For so long, I took pride in the fact that I did not own an iPod. Didn’t need one, I told people.

I have a built-in prejudice against Apple and had plenty of other ways to get my music. I could resist assimilating.

Or so I thought. I finally gave in over the summer and bought one. I didn’t go whole hog and get one of the fancy schmancy ones, even though I really wanted to.

Since then, I have settled into a routine, using the player to entertain me during the day at work or substituting it for my satellite radio during my commute.

I’m not rich or anything. I’m just an entertainment snob. I feel less comfortable in silence.

Which is why I could not believe my eyes a week ago. I had plugged my iPod into my computer to charge and saw a very strange message.
At first, I chalked it up to the early hour and the fact that I had yet to have any coffee. I only needed a few minutes to realize what had really happened.

My iPod was corrupted.

In these times of economic strife, that might sound like a trivial matter, but this was on a Monday morning. I had work to do; now I had to face it in silence.

I do have my old non-Apple music player somewhere, but I did not have time to find it, charge it and fill it with music. Plus, I have become completely dependent on the playlists I have set up on my iPod so I couldn’t deal with change in the morning.

Yes, I realize how pathetic all this sounds.

I tried to juggle my usual morning routine with working to fix the problem. I had heard of people having to restore their iPod to its original settings, but had no idea what to do.

Finally, I just took a few deep breaths and realized I would just have to live without the thing for a day or so.

I should have known all this would happen when I broke my pledge and gave Apple my money. When I had a really cheap player that didn’t have any bells and whistles, I didn’t care if it broke.

So those things spited me and worked every time without a problem. I could drop them, step on them, leave them out in the sun for hours upon hours and they kept on chugging.

But I try and recharge the fancy little Apple machine – something I have done so many times – and all heck breaks loose.

So I spent all day at work wondering how my little machine was doing. I started the restoration process before I left for work and worried all day. Well, not really, but I thought about it.

Thankfully I returned home, took a little more time to assess the problem and had everything back to normal in no time at all. I felt the same rush of excitement I did when I first opened it several months before.

But I know the fun will come to an end eventually. Electronics always break your heart.