BabyCAP,
Thanks for the tips...I suspected the ear buds did not reduce ambient noise much.
The full ear phone idea was simply because I had a pair in my ol' '76 Trans Am, lol!

I don't need a gillion gigs, and I think the 2Gig Shuffle, et al can hold a large number of tunes...and, we are taking a batch of CDs.

I may have to waddle down to the local Worst Buy and check them out. I suppose 'working the buttons' is like anything else: one gets use to it.
Thanks, mD