Ipod Cause and Effect

As I mentioned before I resisted the Ipod craze for as long as I could. I did this for various reasons. I still like LP’s so obviously I can get stuck in the past. LP’s are proof just because something is newer does not necessarily make it better. Digital quality is great, I agree. But listening to an album, with the scratches and the cracks takes me back to my youth and lets one hear the record the way it was first heard. Also, sometimes the graininess of a record makes it more enjoyable. It is kind of like why I hate Pink Floyd. I still believe that every member of that band are great musicians. But they put out the most boring over produced music on the planet. It is all skill, no heart.

But, I have gotten off the topic. Okay, I got my Ipod in November and it sat on my office desk collecting dust for about a month. One reason I didn’t use it is, because I rarely listen to music via headphones. I like jamming it on speakers in my house or in my car. I rarely listen to it on the train. Another reason is that, I am a lazy, lazy man and my logic was why should I transfer everything to the Ipod, when I can just put a cd into my cd player and listen to it. Then one day, I took a ride with my cousin and he had his Ipod hooked up to his car radio. I got comfortable with it and saw some of the advantages of having all your music on a device that can fit in the palm of your hand. All of the sudden it started to make sense to start using the Ipod I had purchased.

Of course this meant that I was going to have to start transporting over 800 Compact Discs of material over to it. So for the last couple of weekends I have taken some time to do just that. With that said, I am not even a tenth of the way done. It is an undertaking that is monumental. Still, I have over 500 songs on it already so, it is moving along. The problem was that while I had the docking station for the Ipod at home and could plug it into the radio in Joyce’s car, I had no way of listening to it in my Mazda.

So, I looked into getting an FM transmitter for my car. Basicaly they are devises that can play your Ipod into an empty station on your FM band on the radio. I started pricing them, and they were not cheap. I also read reviews of them and universally they were panned. On top of that the same co-worker who sold me the Ipod told me he had one and they are a piece of shit. So, instead I turned my focus into buying a new radio for my car.

But, since it was more of a want then a need, I figured I would hold off until the summer. I got the paper on Sunday and saw that Circuit City had their car radios on sale and were offering free installation. Still, I told myself there is no rush they will be on sale again in the future.

Flash to Sunday evening. I went like I do every year to watch the Championship games at a friend of a friend who has become a friend, Pat’s house. I go ever year for three reasons. One is well, it is playoff football. Two, is the food spread that Pat puts out every year is incredible. I don’t want to think about everything I ate on top of the Miller High Life’s I had. The third reason I go every year, is the gambling. I get in on a strip card every quarter and there also some squares being sold. So, I bought some squares and since my friend Chris didn’t show, I had to run the strip cards.

The first quarter of the first game I had the 3. Sure enough at the end of the first quarter it is 3-0. I also hit the square for the first quarter, so with seven quarters of football left I am up $75 bucks. It would only get better. All told I hit three strip cards and another square. I went home with a profit of close to $200 bucks when it was all said and done.

I got home and happily told my wife the good news. Her response is why I love her so much. She said, well now you can go buy a radio for your car. She could have demanded half of it or invested it in something useful but she knew the radio would make me happy so, she didn’t blink an eye.

I was off yesterday, so I got up early and headed over to Circuit City. I found the radio I wanted that had the Ipod adapter in it and paid for it with the cash that I had won. Since I was there early, there was no one else waiting to have a radio installed. The 15 year old that installs the radios for Circuit City, told me it should not take more then a half hour. So, I left and walked to the gas station nearby and grabbed a paper and then to the White Castle to grab some grub.

After killing some time, I walked back to Circuit City. There the kid who the installing told me that my car had some anti-theft device installed and he could not remove the old radio. He told me the Manufacturer would be the only place that could do so. So, we called the Mazda dealership on La Grange road and they were really cool. Not only did they tell me to come right on by, they didn’t even charge me for their work. I waited about an hour, but they got it done for me. If I ever by another Mazda I will by one there.

So, once my old radio was removed, I drove back to Circuit City and had to wait yet again as they put in my new one. They were really cool though as they gave me a converter kit that would have cost like $25 bucks for free. I waited there and at long last my radio installation was finally completed. It took over 3 ½ hours for the whole ordeal but now I can listen to my Ipod in my car. I will let you know how long it takes to transfer all my cd’s (or at least most of them onto it.)