PowerBooks do not bounce. At least not very well. I had the PowerBook at home up on something next to the bed. I got off the bed, tripped over the powercord, and it went crashing down to the tile floor. The case is all warped. The battery stays in place kinda sorta. I had to snap the pieces back together. It has several new cracks. (And this is the new case I got just last year.)

But… it still works. For the moment. I may have to hold the case together with tape or something though. Well, it stays together, just has annoying gaps in the case where it is warped that don’t feel good when holding it. Maybe tape would help.

It is way overdue for replacement. I bought it when the G4 Powerbooks first came out in early 2001. So it is over four years old. Which is really old for a laptop. Especially a laptop that I carried with me everywhere for years and beat the hell out of. This is by no means the first time I have dropped it. (Although I think it is the worst damage to the case in one shot.) Poor old thing. I abuse it so. A new one definately needs to be in the cards soon. I had been sticking to an approximately 3 year replacement cycle, getting new Macs in 1994, 1998 and 2001. But 2004 was just not the year to be thinking of such things. But very soon it will need to be, I won’t have a choice…

And there are several possible options along those lines. From getting a new Mini, to an iMac, to another PowerBook on the high end. (Not interested in a PowerMac… or iBook or eMac for that matter.) But as much as I want to, the samart thing is to let finances stabilize awhile longer before doing any large purchases. I’m hoping by the end of the year, but not summer… we’re not as tight any more as we were in March att he low point in the cash flow cycle after getting the new house, but still haven’t gotten a good sense on just where we are and how much “discressionary” spending we can be doing with the standard house expenses (with most but not all of the one time things out of the way) and both our jobs. Unless we go nuts and start way ov erspending, we should be coming out ahead each month by enough to sack away some useful savings. But Brandy JUST got her first paycheck. And while I paid the bulk of the tax bill on April 15th, there is still more to pay. So it will take a while to really get fully situated.

PowerBooks are midcycle right now and should get updated again sometime this fall. Maybe then if I continue to go the laptop route. (Which I really like.) The iMac has been tempting me though. But then, it is much harder to carry around…

Anyway, I am very glad the PowerBook (named Zeus) is still working, had no data loss, etc. I am backing up fairly frequently these days, but not quite daily. I need to do daily. But if Zeus had died last night, I probably would have ordered a bare bones $499 mini today. But waiting is much better as long as Zeus holds out.

Go Zeus, keep hanging in there!

Uh… even when I throw you on the floor violently.

Thanks!