MacBook: death & rebirth
On Thursday, my beloved MacBook died. Somewhere along the bumpy roads from Monteverde to Juntas, Costa Rica, my hard-drive was irreparably damaged. It royally sucked. It was working that morning in Monteverde, but when I arrived at my next destination and turned on my laptop, the only thing I saw was a folder with a flashing question mark!?!?!! A quick Google search and self-diagnosis determined that my hard drive was dead.
Luckily I had backed up my files the day before, so I only lost a half-day's worth of work. It was more of an inconvenience, and a major expense I had not anticipated or budgeted. It's not like I could just pop into the Apple store down the street. But another Google search brought me to iOne in Playa Tamarindo, about two hours drive from my location. So on Saturday, I bundled up my computer and drove to iOne. The staff were absolutely wonderful. My MacBook went into surgery at noon. I took a long walk down the beach, had a long lunch and paced the sand like a nervous father-to-be while iOne worked on my computer. A few hours later, I got the call: My MacBook was out of surgery and I could pick her up.
My 3.5 year old Macbook has been reborn. It now has a new hard-drive and upgraded Leopard operating system. She's got triple the storage, double the memory and is lightning fast. They also cleaned her inside and out, so it looks brand new. I had to do a double-take to make sure it actually was my machine! Had to shell out $350 to repair but better than paying $1,350 on that new Macbook Pro that I've been eyeing!
Before I bought my Mac in 2005, I was a loyal PC user. Now, I would never even think about going back to PC. Amazingly this is the first and only major problem I've ever had with my MacBook; she's been all over the world with me including multiple trips to Iraq. Of course, the roads in Iraq were nowhere near as bad as the roads in Costa Rica! Here's hoping I can get another 3.5 years out of her.
On another note, after three weeks in Costa Rica, I finally saw monkeys yesterday! A whole family of white-faced capuchins in Rincon de la Vieja, Guanacaste. Monkeys RULE! And MACs rule!