Monday, October 16, 2006
From a carwash to the Spice Girls -- my slow music-delivery descent.
Picture it. Easter, 2006. The Betrothed and I are setting sail down the proverbial river of Interstate 95 South to spend this, the most important holiday on the liturgical calender, with Mom & Co. Before we left -- a drive I was told *I* was making as the Betrothed had big laptop plans for the ride down -- I decided to take my big red tank (aka: The Volv') to the carwash so that the Betrothed and I wouldn't be the only ones spruced up in our Easter bests.
Shiney and drippy, we started out -- Betrothed working on wedding guest lists on excel (a spreadsheet *I* created, thankyouverymuch) and I logged some serious playtime on the iPod, running through the car radio. Some two hours later, we stopped at a rest-stop (a requisite stop for me and my shot-glass sized bladder)not more than an hour from Mom's. As we walked back to the car, the Betrothed says, "Hey, your antenna looks jacked."
'Jacked' put it kindly.
The Volv' hasn't evolved from "big, long and 15 seconds to retract into the trunk" antenna to "short, cute, well placed and in no need of a motor" antenna. And I had been ok with that. Until I found myself so wrapped up in the simple joys of a beautiful Easter morning that I commited first degree antenna-slaughter by not turning off the radio-radio and thereby retracting it PRIOR to going into said carwash. Rather than a long, straight look, it took on a far more pronounced 90 degree turn around the level of the car roof. And since I had been jamming to something totally sweet on the iPod the whole way down thus far, I hadn't noticed that I had no radio coming in at all.
Flashforward: Then + a little bit of time. So it's been months since we lost the antenna. And they've been busy months because neither of us have bothered much to actually get it fixed any more than to just take it off so it stops looking so pitiful. All was well, I had XM Radio -- with which I was able to spend some more consistent quality time with now that car-radio bit the dust.
Being as ahead-of-the-tech curve as you all surely recognize that I am, it should come as quite a surprise to you that I had an XM radio over two years ago. WAAYYYY before it was "the thing". In fact, I was one of their first 10,000 customers. Yeah, I had my subscription back when it really was still commercial-free. I took my no-car-radio time and devoted it to slowly falling in love with certain programs and stations. Until XM radio bit the dust. Apparently all of my prophylactic "unplugging so it doesn't get stolen when someone sees it in plain view" has killed the antenna connection to my receiver. Which is fine. Best Buy assures me that the part will be in shortly.
Flashforward: Then + some more time. In the mean time, it's a good thing I have my little tapey-player (yes, my car still has a cassette player, AND WHAT??) converter thing for my iPod. I'm able to relearn why I love Erasure so much and better yet, catch up on my "Naked Scientist" podcasts (do yourself a favor and get one from iTunes -- they're free. And amazing. And British. They do 1-hour talk shows on all manner of scientific topics, and it's fascinating!). I've become so connected with my iPod + tapey thing that when the Betrothed and I took a trip to his hometown this weekend to attend his 10 year HS reunion I thought I might take it along so we could ALL enjoy Erasure, et al. (Let's all stop for a moment to be impressed that not only does MY car (which has a few candles on it's cake) have a cassette player, but the Betrothed's fancy new Lexus has one, too. He bought it like that on purpose. We're quite the power couple. ) We drove, we sang, we made merry.
Flashforward: Yesterday. We drove home early Sunday morning so that the Betrothed could turn around and head out on a week-long business trip at some locale far, far away. He repacked, I hid cute 'I love you' notes in his suitcase and he was off within the hour. A few hours later I decided that rather be alone with my thoughts -- cause, hell, I'd have all week for THAT -- I'd head to the mall with BFF and Fam.
As soon as my key was in the ignition I realized it. The Betrothed had my tapey-converter cassette thing in his car. And he was MANY miles away at this point. I drove in silence for a few blocks until it was deafening. So at the next light I scoured my car for something, anything.
And that's when I came upon a mix-tape. Lord knows when I made this mysterious, musical mish-mash. But it just so happens, that once the BFF got in the car, the mix-tape had gone from sweet Bowie tunes to, yes, The Spice Girls.
Which we listened to.
And sang along to.
And then my BFF lent me her tapey-converter thing because she said she could not, in good conscience, let me listen to any more of my dated mix-tape -- even if it meant Spice(ing) Up My Life -- when her car-radio was in working order and she could spare her converter.
