A sign of the times
on Mar 28 in General by DanMy Macbook has started making funny squeaking noises after the hard drive has been running for a while. And even worse it’s decided to start spontaneously shutting down at random inopportune moments.
This is not a good thing. Not a good thing at all.
I’ve been looking at how much a new Mac would cost. And the answer is basically “too much”. Especially as the car is due it’s MOT this month.
I mentioned this to Kerry.
“Yeah, well, I’ve been wondering recently if we could do without it” she said.
“What?” I replied, my face going white.
“Maybe we could not get it fixed and not get another one”
I began to panic “But….but….but…. I’d lose all my hobbies! And how would I organise Hadrian’s Walk??”
“It wouldn’t make any difference surely?”
“It would! I mean I could use the library but you’re only allowed an hour there and…”
“No! Not the computer! I was wondering if we could ditch the car. God no, we couldn’t live without the computer!”
“Oh. OK. Yeah, we could do without the car”
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I thought that was a work car?
@JJ Daddy-O, I do have a work car, but we’d keep that. This is our sickly second car that we generally use to drive to the train station and when I’m at work with my car.
@Dan, I think Kerry needs a Harley with a sidecar.
.-= JJ Daddy-O´s last blog ..Sugar and spice… =-.
I had the same symptoms on my Macbook. It was actually pretty cheap to get the hard drive replaced. It cost a little more to pay someone to try (and fail) to recover all the files I lost because I hadn’t gotten around to backing everything up.
Now it’s making noises again. But at least everything is backed up.
.-= beta dad´s last blog ..Flashback Fridays: How Twins are Made, Part IV-Confrontation at Mardi Gras =-.
@beta dad, I’ve only just put a new hard drive in actually – which may well be the problem.
Yes. I really need to back up – particularly a couple of vital files. i’ll do it now.
@Dan, Yeah – hard drive -there’s a little utility you can use to check it (Disk Utility in the Utilities folder in Applications). Should last longer than this though. Is it still in guarantee?
.-= dadwhowrites´s last blog ..Resisting fatherhood =-.
Thank goodness you have your priorities straight! Honestly, I think I might give up my car first as well.
.-= Kristin´s last blog ..Pssst, kid, over here (an open letter to little people) =-.
@Kristin, I may even give up central heating and food as well.
Oh give up the car. I wish I could, but I live too far in the sticks and also need it to get too and from mums to look after her. I would rather give up my right arrm than my computer and now if that was a mac then I guess it would be a leg too
.-= The Mad House´s last blog ..A Pause in Lent – Stories of Jesus for Children =-.
@The Mad House, We do have another car, but I need it for work and do funny hours so Kerry would be left without on some weekends and evenings.
But we figure we’d spend less in taxis than we would in tax, insurance and petrol.
:)
The history of the family car (in my specific and limited experience)
1950s: Aspire to have a car
1960s: Have a car. Aspire to have a second car.
1970s: Have a second car.
1980s: Watch roads clog up.
1990s: Dawning realisation of the unsustainability of having two cars.
2000s: Aspire to lose second car.
2010s: Lose second car…?
Will we ever aspire to be without computing, given that companies like Google have to run servers in Greenland to make it easier to keep them cool?
.-= Steve´s last blog ..In Through The Out Door? =-.
@Steve, that’s a pretty accurate timeline.
It does help we live near a train station though.
I would definitely chose the computer over the car. But then I live in London and haven’t had a car for at least four years now. Easy to do without when there are good bus services.
.-= Clair´s last blog ..Sprung =-.
@Clair, I love the tube. Love it. I know it has problems, but the idea of a train coming every 5 or 10 minutes astounds me.
Yep, I think it would be a close call here too…..okay, we can’t walk anywhere at all from our house but if I have my laptop I can order food…in fact everything and then we never have to leave thus negating the need for a car! ;0)
@Nova, As I say we have two cars, so I think we could genuinely cope with only one. For what we spend in tax and insurance and stuff I’m sure we could afford a few taxis every now an again when we needed them.
