After some experimentation, I managed to restore my iPod's battery life. I've created an iPod - restore and maximize battery life how-to to help others who may have similar iPod battery life issues. I don't believe that my way of doing this is anything unique -- if you do a search on the web, you will find info that indicates that others have reached the same conclusions as I have. My how-to is based on the use of the iPod Updater from Apple, and a method to keep the iPod hard disk free from fragmentation.
I also wanted to make this easy for all levels of users, so I used a lot of screen shots and detailed instructions. Please let me know if anything is not easy to follow.

