What’s that old saying? “You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.” A few weeks ago I could have easily changed that to: “You don’t know what you’ve got until you go on vacation.”
Every year my wife and I take the kids to a cottage about an hour outside our home in Halifax. It’s a serene little place on a lake that doesn’t allow motorized vehicles. There’s also no television and no Internet connectivity, so it is the perfect place to relax.
As a frequent traveler I take my iPod everywhere I go. So, naturally when I packed my bag for the cottage. my iPod and necessary peripherals were some of the first items to come with me. There is nothing like sitting on the dock by the paddle boat first thing in the morning with a hot cup of coffee listening to Ozzy Osbourne—now that is relaxing.
When I checked in on my wife, she decided to pack up the JBL On Time that sits in kitchen, so we could all listen to music while we chatted at night. Good idea—that’s why she is the boss.
Soon after arriving at the cottage, I realized how important the iPod and its accessories are to my family. My son and daughter opened their backpacks and each had an iPod—my daughter brought her JBL Radial and my son brought his On Stage; my wife had her iPod and the On Time; and me, I just had an iPod.
The kitchen table looked like a clearinghouse of electronics peripherals. I realized a couple of things this point: My family really likes the iPod; we really like the JBL speaker products; and I’m a sucker for getting my kids so much stuff.
Besides the occasional volume war between my son and daughter (okay, and me too), having so many devices wasn’t that bad—it wasn’t needed, but it wasn’t that bad either.
It’s amazing how so much of this stuff just becomes part of your life when you’re at home. The iPod has just become a natural part of my family’s daily routine.