Last week, I accidentally mistook the digital camera’s USB cable for my Palm’s travel charger, and so now I have no way to charge my PDA. Both the cradle and the travel charger are packed in boxes, either still on the truck or in a storage warehouse somewhere. Either way, I won’t see them for weeks. This is unfortunate, as my Palm was low on battery before we left, and now refuses to turn on entirely.

It seemed like it should be simple enough to purchase a replacement charger, but it seems that stores no longer carry parts for the Palm V. I’ve visited a myriad of computer and electronics stores, but all I can find are power adapters for the “Palm Universal Connector” on the newer Palm models. A salesperson at Fry’s claimed that the Palm V-specific products were discontinued two months ago. I’m not sure if a Fry’s salesperson is a particularly reliable source, but they certainly didn’t have any in the aisles, and the Palm Store doesn’t list them either.

I’m guessing there are still some third-party chargers available from online stores, and I could probably get a real Palm V cradle on eBay, but at this point I’m not sure if it’s worth it. My Palm’s memory is almost certainly gone by this point, so I wouldn’t have any access to my contacts, schedules, games, etc… until the movers show up with my iMac (which has the HotSynced backup). So maybe I should just go handheld-less for the next few weeks. Or take this as an omen that it’s time for a brand-new Tungsten.