On Tuesday, I was happily sitting at my computer working on
editing some photos and listening to The Cuckoo’s
Calling on my iPod when I glanced at the clock. It was time for me to go downstairs to start
dinner. So I shut down my computer and
went to turn off my iPod. The computer
shut down, but my iPod stubbornly refused to do so. “Eek!” I thought, “What’s wrong with this
thing??” Panic set in. In normal circumstances, I would just try to
fix it, but we are going to be getting on a plane on Sunday to go to St. John,
USVI, with good friends and I can’t imagine myself on a plane these days without
the distraction my iPod gives me.
After quite a few minutes searching on the
interweb for clues and fixes, I had to just give up. My iPod was irrevocably broken, the on/off
toggle was caput and there was nothing I could do about it. Then the panic really did set in. What was I going to do on a plane for four
hours without the comfort of Bach’s cello concertos streaming into my skull?
Greg, who is much calmer about such things, said that we
should go out to eat that night and we would go to Best Buy on Wednesday and
pick up a new iPod. And that’s what we
did, even though I wasn’t too happy about it.
Well, my first two iPods were green so I decided that if I
went with a blue one this time, maybe my luck would change. I got the new blue one home, sat down at my
computer to put my stuff on it and my computer wouldn’t recognize it. I picked it up and looked at it. The screen was stuck on the Apple logo screen
and wouldn’t budge. “I can’t frickin’
believe this,” I thought. “What is it
with me and Apple??”
Just about then, our son Evan got home from work and
informed us that his iPhone wasn’t charging.
So we repeated the steps of looking to the interweb for clues and fixes. Long story short, his iPhone seemed to be irrevocably
broken. Now, I could actually live without my iPod if I had to,
but Evan really does need his phone. So
he decided the best thing to do was to let the Geniuses take a look at it.
So off we went. I
retraced the 20 miles back to the Best Buy and Evan went off to the nearest
Apple Store 40 miles in the opposite direction.
The nice young Geek at Best Buy thought it would be an easy
fix, but after about twenty minutes, he admitted defeat and called someone over
to get me a new iPod. I stuck with the
blue. Geek said, with a sly grin on his
face, that maybe now I should consider getting the extended warranty. I told him that the other iPods lasted me
four and three years respectively. Again
with the grin, he said, “Yeah, but this one only lasted you two hours.” Well, I didn’t bite, but maybe I should have. My times with my iPods keep getting narrower and
narrower.
Evan got home a couple of hours later with the bad news that
there was no way to resuscitate his iPhone.
The Geniuses were stumped. Will
wonders never cease? He does have a “spare”
with a broken screen that actually works so he may be able to limp along until
we can figure out how to get him one that won’t break the bank.
Well, by then, it was pretty late, so we went
out to dinner yet again and I had a little whine with mine.
It’s funny these days that we have become so
dependent on these little electronic devices.
Heck, as much as I complained about my last iPod – it was too small, too
hard to control, etc.—I took good care of it because I didn’t want to be
without it. I used it often. I love the fact that I can listen to my books
and to music anywhere and everywhere. It’s
a good thing….really. But, you know,
when I decided to write this today, I wanted to take some pictures of the three
devices together, green iPod 1, green iPod 2, and blue iPod No. 2 in two hours,
which I’m hoping will be my last for many years. But, after an exhaustive search, green iPod2
had taken a powder and I can’t find it.
It’s on the lam. So, it was
a bad Apple after all.
