Alas, Poor Howard

Boy Scouts Day
Laugh and Get Rich Day
Leadership Success Day
Birthday - James Dean (actor)
Birthday - Jules Verne (writer)
Extraterrestrial Culture Day (New Mexico) (Amelia sez: That is my kind of day!)
Culture Day (Slovenia)
Needle Mass (Ha-ri-ku-yo - Japan)

 

Amelia’s iPod, Howard II, has finally expired at the ripe old age of two years.  

 

Howard was a good iPod, lasting twice as long as his predecessor, Howard I. He was a versatile machine, playing everything from heavy metal to Disney songs, although he particularly enjoyed Christmas music, especially when put on shuffle on a hot day in August.  Howard never let his outdatedness get in his way: though his kind had already been retired when he was sent to Amelia, he faithfully played all her music. He even insisted he was all right when he began to have periodic fainting spells. Despite these hardships, he still enjoyed an active life as the provider of a college kid's life soundtrack.

 

In November of 2006, Howard’s persistent health problems took a turn for the worse, when he suffered a stroke that gradually paralyzed his entire touch wheel. He was sent in to Apple in early December to be fixed, and spent ten weeks in intensive care.  But his discharge from the repair shop was short-lived, as the very day he returned to Amelia it was discovered that Howard was, in fact, brain dead.  His presence will be missed.

 

Howard II is survived by a 20 gigabyte music library (now residing on the Bhelliom, Amelia’s laptop), a pair of Radio Shack headphones, a USB cord, a blue iSkin whose usefulness expired with the loss of the last of the 40-gig iPods, and Amelia.

 

He will be sent to his final resting place tomorrow. Services were held promptly after his expiration, with Amelia saying a few choice words to mark his passing, none of which are publishable.

 

Farewell, Howard II.