My iPad and Clock Radio

    I spend a good many hours listening to CBC radio.  When I paint I usually listen to it through the computer.  I really like the fact that if I don’t like what is on in my time zone I can go to an earlier time zone and listen to a different show.  I often use the same “time shifting” at night.  

    When it is time for bed, I usually do 40 minutes or so of reading, then I turn on the clock radio to “NAP”  This allows me to listen to the radio as I doze off, and after an hour the radio turns itself off.  On weekends, I don’t particularly like the shows that are on the radio when I go to bed so I use the CBC app and timer on my iPad, to listen to a show in the Newfoundland time zone as I fade into slumber land.

    If I wake up in the middle of the night, I often press the “Nap” so the radio will play for an hour then turn itself off.  I glued a round plastic plug on top of the “NAP” button so I could easily feel and identify it in the dark without turning the lights on.  You can see it in the photo above the “2”.  I smeared a glob white acrylic paint on the button to the right of it for identification in the dark.  That button turns the radio off.

    Last night I was listening to the iPad when I went to sleep.  I woke up in the middle of the night and heard CBC playing.  In my confusion I assumed since the power went off yesterday, it probably screwed up my clock radio settings which caused the radio to go on in the middle of the night.  I didn’t want to turn the light on, so I just reached over and felt the “Off” button on the clock radio.  I pressed it but nothing happened--CBC kept playing.  

    I figured I didn’t press the off button hard enough so I pressed it again, this time with more pressure.  Again CBC just continued to broadcast uninterrupted.  It was at this point that I realized that CBC was not coming from the clock radio, but the iPad.  I had forgotten to set the timer when I went to bed, so the iPad just kept playing throughout the night.

    Once I realized this, I reached over in the dark and grabbed my iPad and lifted the iPad cover off which caused the screen on the iPad to light up.  It was a bit of a bright shock for the eyes in the darkness of the room.  Then before I could turn CBC off on the iPad, I had to punch out my security code number.  I did this, then turned CBC off.

    All this activity woke me up a lot more than I wanted, but fortunately, I was able to go back to sleep without much effort.

    All this technology is nice to have, but in the confusion of being woken up in the middle of the night, it can be a chore for the half-asleep brain to figure out what is happening.

You can see my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca