TX Addiction

Hello everyone! I am more of a newcomer to the wonderful site here and it's ironic that I chose to try my hand at contributing now. Today I would like to talk to you about withdrawal. The kind of withdrawal that is happening to me right now. My Palm TX just died on me. Completely dead. I tried all the typical things like resets, resets while connected to a charger or cable… letting it charge overnight… nothing. It's done. Now, my post is not about what I'm doing to take care of this problem, but rather, how I felt upon realizing my Palm was toast. I panicked. Just a little, but I still panicked. I started to wonder, how will I get my email, my RSS feeds, what do I do when I need something to do while standing in line or waiting in a waiting room? What will I use at the gym to listen to and keep track of reps and weights? What will I do before I fall asleep and am lying in bed, waiting for sleep to take me? And by god did I suddenly have an intense craving to play Bejeweled!

Now I do realize that I have a computer. I can get most or all of those things at my desktop with no problem. And to be sure, none of this is truly an emergency, but it is darned inconvenient! I've come to realize I have structured my life for the past 8 years around having some measure of mobile computing. Yes, I can read my feeds and email at my computer, but it does take time. Time that can be best used on other things. If I am standing in line somewhere, why not check my email? Why not read an article or two off of Resco Neews? It passes the time while I wait, and I learn something new instead of reading about "Brad and Angelina's New Baby! Pics inside!" I mean, heck, it takes me time to fall asleep. Why lie there in silence or watch TV when I could listen to podcasts and play a game of Sudoku or Text Twist until I get tired enough to sleep?

I realized quite suddenly that I won't be able to do any of that for at least a few days. Possibly a week! When my wife and I talked about getting a replacement, she asked what I use it for. I wanted to reply "EVERYTHING!" And of course, to me, I do use it for everything. It's a storage place for my emails, my contacts, calendar, notes, and entertainment (arguably the biggest part). She felt it was more of a luxury. And of course, it is.

I'm not a high powered exec who needs to be connected all the time. I don't need to use it for taking notes during meetings for selling and buying stock. I do need it for when I forget what to buy at the grocery store and remind myself to pick it up. Or I do need it for when I do grades at my school and need to enter them into the school's gradebook system. Again, I could do without the device in these cases as well because it IS indeed, a luxury. But still… I NEED one! No no no, I WANT one is more accurate.

So now I await the arrival of a reconditioned TX. I feel out of sorts today as I had to setup Google Reader to get the RSS feeds I would normally read with Resco Neews. I borrowed my wife's old iPod to use for my podcasts (and boy I miss Pockettunes already!). It's been a very strange day thus far being Palm-less and I'm not looking forward to the days ahead until my device arrives. It wasn't until I was faced with the prospect of NO device, that I realized, I'm addicted. A true Palm addict, as it were. Are you guys with me? Do you really NEED your device? OR like me, do you just really, really, WANT it?