THIS OL’ MAC

Nothing lasts forever in the rat race called life. Today, I’m parting ways with a very ol’ friend.

We’ve traversed lots of turf over the years and told a wealth of stories together — my trusty MacBook Pro and me. But things just aren’t what they used to be.

It’s time to move on and start anew. Pounding a keyboard has been a big part of everyday life around here for going on four decades now. I’ve owned close to a dozen personal computers of different kinds since graduating college in 1986. Macs are the ones I’m most familiar with, and confident in.

Not only are Macs simple to navigate. They are also are pretty darned reliable. The latter is particularly important in my line of work, which frequently leads to the water and the woods in all sorts of unfavorable conditions in far away places.

My MacBook laptop has visited the wilds of Brazil and some of Mexico’s finest bass lakes more than once. It has worked up peacock bass photos from the banks of the Omero and Unini rivers, deep the heart Amazon Rainforest. It’s ridden horseback in the high country, zipped down the highway on a motorcycle and even seen the Hoover/ Diana, a massive oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, 160 miles east of Corpus Christi.

I’ve got a rich history of being pretty rough on my stuff. Computers and cameras are no different.

Not surprising, several of my PCs have lost their lives prematurely. A few have been bumped, banged and dropped. Others, inadvertently drenched by coffee and beer.

It never feels good when a computer goes down. It is especially painful to watch one die from a careless, self-inflicted injury.

My ol’ MacBook has been a warrior and a survivor. I bought it brand new years ago. Now, it’s an outdated model with thousands of photos, newspaper columns, fishing reports, magazine pieces and videos jammed into a memory bank that is still far from full.

Hundreds of the documents have been filed using an obsolete operating system that can’t be upgraded, because the guts will no longer support an update.

Sadly, age has caught up with my Apple. And it shows. There was a time when the silvery laptop was a gem to look at, but not anymore. It’s got bumps and bruises everywhere.

The built-in keyboard looks like a battlefield where bombs have gone off. In fact, the keys have been beaten up so badly that some of the characters no longer function as they should.

The face plate on the “I” key is completely gone; a few other characters work only when they want to. It’s been that way for years.

Most would have replaced the faulty computer long before now. Not me. I’ve managed to limp by using external keyboards robbed from crashed desktop units. I’ve gone through two of those so far.

Sadly, my ol’ MacBook is now on its last leg and way past due for a replacement. The internal battery is so badly swollen the screen will no longer fully close and the trackpad won’t function.

Replacing the battery before it implodes is an option, but experts have told me it would cost more to do it than the old computer is worth.

It is never fun to say goodbye to such a trustworthy friend, but it’s time. The delivery truck can’t get here soon enough. I’ve got thousands files to transfer and more chapters to write.

Hopefully the new MacBook Pro arrives before something bad happens to one that has paid for itself many times over. It’s been a good one, for sure.

Matt Williams is a freelance writer based in Nacogdoches. He can be reached by e-mail, mattwillwrite4u@yahoo.com.