Oh I can hear the snickers from my friends already. My getting a new computer… not such a shock. John always says, "You like your toys!" 

But truly, I swear getting a new computer was not on my list of "things to do," especially right now. 

About a month ago, I started getting the "Your startup disk is almost full" message. 

I took off every movie and television show I had saved. I took off every audiobook I had. That supposedly saved me 100 gigabytes of space on my hard drive. "Good," I thought. "That should last me another year before I fill it back up."

About a week ago, the message started again. I spent one writing day struggling with it. Watching the little colored spinning wheel of wasted time over and over. I visited a Mac store. The guy there did some supposed "magic" that saved me 60 gigabytes. "Good," I thought. "That should make me ok for another six months." 

The next day, all that empty space was full again!

I visited another Mac store. Again, the guy there clicked here and there and said he had saved me another 30 gigabytes. But the following morning, the message reappeared, "Your startup disk is almost full." GRRRRRR! This was getting ridiculous. It was like my data was liquid, and every time I took some off my computer, the rest of it rushed in to fill the empty space. 

"If I can just get home and get to the Apple Store, they will solve my problem!" I said to myself. And that's where I went yesterday with my trusted Macbook Pro. The "genius" at the Genius Bar quickly discovered that something quirky in my AOL email was eating up a bunch of space. But he also said I needed to consider a "clean install." He would back up all my data and then totally erase my hard drive and start over. 

I said okay. If that solves my problem, it's worth it. I left my computer with him, a little sadly, but looking forward to a "like new" hard drive in 24 hours. I left the store.

Fifteen minutes later I got the call. My hard drive was going bad. And… well… I'm not going to try to justify my next decision. Let's just say the list of expenses I was incurring, although not nearly as much as buying a new computer, well, they pushed me over the edge. (It turns out I really do like my toys.) And I did call John and ask him what he thought, and he encouraged me to do what I did.

So, I have a new computer. And for the first time in my long history with Apple, I bought something smaller. Well, the dimensions are smaller. But I got the biggest hard drive they could give me… and I'd better NOT be seeing "Your startup disk is almost full" for a long long long time!