ifamily

It's funny the reaction people have when I make reference to my iPods. It ranges from disbelief to curiousity to disgust. I spent much of the holidays at home explaining how I ended up with four iPods. Yes, I know four, you're probably having one of the reactions detailed above right now. If it's any consolation, I'm not proud and mildly embarassed but there is an explanation.

I like to think of it as my iFamily, the father (40 GB), the mother (20 GB), the baby (1GB shuffle) and the newest member of the family, an adopted bigger brother (2 GB nano). This is the order they came into my family.

My first iPod was the 40 gig. I got such a large one for two purposes, first for a music player, and the second as a back-up drive for my laptop. I was immediately hooked. It sounds corny but the iPod brought music back into my life on a daily basis. I took it with me everywhere. One weekend I was camping in Fort Providence, and riding my bike along the Mackenzie Highway. I was riding along, listening to the music when all of a sudden, the music stopped. I turned and saw my iPod bouncing down the highway. There was a dent in one corner, it sounded like the needle had gone through the hard drive, and it didn't work. I checked the warranty and it seemed clear that for accidents like these the warranty wouldn't apply.

Recognizing I had become so used to the iPod that I couldn't survive without it, I purchased a replacement, the 20 gig and life resumed. After considerable bugging from friends, I submitted a service request to Apple on the broken iPod before the warranty expired. Convinced I would get a "you obviously threw this against the wall and stop wasting our time" email, I shipped the broken Pod off to Apple. Within a week, I had a response saying that a replacement iPod was on its way to me. Boom, I had two.

The shuffle was for exercise and skidooing. It was too difficult using the big iPods when running on the treadmill. It was put to regular use on many of my snowmobile trips and I was known for the big, boppin' helmet.

I was happy and content with the one child iFamily, when an unexpected addition happened last fall. In preparing for school, I bought a new laptop. Free with purchase was the iPod nano. The nano has taken over on the exercise front and for walking back to school. The shuffle is essentially now a 1 gig USB memory key. This is how the the iFamily came together, and I promise there will be no more.