Cruising Around Couches

Came across an old blog post last week.

17 years ago. I am intensely happy that I put forth the effort to record anything about those years. The snippet about the Hackintosh hit just right. Those were fine days, with narrow budgets and heady motivation to improvise. The machine in question was a Dell Inspiron Mini 9, and it was easily one of the most important devices in my DIY history.

Every component of that machine was seemingly purpose-built for the hack job. And that was key: hacking OS X onto a Windows machine back then usually meant compromises. Loss of the webcam, flaky wireless support, and non-existent audio were normal due to Apple's narrow approach to hardware support. On the Mini 9, however, every component worked nearly flawlessly because Apple had already written rock-solid, native drivers (kexts) for this exact hardware.

Brief research online shows it cost $350. I remember spending a little less. Given that I had to purchase the OS X software as well, that puts the price of this project northward of $700 with inflation. Today, a MacBook Neo starts at $699. Incredible.

I remember typing on that thing outside the Apple Store at the Arrowhead mall, hoping that it would come up in conversation during my interview.

It did not. Probably for the best, anyway.

During that period of my life, I was playing the part of the stay-at-home parent. But it would seem, in retrospect, that I was a little antsy. I was young enough to switch gears without blowing up too much of a stable life, and I remember wanting to do something that mattered. Nursing seemed the way to go. But the advice I got was to volunteer at the nearby hospital first.

Eventually that came to fruition, and I was placed in the ICU. I think I lasted about three weeks before turning in my badge. The final straw was accidentally finding my way into the room of a patient with TB. I had zero PPE. While the chances of me contracting it were minimal, I had a panic attack and never returned. Needless to say, working in medicine was not the avenue for me.

But I digress. The real reason for bringing up this particular blog post is this paragraph:

As far as SaraJane goes, she cut two more teeth in the past week, with a few more looking ripe for departure. She's also cruising around the couches more and more, looking braver for that first big step away from the hand hold.

It breaks my heart to see her grow so fast, because little girls turn into big girls, and big girls turn into young women that find a way to get married. 18 years is never enough with a daughter. I hope that, somehow, she sees how much her daddy loves her.

Without warning, the 18 years have passed. SaraJane graduated high school, and already has her sights set on an EMT cert and firefighting in the longer term. Gone are the days when she cruised around couches. She traded the contours of a baby-proofed family room for the open streets of Arizona. Constant warnings that time is a thief fell on deaf ears. I blinked. My bad.

And as for the oldest of the children, Sumner is a father himself, with the cutest peanut of a baby girl. His career is taking off. He's fabulous. She's fabulous. As an aside, that makes me a grandfather (Poppy, to be precise), and it's everything it's cracked up to be.

PS: Bringing it back to Apple, I ended up employed. I was so excited to make my first purchase as an employee: a 27" iMac with a 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo and 8GB of RAM. I loved that thing. I finally parted ways with it about a year ago, reluctantly. It was simply a relic of a bygone era.

And with apologies to the old blog's format, we are well past the 500-word threshold. Time to bid farewell for now.