I Cursed the Time

Looking like a straight-up idiot this morning biking down the road, cursing to myself.  I had been enjoying “Charles Mingus in Paris, the Complete America Session” in my room, working away, trying to cram Chinese vocabulary into my noggin.  Reading about just who is going to fare worse from Trump’s latest tariff escalation.  I got all my things, mounted my bike, popped this Airpods into my ears and seven or eight seconds later, Mingus distinctive thumping came to a stop.  I parked.  I fumbled.  I brought this smarter-than-thou Airpods within reach of each other.  They made their warm noise of recognition and I hit the arrow and restarted the music.  I needn’t tell you, but I will that seven or eight seconds later they gave out, once again.

I cursed.  I repeated the process.  I had music once again.  It kicked out again.  I’d like to say I calmly decided this was futile and got on my way, but that is not what happened.  Rather, I biked a while with the sound coming out of the phone itself.  Then, I tried to find a different body of music.  Perhaps the problem had to do with connectivity and this being a streaming piece of music I’d yet to download the data might be choking, mid throttle.  And I chose a different Mingus album that was already downloaded. Made it about thirty seconds or so, just long enough to think I’d solved the problem before they gave out again. 

And so, I cursed again.  A lot.  Out loud.  “Hey, John . . .”  You might ask, “were they fully charged?”  Fair question.  Yes.  They were.  I checked before I left.  I cursed Apple for forcing me to buy this Bluetooth, wireless headset that would have fundamental challenges one morning, three weeks after purchase.  I cursed the time I would need to spend researching just what this meant and trouble-shooting various solutions.  I cursed my reliance on this as I hadn’t any wired headsets to plug in on this bike ride, (there isn’t even an opening to receive them on this phone) and I cursed the fact that I couldn’t just enjoy a morning bike ride with no one else on the road without these pieces of technology working.

When I arrived at the school, I noodled around some more on my walk over.  It seemed like it was the same stupid problem Bluetooth headsets always have and I assumed they’d conquered with this heinously expensive iPhone X:  Bluetooth doesn’t have much range and it isn’t particularly reliable.  Put the phone in my pocket they begin to sputter.  Take the phone out it’s a bit better.  Nagging thoughts though, that it hadn’t been this way during my first three weeks of usage.  They work a bit better up in the gym.  But we ain’t out of the woods yet.  That’s clear.  On the ride home I put them in my pocket and talk to my mom old fashioned style with my cheek mushed over against my shoulder as I pedal along. 

Wednesday, 5/15/19