I tend to keep things for a long time. Yeah, I’m that guy. I blame a somewhat compulsive nature, the need for organization, and the desire to get my money’s worth as being responsible for this. Yet, the time inevitably comes when these things have to be replaced. No amount of care and cleaning can take away the wear and tear of time.
We all wear out.
This last week I had to replace both my desktop computer and my multitrack recorder. Both were suffering from old age-I’d had both for 11 years, which is ancient in computer years-and were exhibiting signs of great miserableness to come, in the form of being very slow, noisy, and putting off heat: all signs of imminent failure.
So I did what any grown man would do: I wept, threw myself upon the firmament, cried to almighty God, and braced myself for the gloom waiting for me.
I believe this was due, in large measure, to fiascos of the past. Often we wait too long to let go of that which comforts us or that which replacing is a long inglorious slog that we have no interest in. However, as a writer and musician with far too many important files, without which my life has no meaning, I therefore endeavoured to persevere and went about researching and spending the big dough.
It went much better than I thought.
In the intervening 11 years, transferring files from one Mac to the next, once you figure out what the hell they (Apple) are talking about, it was quite easy- I slept through most of it. For the iMacs there hasn’t been the a lot of change outside of migrating from mechanical hard drives to flash drives or whatever the hell they use now. Sure there are no more CD/DVD drives, but I might be one of the last to need one, so I have an external unit that still works.
The same is true of my old Portastudio, which I replaced with the newer version, which again, no longer has mechanical HD’s or a CD burner: everything now is put on flash drives, which end up in your pocket and then the laundry, but that another story.
Such is life I suppose, but I do feel a certain pang of loss with every generation of gear I give up. This is the 4th Mac I’ve had since getting one of the first power Macs way back in the stone age of the 90’s. Same with the Portastudios, the first of which I bought in the early 80’s during the age of hair bands. I suppose it’s the acquiescence to aging, to time gone never to be reclaimed, which makes me sound rather pathetic, but there you are.
On the plus side I should have about 11 years till I have to do it again.
©2019 David William Pearce
David William Pearce, Writer 