Yikes…Time
I originally titled this post “I’m a Dinosaur.” You might wonder just what age-related encounter happened to me today that might have provoked that title.
Well, it was nothing momentous. Just this odd, mustard-yellow slash emblazoned across the top of my Word document as I attempt to eke out a post this evening.
I’ve seen it before, although I could swear it was worded a bit differently. Not quite so ominously. Indeed so benign that I blew it off. Although…I could swear it wasn’t this color before tonight.
A Benign Message? Or a Ticking…
I’m thinking any further blowing off will be at my peril.
It’s a simple enough set of statements: “GET THE NEW OFFICE. Office for Mac 2011 will no longer be updated. Learn more about upgrading Office.”
Ordinarily, I would not even consider mentioning that I need to upgrade my laptop’s software. Mostly, I suppose, as I said above, because I’ve almost certainly not even registered the admonition in my brain for at least a couple years. I think the warnings up until now have consisted of only a vague reference to the software entering some no-man’s land of no further updates ‘soon’ or ‘sometime in the future.’
It’s Been Quite a While
But alas, now we’ve hit do-or-die. And there’s something striking and unsettling about that mustard yellow banner. It blasted into my awareness and made me calculate just how darn old my software is – and I can state unequivocally: I’m a little bit freaked.
I bought this laptop in 2011, and purchased the suite of software ‘Office for Mac’ at the same time. Which means…it’s eight years old?!?! I must’ve purchased it sometime earlier in 2011 – a year, of course, that will always be associated with losing Karl. And that, in all honesty, is the real nub here.
It’s not the age of the software. Nor is it the age of the laptop. It’s the realization that this November it will be eight years since Karl died, and it’s already been eight and a half years since I last put my arms around him, hugged him, and waved goodbye as he pulled out of the driveway to make his way back across the country.
Strange Connections
It’s weird; times like this. How a random mustard yellow banner across the top of my Word document could lead to the sad realization of just how long it’s been since I last put my arms around my boy. My young man. My eldest.
Sometimes the oddest things act as catalysts to stop our mindless wanderings, our sometimes zombie-like lumbering from one day to the next, to stop us in our tracks and demand that we pay attention.
He was on my mind a lot today. I miss him. And since he’s the whole reason I’m writing these posts every night, maybe he’s getting my attention so I won’t get caught one night soon with software that won’t do what it’s supposed to anymore.
Or maybe it’s just Microsoft demanding that I upgrade.
I prefer the former, even if the latter is definitely more plausible. But as I close this up for the night I’m realizing: perhaps there’s an even deeper message here. Hmm.
(T-857)