my silence
is like glass blown by an apprentice
flawed and cracked
but now I have learned to form silence
and next time I will do it right
perfectly
I was wrong. I’ve never achieved perfection. Maybe next year.
Thursday, December 13, 2007