Do You Know the Way to Monterey

 Last week, something strange happened after I finished reading my last regular reading assignment from the online course materials for one of my grad school classes.  It was a late Restoration era British comedy-of-manners that took me two hours to get through.  I could've finished sooner, but I kept nodding off and had to reread some sections.  Trust me, it wasn't as boring as it sounds.  Anyway, after I signed off, I noticed that I had a new notification on my computer.  Usually, these things don't pop up when I'm at work.  The wifi connection is too unstable most of the time.  However, this time it came through.  I had a new upgrade to install, a big one.  This was the upgrade for the MacOS known as Monterey.  I knew this was coming this past month, but the exact timing had slipped from me.  I had a lot going on these past two weeks.  It is the latest update in their series of California themed names.  I think I liked the big cat themed names, but that was years before I got my MacBook.  Anyway, I did a quick web search to see if the OS had actually dropped.  It had, and I read a few articles about it.  Then, I did nothing.  For one, downloading something as big as a new OS would take a fairly long time.  Even longer with my weak wifi at work.  I noticed the notification less than an hour before closing.  Nowhere near enough time for the download.  Furthermore, I didn't download Monterey after I got home that night, either.  I never upgrade my OS the first few days after it drops.  I like to see if any problems pop up.  Bugs get revealed that first week pretty frequently.  Also, I get afraid that I could lose important files.  I usually wait a month or so before I do anything.  Since I have important documents relating to my classes right now, I think waiting until at least after the semester is over would be prudent.  I will upgrade, though.  This could be the last one I will ever get to use.  Last year's update had a few minor features that my computer was unable to handle.  This year has a few major features that I will be missing out on.  Admittedly, I don't think I would be using all of them anyway, but it is still an issue.  MacBooks made before 2016 can't even handle the basic features anymore.  I predict about a fifty percent chance that I will not be able to use next year's update.  This drops to around twenty percent the following year, and pretty much zero in 2024.  Hopefully by then, I will already have a new desktop model and just use the MacBook for travel or secondary functioning. Until that time, I will be doing what I can with what I've got.  Maybe even getting a tablet or smartphone so I can finally really use some of the compatibility features that would really be fun.