by Deb Cook Lewis
I am not much for getting or giving gifts. Of course I like to do both, but it’s often hard to know what to give, and my family was never really big on gifting. So my expectations are low in both departments. But at Christmas in 2014, my husband gave me a gift that I have appreciated until now, but will soon have to say good-bye.
He’s not much more adept than I am when it comes to gifts, so it was quite a surprise when he came trotting in from his trip to the Apple Store and presented me with the latest iPad Mini in a beautiful engraved leather case. I had never had an iPad and thoroughly enjoyed surfing the net with it and playing music.
Not too exciting so far, but we’re coming to it. So the iPad continued to surf the net and play music until Apple decided to drop support for it, which was in about 2019. I was reluctant to surf the web with a device that was no longer getting security updates, but didn’t want to sideline the only major gift I’d ever received from my husband.
I decided that my iPad should become a chiming clock. I purchased a chiming clock app for $1.99 and placed the iPad on a high shelf in our dining room. Our house has high ceilings, and on the top shelf the iPad sounded absolutely amazing. As long as the iPad stayed on the Wi-Fi network, all would be well. But without Wi-Fi, it keeps very bad time and gets ahead of itself in just a couple of days.
Well, the inevitable happened this past week or so. Apple decided that my lovely 2014 iPad should not remain in the Apple ecosystem, and I think my Internet provider decided it didn’t deserve to be on the Wi-Fi any longer. The clock is drifting further and further off time, with no way to nudge it back into compliance.
The reason I’m sharing this story is because many of you are totally familiar with my iPad clock. No matter how much filtering I apply in Zoom, it persistently comes chiming through in every meeting I attend. It is often declared that it is time to start the meeting because Deb’s clock has started to chime. So when I finally take it off the shelf, I think many besides me will miss it.
I do have three other devices with qualifying clock apps that are currently auditioning for the job, but I don’t think any will replace the old iPad with its marvelous acoustics against the high ceiling in our dining room.
So chime on a few more days, dear old iPad, and when I can’t deal with your being further and further off time, I’ll take you down and reset you for recycling. But it will indeed be a sad day at the Lewis house.