A musical tale

If you’ve ever been to my house, you know that my stereo is located in my kitchen. Seems a little weird, yes, but I have my reasons. Namely that I like to listen to the radio or CDs while I cook and my kitchen is at the very back of the house with no TV hookups and placing the stereo in the living room would mean having to crank it up really loud in order to hear the music while cooking. . . .and possibly annoying my neighbor. But then he rehearses his original songs really loudly sometimes, but that really doesn’t bother me. I kind of enjoy it. Unless it’s really early on New Year’s Day when you want to sleep in a little—but you can’t because he’s suddenly been inspired and your friend who is moving that day calls you on the phone. Not that I have any experience with any of that. 🙂

Anyway, I have digressed substantially. The stereo is in my kitchen so that I can listen to music while cooking. Now, let’s learn something about said stereo. It’s a small shelf system I got in my sophomore year of college. Let that sink in. Sophomore year. 1998-1999. I like it because it’s so small and has decent sound. It’s not a multi-disc kind of CD player. It came along before stereos needed to have the ability to work with iPods or other MP3 players. And the CD player. . . yeah. . .it skips like CRAZY! I was listening to this CD set I picked up at Target not long ago (the essential Bob Dylan) and “Times They Are A-Changin'” got stuck in the first line. It would play a little, then go back to the beginning, then play a little more, then go back to the beginning. It’s annoying!

So, the question I have for you guys, my trusted readers and advisors, is what to do? This doesn’t appear to be something that goes away with cleaning, because I’ve tried that and the CD player still skips so much that you can’t listen to an entire song. I’ve thought about getting a new stereo, one with iPod capabilities that’s also compact and easy to use, but I haven’t come across one for a good price yet. I need advice. I need shopping tips. I need a stereo whose CD player doesn’t sound like a broken record!

HELP!