My Mac is in the shop. It's getting a new wifi card, and while they are at it they'll replace the chipped case. The chip fixing means that labor is free for the wifi fixing so it's a very reasonable cost.
The last time I had any kind of extended computer downtime I remember it being a strain, since I then had so much of my personal computing stuff actually on my computer. Now more than ever that's not the case, and I get along just fine with occasional logins from library computer systems or even the ultra-basic stripped down version of apps that I get on my not-very-smart Blackberry.
At some point, everything that you care enough about is also in the cloud somewhere. That might be for backups, so that if you lose a system you can carry on with minimum restore time. It might be to increase the power of whatever web-enabled terminal you log into, so that whatever public system you connect to has most of your stuff even if that stuff is private. Mostly though things go into the cloud and stay there because all physical media are fragile. The consequences of relying on anything in your own possession - especially something that gets knocked around a bit - are too great, and it's better to have those things also or primarily somewhere else that feels safe.
