iPod Rehabilitation Unit

So, in case you haven't noticed by the two posts in one week, I'm off work on "vacation" this week. Since we have no big plans other than Eleanor's birthday, I've been spending my time watching illegally downloaded video content, diddling with electronic music (when Eleanor's not sleeping or needing attention, which amounts to about ten contiguous minutes in any given day), going to the DMV, going to the mechanic, and trying to remember what I used to do with several days without work. Why take vacation time you ask? Because the last time I looked up from the hospital grindstone I realized I hadn't had more than a few days off since this time last year when we were, you guessed it, birthing Eleanor.

One activity I have had a love/hate relationship is monkeying with my old iPod to get it to work. It has had a tough life. It took a bad fall and has never been the same since. I've performed major and minor surgeries, several software restores (so many in fact I had lost count, last time I remember, I had renamed it "iPod Lazarus IV" for its fourth resurrection) but had given up on the last and relegated it to a junk drawer. In doing all this I've gained far too much knowledge about these little white ubiquitous devices and their various maladies (they are a sickly bunch). It's the hard drives.

Recently, some friends from church have been having trouble with their 3rd Generation iPod (pictured on the far left). They had bought a new battery (often the first thing to go out) and needed it installed, but had found the task a bit daunting. I volunteered with all my time off to do it and further diagnose and cure any other problems that might arise. Yesterday afternoon I was kicking myself, about two hours into it. However, their iPod is now in perfectly functioning order and quietly waiting to be loaded with more than the single Led Zeppelin track (Communication Breakdown) I had loaded to test it.

Tonight, I decided to plug my old 4th Gen iPod and see if it would spin up. Melody noticed it was "clicking" from across the room, an old symptom I recalled from the first time my battery had died. Bored with Law and Order SVU (aka Law and Order: plotline-full-of-sexual-misconduct-so-awful-it-horrifies-hardened-Thai-brothel-owners), I decided to put my friend's old battery in and see what happened. So far, tonight my old iPod is functioning well and doing its job with no major screw ups! What fun.

Melody's new 5th Generation iPod Video (pictured on the far right), a birthday gift from my family, is still working fine. However, Melody has informed me that it's been calling the other two older iPods "fat." Little does it know that in a few short months it will be succumbing to the same fatigue that comes from low batt. But for today, all three iPods in this household are working fine.

Melody reminds me that this time off affords me more time to spend with my loving daughter. Though I thoroughly believe she has an ulterior motive for this reminder, it's true all the same. We've been having more bathtime than usual...