It happened again last week.
The husband retrieved his shorts from the wash, only to discover that his iPod had taken a dunk. Poor thing didn't make it, despite valiant efforts by the husband to resuscitate it with towels and a blow dryer.
I mention this because there appears to have become what I can only call an epidemic of iPod deaths in our household. And I don't use the word "epidemic" lightly.
Frankly, I have lost count of the number of iPods that have expired, all in the prime of their lives, and all by drowning. Let's just say that if we were to have created an iPod cemetery in our back yard, it would take
a significant bite out of the property. Let's just say there ought to be police tape permanently surrounding the washing machine.
The circumstances of the deaths are always the same. Someone will throw in some laundry, turn on the machine, disappear to watch something on ESPN, and only then remember those five magic words I've often repeated: Remember to check your pockets.
"Oh no!" the individual will wail. "Not again!" On some occasions, the wailing will be heard 15 minutes into the cycle, and the iPod owner will turn off the machine and frantically grope around in the murky water in search of the tiny music machine. (The thinking, odd as it sounds, is that 15 minutes under water is less dangerous than 50. Let me point out: it is not.) I have no idea why my housemates find it near impossible to check their pockets pre-wash, but items
other than iPods have also frequently made their way into the drink. Pencils, loonies, golf tees, you name it. The only difference, though, is that these items have lived to see another day, while the iPods, sadly, have not.
But what's been painful for this household has been a boon to the iPod manufacturers. After all, my housemates are iPod addicts, and for every one that's perished, another one's been purchased. I hate to think what they have spent collectively, but I imagine it would be enough to purchase a second washing machine fitted with a big flashing neon sign that screams: Remember to check your pockets!!! As for me, well, I've been spared the iPod suffering, and not because I've always been on top of the pocket ritual.
I've never lost an iPod, since I've never happened to own one.
