I walk to my side of the bed and sit for a moment, looking over into the hallway where Ciena and Lola (our golden retriever and labrador/demon mix) finally lay peacefully in their respective cots. Ciena exhales softly and I hear her yawn, no doubt worn out after an equally long day of cat-chasing and foiled escape attempts from the backyard.

From across the hall, I hear the faint chirping of a calendar alert coming from the computer in my office; a reminder about something happening in the next 12 hours. I try to recall what that might be, but for the moment it escapes me. Instead, I go through my mental checklist… back door: locked; aquarium lights: off; dogs: fed; alarm: set; what was I forgetting? Oh yeah, bedroom curtains: open.

It was at that moment that I realized that there was a quiet kind of satisfaction to this routine. A sort of ‘reset’ that I went through every night, where things were put back into place, alarms were figuratively re-wound, and all was returned to its original position… ready for a new day.

As I lay down and pull the covers over me, I smile; musing over how such little things can be translated subconsciously into that sense of accomplishment. I reach over, snap off the light that sits on the nightstand next to me, gently kissed my wife goodnight and doze off to the not-so-gentle sounds of Lola’s canine, yet surprisingly ’40-year-old-and-overweight-man-like’ snoring…  ready, just like all those little things I had just ‘reset’, for a new day.

- the paw.

Most gadgets I own, were purchased for a specific purpose… A music player, an extra monitor, a wireless keyboard, a phone; all of these serve very specific life and work purposes: listening to music, being more productive, portability, talking.

The iPad however, really never had ANY specific purpose for me… I just bought it because it looked cool, I’ll admit it! it’s what happened after I started using it that was pretty cool for me; I’ve started reading books again, catching up on actual news, drawing, browsing magazines I had long ago forgotten how much I loved, writing this very blog post!

What I quickly realized is that even though I did not have a specific need in mind when I first purchased the odd little gadget, it didn’t mean there had to be one. The truth is that the iPad does not meet any real need for me… What it does is give me an excuse and an easy way to get back to things I like or LIKED to do, but simply forgot about.

People tend to get so caught up on what a device can’t do, sometimes they tend to overlook the things it CAN do… in my case being something huge; personal enjoyment.

For that alone, I can sleep very restfully at night, knowing that not only is buyer’s remorse nowhere in sight, but also that in the morning, I’ll be waking up to a nice, hot cup of coffee, and my morning news and tweets displayed beautifully on a 9.7″ screen, resting comfortably on my lap… yup, just like in the commercial.