Thank God. I'm not terribly sure what more I could regress to after a mix-tape. Maybe a vinyl 35 of Fisher Price's "Discover Your World of Sounds".
Which might be sweet.
I don't really know. I'm not really in a position to tell you what the kids are listening to these days.
Shiney and drippy, we started out -- Betrothed working on wedding guest lists on excel (a spreadsheet *I* created, thankyouverymuch) and I logged some serious playtime on the iPod, running through the car radio. Some two hours later, we stopped at a rest-stop (a requisite stop for me and my shot-glass sized bladder)not more than an hour from Mom's. As we walked back to the car, the Betrothed says, "Hey, your antenna looks jacked."
'Jacked' put it kindly.
The Volv' hasn't evolved from "big, long and 15 seconds to retract into the trunk" antenna to "short, cute, well placed and in no need of a motor" antenna. And I had been ok with that. Until I found myself so wrapped up in the simple joys of a beautiful Easter morning that I commited first degree antenna-slaughter by not turning off the radio-radio and thereby retracting it PRIOR to going into said carwash. Rather than a long, straight look, it took on a far more pronounced 90 degree turn around the level of the car roof. And since I had been jamming to something totally sweet on the iPod the whole way down thus far, I hadn't noticed that I had no radio coming in at all.
Flashforward: Then + a little bit of time. So it's been months since we lost the antenna. And they've been busy months because neither of us have bothered much to actually get it fixed any more than to just take it off so it stops looking so pitiful. All was well, I had XM Radio -- with which I was able to spend some more consistent quality time with now that car-radio bit the dust.
Being as ahead-of-the-tech curve as you all surely recognize that I am, it should come as quite a surprise to you that I had an XM radio over two years ago. WAAYYYY before it was "the thing". In fact, I was one of their first 10,000 customers. Yeah, I had my subscription back when it really was still commercial-free. I took my no-car-radio time and devoted it to slowly falling in love with certain programs and stations. Until XM radio bit the dust. Apparently all of my prophylactic "unplugging so it doesn't get stolen when someone sees it in plain view" has killed the antenna connection to my receiver. Which is fine. Best Buy assures me that the part will be in shortly.
Flashforward: Then + some more time. In the mean time, it's a good thing I have my little tapey-player (yes, my car still has a cassette player, AND WHAT??) converter thing for my iPod. I'm able to relearn why I love Erasure so much and better yet, catch up on my "Naked Scientist" podcasts (do yourself a favor and get one from iTunes -- they're free. And amazing. And British. They do 1-hour talk shows on all manner of scientific topics, and it's fascinating!). I've become so connected with my iPod + tapey thing that when the Betrothed and I took a trip to his hometown this weekend to attend his 10 year HS reunion I thought I might take it along so we could ALL enjoy Erasure, et al. (Let's all stop for a moment to be impressed that not only does MY car (which has a few candles on it's cake) have a cassette player, but the Betrothed's fancy new Lexus has one, too. He bought it like that on purpose. We're quite the power couple. ) We drove, we sang, we made merry.
Flashforward: Yesterday. We drove home early Sunday morning so that the Betrothed could turn around and head out on a week-long business trip at some locale far, far away. He repacked, I hid cute 'I love you' notes in his suitcase and he was off within the hour. A few hours later I decided that rather be alone with my thoughts -- cause, hell, I'd have all week for THAT -- I'd head to the mall with BFF and Fam.
As soon as my key was in the ignition I realized it. The Betrothed had my tapey-converter cassette thing in his car. And he was MANY miles away at this point. I drove in silence for a few blocks until it was deafening. So at the next light I scoured my car for something, anything.
And that's when I came upon a mix-tape. Lord knows when I made this mysterious, musical mish-mash. But it just so happens, that once the BFF got in the car, the mix-tape had gone from sweet Bowie tunes to, yes, The Spice Girls.
Which we listened to.
And sang along to.
And then my BFF lent me her tapey-converter thing because she said she could not, in good conscience, let me listen to any more of my dated mix-tape -- even if it meant Spice(ing) Up My Life -- when her car-radio was in working order and she could spare her converter.
Thank God. I'm not terribly sure what more I could regress to after a mix-tape. Maybe a vinyl 35 of Fisher Price's "Discover Your World of Sounds".
Which might be sweet.
I don't really know. I'm not really in a position to tell you what the kids are listening to these days.
# posted by Cathy @ 4:42:00 PM 
