The old man and the iPod!

No it's a take off on Hemingway's "The old man and the sea". Naw no, but a damn catchy title for a blog today.
My wife has decided not to "lovingly bitch" about my drinking,eating fried foods,avoiding "veggies" at all costs, and not exercising at all, nevermind regularly, and my rock solid belief that there are vitamins and minerals, and healthy non-perscription herbs and that for everything that ails you, or threatens too. Yup,..she's come to the conclusion that my shameful personal quest to wear my body out like a car that never gets a tune up or an oil change is definately going to make her survive me, (then she can sell all my toys, buy treadmills and exercycles, and live on.)
But anyhow to thank her for her decision I decided to get her a treat. She does a lot of walking and bicycling for exercise and has appropriated the MP3 (What the hell does "MP3" mean anyhow?)she bought me last Christmas. But recently it's been getting the better of her. That's why I didn't mind her taking it. It had directions for use that would definately break your back to lift!
So being the great husband and good dubbie that I am I decided to see if I could get her an iPod off of e-bay. "They got a million of 'em!" So it's back to the drawing board and see which one is best and what they do. After an exhausting bunch of research I determined that any of them would suit our purposes so I began shopping price and condition.
Long story short I bid and won a "refurbished" i-Pod 4gig Nano,...white. Being a real sport I also got her a "docking unit" with a recharger built in as well. (Nothings to good for my woman!) Well it showed up a few days later and it was smaller than I thought, and as I read the literature and looked at the lack of buttons and all the "touch sensitive" controls I was impressed. So last Saturday I set about putting it all together for her and downloading some of the chior music she's learning for this Christmas (God is it that close to Christmas already?). Being the non-techno, 63 year old klutz that I am, with the patience of one of Michael Vicks more agressive pit bulls, I set aside four hours to figure it out.
Guess what? 30 minutes later it was up, working like a charm and so easy to learn, operate, load and arrange stuff I really WAS impressed. Gave it to the wife, and she's been happy as a clam with it since.
She gave me back my old MP3 player, I made an attempt to make it work, then made an impulsive decision. (It's the only kind I ever make,...the impulsive kind!) I went back on e-bay, found another one and put a significantly lower bid on it. Within minutes I get the stupid, "You have been out bid!" e-mail, so there are two days left and I set up my tracking reminders, and guess what, the bid does not go any higher. "Ah Ha! It must be the seller jacking the bid up." says I. So I start playiing games with him, you know, bump it the minimum possible, and see if he responds, if he does I take a higher bump, maybe a twenty percent bump. (remember I said I started this thing at a really low bid)and I watch the amount of time before the bump backs and a few other factors. Then I just flat quit bidding! It leaves the seller with the high bid and scratching thier head, "Where'd he go?" Then I lay in ambush for the two minute mark. That's two minutes before the auction ends, I put in a bid to see what he's got for a top limit on his bid, then wait until there are 30 seconds left and then if I really want the item I drop a bid in with ten seconds left with a much higher max bid limit. For example let's say his bid is $30 and by playing with him I learn he covers his bid at about five dollars more, ergo $35 high bid, I'll test him a couple of times and we wind up at $40-$55, then I quit and wait. At the two minute mark the bid has not changed so I pop a bid in for $57.50, get the "outbid" and come back at $61 and am now highbidder. Strategy working, he is on a $5 over max limit so he'll come back at say $65 to keep me interestedand I'll sit and do nothing. At ten seconds left I'll put in a bid for $70.01 with a max bid of $80.01.
With time constraints he has to either gamble on where my "top bid" is, or stick to his original strategy of $5 over to keep me on the hook. By the time he gets the $75 bid into the auction the timer ends and he gets an "out buid and auction over with me winning at $70.01!
Long story short I bought another iPod 4gig Nano for myself. I've been playing with it and loading my classical music and 60's stuff as well as a ton of new age,....and the best thing is that I'm comfortable with it!

The old fart triumphs over technology again!!!!
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