Brandon's ITouch

This is a story about a boy and his ITouch. Brandon is 13. He and his sister take an hour long bus ride to school each day, and then an hour back home again. That's 5 days a week. 20 days a month. You get the picture. Now take into account that everything is very spread out here in Belgium, so just a basic errand could mean an hour or two in the vehicle as well. And we tend to travel a lot. In other words, he spends a lot of time listening to his ITouch. It would be safe to say that music is a very big part of his life. And videos. And apps. He does love his apps. Brandon got his ITouch a couple of years ago for Christmas, and I've never seen a happier kid. It goes everywhere with him. Grandma and Nana came to spend a few weeks with us this summer, so we've been driving all over the place and showing them the sights. Brandon's trusty ITouch has made each trip as well, safely tucked into the pocket of his jeans, and the little buds nestled into his ears. Until a couple of days ago. Due to the heavier than usual traveling schedule, I haven't been keeping up with the laundry as well as I usually do. The washer and dryer seldom stop during the few days here and there we are actually in residence. I haven't been as attentive to double checking each pocket before tossing items into the washing machine as usual, either. You see where this is going, don't you? Yes. It happened. I pulled a load of blue jeans out of the washing machine and noticed a thin, black cord wrapped around a piece of material. It looked familiar. I followed it to the rest of the headphones. There was nothing attached to the other end, but that did not make me feel any better. I knew what I would find. Sure enough, there was his ITouch. It was still tucked into the pocket of his jeans. And it was ruined. I was disgusted. Brandon was in denial. "It'll be OK, right?" he asked. "No. I'll do my best, but I think it's done." Devastation. Then I remembered reading something online about someone dropping their IPhone in a pool, fishing it out, and sticking it in a bag of rice. It was fine after that. I figured I'd give that a try. You have to understand that the ITouch went through an entire cycle in a front loading European washing machine. That means an hour and 48 minutes of tumbling back and forth while completely submerged in water. This was not just a dip in a pool. This was serious. I filled a zip lock bag with white instant rice, tucked the ITouch into it, and left it on the kitchen counter. It sat there for a little over a day. I tried to turn it on, and ... nothing. Then the hubby said that it might work if we charged it, so we did. And guess what... It actually turned on. It had a water mark on the center of the screen, but it worked! We were amazed! And thrilled! And amazed some more! This was about a week ago, and over the past few days, the water mark has slowly faded out and the ITouch appears to be pretty much perfect. All of the songs and videos are still on there. The only thing I had to replace were the ear buds, but that was it. Hopefully we all learned an important lesson from this near fiasco. We'll all be a little more careful with our expensive and precious property, for sure. ITouches are amazing! If an absent minded 13 year old boy (and his overworked Mom) can't destroy it, then no one can. Thanks Apple. You rock!