Where's my iPod, and why is the dryer making that clunking sound?

I'd had my silver iPod nano in an untoward pocket due to travel. When I got home & did laundry from the trip, I guess my iPod got thrown in with the clothes. Out of the dryer, it was dead. Clean as a whistle, but no brainstem function. Blank screen, no activity from the control pad. USB'd to the computer, nothin. What a drag, right? Oh well, won't kill me to take three unmediated steps now and then, I guess.

Mary kindly lent me her 'Pod, which hooks up to her laptop. I was able to current-up on some of my podcasts during the week.

A few nights after I'd laundered my expensive electronic device into afunctionality, I dreamed that I tried turning it on, and the screen flickered haltingly to life. When I woke up, I plugged the 'pod into the computer, and the Apple logo swam up on the screen. Faintly, but there it was. Nothing else was working, but there was a definite sign of life, there. I brought it to work to see if I could access it thru iTunes, but no dice.

Brought it back home. Now when I hooked it up, it launched the weird Linux music manager thing on my laptop, but it didn't see the 'pod or any of its files. The next morning, poking around at the buttons, it started playing Tom Waits, but only thru the tiny built-in speaker. The headphones weren't getting signal. The screen was just showing the Apple logo. Controls weren't there. I couldn't get it to change the tune or the volume, it wouldn't pause or stop, nothing. Just kept muttering tinnily about waitresses, dwarves and car trouble.

When I got home from work, it had run down. The screen now showed the "Please Connect to Power" graphic. I plugged it back in, and this morning, the screen showed the "Connected to Computer" graphic. I disconnected it, plugged in the earbuds, and turned it on. 

Good as new, people! I'm listening to it right now. Yup, Ira, this sure is one heckuva American Life. At least I think I'm listening to a fully revived Lazarus Machine. This could be another dream, though. We sleep with the radio on, so it could be that I'm asleep and hearing that and incorporating it into a hopeful narrative. Wouldn't that be just like me? Yeah, I could totally see me doing that.