If you can do without the second car that’s great. I only have one car (funnily enough because there’s only one of me) but I don’t live in an area with a good public transport system so it’d be difficult to get to work, etc.
I just corrected what I typed then because I wrote ‘pubic’ by mistake. Or was it….?
.-= notSupermum´s last blog ..Competition: Win a Deluxe Pamper Day! =-.
@notSupermum, Kerry takes the train to work, otherwise it would be unthinkable. Plus I don’t think we’d be able to do without 1 car.
My poor Mac is on its last leg, too. It had a good run, which is what you’ll be having a lot of when the car goes.
.-= Whit´s last blog ..Left for Dead by a Prattling Brook =-.
@Whit, Mine is around three years old, which i guess is old for a computer. And I would like one of the shiny new ones. It’s just money man, money.
Funny and so true! Lie without a computer. Hell. What would we do all day? I’d be staring into space I think. That’s even worse than losing my internet connection for half a day when British Gas started messing about with power cables outside (no prior warning of course), but no computer, no internet, ever. That’s incomprehensible.
.-= Rosie Scribble´s last blog ..Did someone mention a conference? =-.
@Rosie Scribble, Strangely enough my internet wasn’t working when I got up this morning. I called 999 to report the emergency but they didn’t seem to be interested.
Good for you mate. Really. We couldn’t live without our cars or our computers. Everything is so spread out here in Phoenix and catching the bus everywhere would be a pain in the arse. Walking to and waiting at a bus stop in 120 degree sun would be all kinds of suck.
.-= Kevin Spencer´s last blog ..Ink =-.
@Kevin Spencer, No, America isn’t renowned for being a place you can cope without a car. Plus yes, the heat.
Phew! I was panicking on your behalf there.
.-= Mwa´s last blog ..What else aren’t you telling me? =-.
@Mwa, I’m still getting palpitations even now.
LOL! Yeah, we got rid of our 2nd car a couple of months ago and have done surprisingly well without it.
There is no way we would survive without a home computer.
.-= Seattledad (Luke, I am Your Father)´s last blog ..A Chase Scene to Cherish =-.
@Seattledad (Luke, I am Your Father), if the MOT is too expensive it’s going to have to go.
(a MOT is a test of the car’s roadworthyness. if it fails you have to bring it up to standard)
@Dan, The state I live in, Georgia, has NO vehicle inspection, and emissions testing only in the Atlanta area. You would not believe the total pieces of crap that are driving around.
All in all, it is amazingly cheap to own a car here: for my 2003 Mazda, I think I pay a total of $2000 year, including all insurance, depreciation, registration, maintenance, gas, etc. Of course, since we live in town and I work at home, I only drive 6000 miles or less a year, so that tends to skew the equation a little bit.
So on the one hand, we don’t drive much, on the other hand, cost-wise and inconvenience-wise (like parking, for instance), there is little disincentive to own a car.
I’ve got quite a bunch of friends who’ve had their harddrives (intern or extern) crash lately. I finally got réally motivated backing up áll important files incl my photo collection (which means I really did back it up!) of say..the last 6 years or so! I’d be depressed if they disappeared.
The choice laptop vs car is a hard one..
.-= Arjan´s last blog ..Youtube saturday: Fun loving criminals – Scooby snacks =-.
@Arjan, my photos are all on flickr. I really should back up the hadrians walk stuff though. Gulp.
You’re not thinking outside the box Dan, you’re thinking very short term.
I’ve heard it costs THOUSANDS to raise a childe to the age of 18. Think of the savings if they went to visit their auntie and uncle in Australia. We’ll work out who to call auntie and uncle later.
Besides, the kids ask so many questions and keep LEARNING all the time – and all those drawings that they keep bringing to you that clutter up the fridge. You’d have a lot more space for your donkey porn. Kerry probably wouldn’t approve of that though. (Hmm, just had an idea to solve that issue too…)
Seriously though, you walk everywhere anyway don’t you? Ditch the car!