This Is Probably Not A Good Idea

We are a family that likes music. I have music on in the car all the time -- kid friendly when they're in the car, I swear. I make up songs for the wee ones. They sing all the time.

They love books, too. And there are times when I can't read to them because I'm otherwise occupied. But some brilliant people have invented books on CD for small children, and the wee ones love them (except for Biscuit, which has been a horrible disappointment -- even at 1, Mister Man had no interest in that "story).

Sooooo we bought Mister Man a CD player.


Yes, that's a stray quarter sitting next to it and the baby monitor hiding behind it. Mister Man likes to keep his money where he can see it instead of in his piggy bank.

We discovered early on that the CD player eats batteries. We invested in an A/C adaptor that did not come as a standard feature, boo CD player maker. Had I been the one in charge of this, we would have ordered it online from the cheapest reliable source. I was 9 months pregnant at the time, so my husband ran out to Radio Shack that night and paid three times what he probably had to.

All was well in the land of music.

At least until someone (I still blame my husband for this one, although it could have been Mister Man) locked a cat in Mister Man's bedroom for several hours. The bored cat chewed a hole in the cord.

My husband's immediate reaction was to run to Radio Shack to buy a new one. I put the kibosh on that one as I was no longer pregnant and feeble. Fortunately, being a schoolteacher means you sometimes have connections. My husband took the A/C adaptor to school with him, and the engineers in the building fixed it for him. Good as new.


Am I the only one not feeling too good about hte maintenance of the schools in my area now? Really? Electrical tape is the solution for this? I was expecting something a little less ... me and a little more professional.

The good news is that the electrical tape has worked for the last two or so years. Mostly anyway.

A year ago, I brought the CD player into the kitchen to play music while we ate breakfast. I noticed that after about fifteen minutes, I could smell burning plastic, although I never determined where the smell was coming from. I didn't stop using it though.

The CD player also stopped ummm operating normally. When you hit play after putting in a CD, the motor can't spin fast enough for the laser to read the CD. In order to get it going fast enough (once it gets going, it's fine), you have to open the door, manually spin the CD, shut the door quickly and press play. I've perfected this art form. That's probably a sign that the CD player is near the end of its natural life. I didn't stop using it though.

Every once in awhile, I start to think about it, generally when I'm in Mister Man's room to call the wee ones to lunch when they've been listening to CDs for awhile. The burning smell remains, and I think about how stupid I'd feel if the house were set afire because I was using a malfunctioning CD player.

I told myself last year that Mister Man was getting a new CD player for his birthday, but he had so many presents from so many people that I didn't buy him anything. This year, he's getting a new one regardless! It's only two months away, right?