Can I do anything right?

Seriously.

This morning I go out for my long run. 4:30AM, I'm out there, ready to throw down 18 miles. Proud as hell of myself that I got up at this ungodly hour. Ready to run, no less. So I decide this is a perfect time to make an in-run recording. Now, the other day I go out and do something I think will be a smart move, and buy rechargeable AAA batteries for my recorder. Yeah, that's thinking, Rich. You are one smart cookie. Devilishly handsome too I might add, but that's not important right now. I pop one battery out of the charger, and I'm off. I record during my 1st lap of 6 miles. As I get close to home, where I'll be stopping quickly to replace my water bottle, I think to myself that I was very happy with I'd recorded. Very usable stuff, in my opinion. I'm stoked. I get home, pop in the new bottle, and decide to swap mic for headphones, so I can listen to SOME REAL PROS do a podcast. As I go to select a podcast, I realize that the "Low Battery" is flashing at me. WTF?!? I'd had that battery sitting in the charger for the last 2-3 days, to prepare for today. OMG, I'm pissed off.

So I now take off for Lap #2 in a very foul mood, and with nothing to listen to (iPod is in the foyer, and I didn't want to startle my wife & step-daughter at that hour by opening the door and having the dogs go crazy), and nothing to speak into. But during the lap, I manage to settle down, I finish the lap, and now I do run in quickly to grab my iPod, and listen to something during Lap #3. Run ends, I'm feeling great, but I'm wondering about my "recording". Unfortunately, I have a very busy day, barely have time to shower & change before we're out the door for the day. We get home at 6PM. I watch the end of the Notre Dame game (GO IRISH!). And now, I grab my computer, and recorder.

I pull up the recording I made, curious as to how much of it I actually did get down. I'm thinking I had to have gotten quite a bit. I'd settle for 30 minutes. What do I see? 4m 2sec. What?!? 4m 2sec?!? All that good podcast material I thought I'd laid down, and all I have the first 4 freakin' minutes of it?

I check the charger, make sure it was in an outlet that worked, that didn't cut power when you flip the light switch off. Check. Everything seemed fine. What happened? I have no idea. Are the batteries bad? No idea. I'm recharging them again now, and will test very, VERY THOROUGHLY before recording again. Otherwise, I guess I'll just be dropping coin on regular AAA batteries from now on. I'm getting very fed up with the delays I keep running into. Or am I causing them, because I'm just that stupid? A little of column A, a a little of column B, is my guess. But I'm tired of it. And really disappointed. I was so proud of what I thought I'd recorded.

I'm in complete meltdown mode right now. No sharp objects, no high ledges for me until.....Tuesday, I think.