I took a piece of my condo-sale proceeds (otherwise tightly secured away to stave off the credit card companies) and got me a new iBook G4 with the new Mac OS X “Tiger” operating system. I only had to wait in line 45 minutes at the Apple Store on a cloudy Friday evening to get it, plus some extra RAM.

This marks only the third time in 23 years of computer purchasing that I’d bought an all-new machine, at its regular retail price, from a brick-and-mortar retail outlet.

The first time was for a Radio Shack TRS-80, of which I have little more to say at this time.

I will, though, tell of the first Mac I bought, at the U Book Store back when its computer department was hidden away in the Alumni Association’s building. It was the Mac 512 (the second Macintosh model, after the original Mac 128), purchased in mid-1995 at the end of its product “life.” Instead of MC/Visa, I bought it under in-store credit “contract terms.” I couldn’t actually bring it home for two days after I bought it, because, the salesperson told me, they needed to properly “break in” the machine by leaving it powered up that long on the premises before they could entrust it to me, or me to it.

This time, I looked around, decided what to get, told the first clerk I saw what I wanted, waited at the Genius Bar for five minutes, was greeted by another clerk with my purchase in a handy carry-out-strapped box, paid my money, and strutted out humming April Stevens’s “Teach Me Tiger” and the Mills Brothers’ “Tiger Rag” (but not “Eye of the Tiger”).

I’d pondered getting a Mac mini instead, but I’d have had to also get an external monitor, and those (at least the good ones of those) ain’t cheap. Besides, I’m sorta used to the wireless/cord-optional life by now.

Compared to its three-and-a-half-year-old predecessor, my new iBook has twice the official processor speed. But between the improved G4 chip architecture and the new OS version, it actually runs several times faster on most CPU-intensive tasks. (I’d previously considered replacing the shareware outlining program I’d been using, just because it took up to two minutes to save files. Now, that task’s accomplished in seconds.)

I’ve yet to explore most of Tiger’s new features, other than the improved search box in the Finder that can track down anything I’ve ever saved by content (not just title). That’s partly because of time constraints; I’ve gotten a gig proofreading a new book about Tiger.

Other things I’ve acquired for my new place include a Caller ID box (how’d I even manage to live previously without this godsend for the home-office worker?) and a laundry hamper with wheels (an absolute must for anyone whose residence and washing machine are an elevator ride apart).