Yesterday it happened. I was devastated.

My trusty Apple MacBook Pro laptop that has flown with me for thousands and thousands of miles, shared hotel rooms with me from Alaska to San Francisco and Los Angeles to New York, and dozens upon dozens of big and small side cities in betwixt and between, that helped me prepare thousands of reports, proposals, letters and hundreds of blog posts, crashed.

It is over. It is finished. But luckily… backed up.

It was more than six years old, had a couple of facelifts and new tires, but it was a trustworthy and a wonderful companion. I have enough music on that computer to take me by car from Northern Maine to San Francisco without listening to the same cut twice.

Did I mention it was all backed up?

There will probably be a memorial service – adult beverages will probably be involved – but first I must go to my trusted Apple Store and buy its successor. For what this will cost, I could’ve bought a Pontiac GTO in 1969 from Harvey Pontiac in Tyler, Texas.

But alas, you just can’t run a business (or record a podcast) without a computer.