It was the eighth night of Hannukah and I got to experience a miracle. I am Jewish and my wife and I celebrate Christmas also. I had not lit any candles or said the prayer in front of the menorah until that night. With a lot of help from my wife, who is my tech support, and a bit from Adam Sandler and Ray Charles, this was a special night for me.
This is a different kind of Hannukah story and it involves a 63 year-old man, who was once called by a boss to be, "A technically deficient superstar." The words, "Technically deficient" are an understatement, and my wife and three children will gladly testify to this.
My story begins about ten years ago when my youngest daughter gave me her old iPod. My two daughters put about 500 songs on it over the years for me and I drove thousands of miles with my iPod playing and me doing a good amount of singing. Let's say fair amount, good is probably the wrong word to use about my singing.
But, in March, 2022, that all ended. I bought a new car, a newer model, Ford Transit Passenger Van. It was great, except there was no outlet for an iPod. My iPod, the chord, the charger, all sat in my wife's car for awhile and then in a drawer in my house. I missed my songs, an unusual mixture of The Beatles, country music, rock, sixties, seventies, ballads, Christmas music, Disney songs and show tunes.
Frequently, I asked my children and my wife, how can I still listen to my songs? I was told I could copy them and listen to them on iTunes or Spotify. But to a technically deficient guy, that sounds as easy as building an igloo. I just wanted to listen to my iPod.
Twenty months later, in November, 2023, I threw the iPod, chord, and charger into a suitcase and took them to Colorado to plead once more with one of my technically superior children. She gave me specific details on what to do when I got home. My wife had made a valiant attempt a few months earlier to revive my iPod, but she failed. Now, on the eighth night of Hannukah, I gave it one final shot and I came up empty also.
My wife decided to make another attempt that night, but it wasn't working on my computer. My wife said to me, "Why don't you use headphones?" I said, "Ok, how does it work?" Yes, it's sad, but I have never used headphones for anything. It took another fifteen minutes of trying a couple headphones my wife had, and she charged the headphones and turned the volume up on my iPod.
It was a Hannukah miracle. After twenty-one months, my iPod came alive. The below picture is the only time in my life anyone has seen me with headphones on. I think John Lennon was singing, "Yeah" in "Twist in Shout," or maybe it was, "Oh What A Beautiful Morning" from "Oklahoma." It did not matter, my iPod had returned from the dead and I was beyond thrilled.
But this ridiculous, true story has an even more bizarre ending. I was going to put the headphones on, but my wife turned the volume up all the way. I could hear the music through the headphones while they sat on my desk. Isn't this the way it's supposed to work? I sat down in front of my computer and started writing this story while I listened to my iPod through the headphones on my desk.
The third song I heard was Adam Sandler singing the Hannukah song. Three songs later it was Ray Charles singing, "America The Beautiful," and I knew this was meant to be. After listening to my music for a couple hours, I ended the night and recited the Hannukah prayer, without the candles. What a great Hannukah gift from my wife-thank you princess!
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