David, are you following me? File
Last night's other big winner. STEPHEN HOLMAN/Tulsa World
Two big things happened last night.
Dewey Bartlett Jr. was elected the next mayor of Tulsa.
More about that later.
Second, my iPod Shuffle arrived via Federal Express.
While I should have been staring at my computer screen constantly updating the screen to read the latest election results and switching madly back and forth from 6 to 8 for their counts, I was, instead, staring into the computer screen trying to figure out how to sync my new toy.
I went to bed frustrated because I couldn't figure it out. I thought about putting out a press release announcing that the coolness of iPods was safe because Greene couldn't figure out how to use one.
This morning I got up for what was supposed to be my first run with the new iPod. I put it on anyway, just in case, and sure enough, it worked.
The iPod fairy apparently had come down overnight at fixed whatever was wrong with it (an uncharged battery, I suspect) so I was off and running with my tiny little companion.
News alert: iPods are officially no longer cool. A gray-headed 46-year-old fat man in Tulsa, Okla., was seen running with one and humming opera as he went.
Well, actually Apple stock might be safe for a while, because as it turned out I hadn't really mastered the pod.
I had made it less than a mile when I realized that my little friend only had managed to capture three songs of the dozen I had bought the night before. Actually only one that I bought – the climactic scene from Roberto Devereux – and two tunes that seem to have come pre-loaded: about 1 minute and 7 seconds of the scherzo of Beethoven's 9th played by some nonunion orchestra in Seattle and a snap shot of one of the dullest jazz songs I've ever heard.
So, for the 45-minutes of my run, I heard Queen Elizabeth in deep dungeon five times, and enough of the second movement to begin to suspect that Huntley and Brinkley were running just behind me.
The first two times through the aria were great. The third time was a little be repetitive.
The fourth time I realized that I was not just a metaphor for the way contemporary man's obsession with technological toys and other gee gaws has disconnected him from civic life I was, in fact, the perfect crystallization of that trend. It was me.
But the fifth time was good again.
Later this morning, walking to work, I was again hooked up to my electronic pal, still listening to the same three tracks, still fascinated with it, when I saw Mayor-elect Bartlett standing in the parking lot of Boston Avenue United Methodist Church waiting for a live interview on Fox 23.
I pulled the earphones from my head and walked over to shake his hand and congratulate him.
He was friendly and excited to go to work for the city.
After the usual pleasantries I hooked back in and walked on up Boston Avenue.
The third time through the Beethoven I thought I heard someone cough in the background.
By the way, does anyone know how to resync this crazy thing?
