Shiny and New… Well, Almost

My late-2011 MacBook Pro has been acting up lately – it’s been too slow to do anything that I normally do (Photoshop, Ulysses, 50 tabs open on my browser, etc) until I finally decided yesterday to bite the bullet and buy a new one.

I didn’t want the basic model at all. I didn’t want a Macbook Air either – I guess once you go Pro, it’s hard to go with a MacBook Air, especially if you already have iPads to work with. It’s really just an iPad with a keyboard. And so I did some shopping – brand new versus refurbished? Groupon deals versus Best Buy?

An hour later, I made my choice, but before I could press that Buy button and put a dent on my bank account, I figured maybe it wouldn’t hurt to talk to an Apple rep and see what he recommends. After all, I do have some apps that need to run in a 32-bit environment – will it work on the new OS?

By the time the rep talked about Parallels and upgrading to 16GB memory and 2.8 processor blah blah blah, I realized that no way was he taking in consideration my stated budget of $1400 at the beginning of the conversation. Instead, he kept talking about financing, financing, financing because hey, it will cost less monthly. I don’t know what Koolaid he’s drinking but when I said $1400, I didn’t mean $3780.

I mean, sure, I could pay that but do I have to? In the middle of a pandemic?

And so it was back to the drawing board and I finally posted my dilemma in one of my favorite forums to see what they’d suggest. One of the writers suggested that if my only complaint was that my MacBook was slow, then maybe I should upgrade the memory. Turns out I only have 4GB and this model can take up to 16GB. “You can even do it yourself in minutes,” he said and when I Googled it, he was right.

I could install it myself – as long as I touch this piece of metal to ground myself… or something like that. 

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a pair of 8GB to buy nearby ($99 plus tax and shipping) and the fastest one would be shipped next week. But after all that work researching and almost buying, I wanted it now.

So this morning, I called my computer guy and he said he had the 16GB in stock and he could pop it in there in less than 10 minutes.

“How much?” I asked.

“$120,” he replied.

“Installed?”

“Yup,” he replied, “while you wait.”

I tell you, if there’s one thing that can get me out of the house in the middle of a pandemic, mask and all, it’s because my MacBook is about to get an upgrade. Half an hour later, I was back home and updating my MacBook before really putting it to its paces. Hey, it’s not brand new but when Photoshop popped up in one second instead of the usual ten, I almost cried tears of joy.

And like that Madonna song from time gone by (you know what song I’m talking about), my Macbook Pro sure felt shiny and new.

Now I have no excuse for not writing.

None at all.

So how’s your day been so far?