Because I’m old and cranky

February 19, 2020 by Ken Leinart

So.

I was needing something like four AAA batteries.

I had a drawer full of AA batteries.

Life is like that.

“Why do you have anything that needs batteries?” I was asked when I went to the store to buy my much-needed AAA energy sources.

“It’s for my remote,” I said. “For my compact disc (CD) player.”

“You have a CD player? Wow! Where did you find that?” I was asked.

See, this is why I want to become a hermit. I don’t want to answer all of these personal questions about my music listening habits.

Plus, I’m old and cranky.

And, of course, it was a younger person — a person who probably has all of his music needs stored on his fancy phone and has blue teeth and can listen to anything any time he wants — who wanted to know about my apparent archaic habits.

“I also have a turntable,” I pointed out.

And I do.

And then it all gets complicated.

I am asked why I have a turntable when I have a CD player.

And vice-versa.

I buy CDs because I can listen to them in a vehicle. For some reason a turntable doesn’t work so well.

I buy vinyl albums because — to me — they capture the sound better.

I listen to both.

Not at the same time — that would be kinda strange — and it depends on what I want to listen to as to what I want to listen to it on.

“Why don’t you download music to your phone?” I am asked more often that I want to be asked.

Duh, because it’s a phone.

See, old and cranky.

I do have an MP3 player, which is good for downloading music, too, so that I may enjoy my tunage when I walk and go to the gym and such.

I can also plug in my MP3 player when I am cleaning house; or when I want to listen to a song really, really loud and someone else wants to watch television.

I’m considerate like that.

Old and cranky, yes, but still considerate.

“You must be the last person on Earth buying CDs,” a friend told me once.

That’s fine by me.

That means my CD supplier won’t run out before I can make my purchases.

I’m a little miffed by the price of vinyl these days — new vinyl that is.

You can still pick up some really good old vinyl at record stores and whatnot for five bucks.

I bought an old Bachman Turner Overdrive album for five bucks about two weeks ago.

I can’t play it on my smartphone.

No wonder I’m old and cranky.

Of course, all of my vinyl was bought back “in the day,” when they were something like $3.99 a record.

I bought Steve Miller Band’s “Fly Like An Eagle” for something like four bucks when it first came out.

I bought the CD a couple of weeks ago for $15.

It’s worth it. To me. I can listen to it while I drive from Point A to Point B now.

I didn’t, however, buy AAA batteries a couple of weeks ago.

I should have.

“You know, batteries hurt the environment,” my young checker-out-type fellow said.

“They’re really, really, really bad.”

I guess when you include an extra “really” or two it’s supposed to make you forgo purchasing batteries for your compact disc player remote.

“Do you know what’s even worse?” I asked. “Messing with old, cranky people.”

Not that I want to hurt the environment. I take my battery purchasing seriously and I recycle those puppies.

I didn’t point that out to the young man who probably listens to boy bands on his iPhone.

I bet he doesn’t even know who Steve Miller is.

Vinyl or CD version.