I'm just off a nine-day business trip. Four hotels, five flight legs, lots of packing and unpacking. And ouf course I took my BlackBerry 7520 with me.

But, 'shamed to say, I treated my BlackBerry and associated gear quite mean. As a result, I am going to have to go to the Nextel store tomorrow.

My purpose in telling this story is to counsel you against similar transgressions.

First, after I charged my BlackBerry in my Oakland, Calif. hotel room, I yanked the charger out of the socket a bit too quickly. This bent the plug to the point it wouldn't fit in the socket any more.

Using my hands, I was unable to fashion the plug back into its configuration. It was then that I found a knife on the previous night's room service tray. That did the trick.

But that was only a prelude to a bigger hassle. One I am dealing with now. G-r-r.

But then, when I got home, I noticed my BlackBerry would no longer take a charge.

I thought the problem might be the charger itself. So I used my spare charger, and even bought a third.

No go. Removed the battery reinserted, but still no life. OK, barely. One bar. And you do know how quickly one bar goes to noo bar, right? And when it is no bars, it is FUBAR.

This morning I had an ah-hah moment.

While the battery could be getting old and is no longer capable of sustaining a charge, my suspicions are that something else is up.

I think I either pulled the charger out of the USB port's pin area too hard, or inserted it too forcefully.

As a result, there could be a pin misalignment that is preventing the charger from connecting to my BlackBerry.

I'm just not all that dainty with devices and connections. Not a core competency.

Tomorrow, I'll pay the piper.

at least, the Nextel store.