Making lemonade out of a lemon
The lemon, in this case, is my 24″ iMac’s hard drive. I officially pronounced it dead today.
So, the new one is on its way. Once it gets here, a couple of Mac nerds at work are going to help me perform hard-drive transplant surgery on my poor ‘puter. My sister had the unmitigated temerity to suggest that I just bag it and buy a PC. The only problem with that is that I would have to use the PC. What do you think I am, a glutton for punishment?
“But Rob, but Rob,” my handful of readers exclaim, “isn’t your iMac causing you aggravation already? What’s the diff?”
The “diff,” as you so eloquently put it, is that PCs are contemptible gutter trash. How’s that grab ya!
Honestly, though, I’m blogging right now on my Frankenmac, which is a blue and white G3 with all kinds of funky, extraneous upgrades in it. A little slow, yes, but it’s reliable as anything, in spite of the fact that it’s nearly a decade old. I’ve owned a number of Macs over the years, and they’ve generally been durable and dependable. This iMac is one of two exceptions. The other was a venerable Performa 6200 that is still operational to this day. In each case, the hard drive died prematurely — obviously a lemon. In the case of the Performa, the machine was still under warranty when it croaked, so the repair was free. The iMac, unfortunately, is not.
Even more unfortunate is the treatment I’ve received from local repair shops. The Apple store in Norfolk won’t let me buy a hard drive on my own; they will only do the repair if I pay through the nose for Apple parts. Thanks, but no thanks — my money doesn’t grow on trees, you know. There’s another Apple authorized dealer in town called the Mac Specialist that could probably fix it, but the gentleman I spoke with on the phone today was just insufferably rude and condescending. Plus, they wanted to charge me a ridiculous sum for a SCSI cable several years ago. I just can’t bring myself to do business with them.
So, I’ll make lemonade out of this lemon by making the repair myself. In the meantime, here I am, kvetching and rambling to nobody in particular about my iMac while the economy is in turmoil and the world teeters on the brink of mass conflict and upheaval. That’s perspective for ya!
Blessings,
Rob
aka The MonT-SteR
Is this the same Rob that argued against my mac fandom in high school? I’m glad to see you’ve come around–and nice to see we actually can agree on something!
Yes, yes, I know. I actually jumped on the Apple bandwagon while I was at Braddock — after drawing a comic strip for the school newsletter on a Mac using a first-generation graphics tablet. I knew at that point that I could never look back.
Of course, back when I opposed you on the Mac, I was lobbying Mrs. Buser to purchase a Commodore 128 — which was a good machine (and a whole lot cheaper than a Mac at the time). I hereby admit, however, that you were right and I was wrong.
There, does that make you happy? Huh?