Chapter 66 - Kindle Technology

            Mel went to the airport yesterday to pick up a parcel that she had ordered through the internet.  It was for my birthday coming up at the end of the month.  She had only a little complication getting it, and I won’t go into that because I stayed at home with Gigi. I knew it was for my birthday, and when she got home the parcel was about the size of a book, which she knew that I would be delighted with.  The books that I gave away are the one thing that I miss the most of all my worldly goods.  I had been collecting for almost 70 years. 

             She was quite secretive when she got home, and went directly into her bedroom with the parcel.  Later in the evening I asked if she was going to share the info about the parcel.  It took her a little while to finally come out with a new electronic gadget, of which she is the expert.

            She said, “this is the newest in Kindle Technology”.  I had heard the word before, but actually knew nothing about them.  It is a small black unit about the size of a paper back book with the screen covering most of the size.  It has a little tiny alphabet pad at the bottom and a few other buttons on it.  It weighs less than a small paper back book.  It hooks up to the computer to charge it and it will hold 3500 books.  Can you believe a library like that?  She downloaded about 150 into her computer from Amazon at zero cost and if you can believe, one old Wilbur Smith called Cry Wolf that was the only one in his collection that I could never find.  This one cost just under $10 and all of this done by way of the internet.

            Once the kindle is charged, which supposedly takes four hours, it is good for a month of reading. 

            Most of the books at no charge are my special old history and very old author books, which are the ones I like to read. 

            I will be hard pressed to read all the books that she has put into the computer, but I am surely going to give it a college try.  I believe when our internet comes back on (yes it is off again) we will try to download the scriptures onto my Kindle.  She has them on her ipod and that is so much easier than packing those big books to church.

            The Kindle is a gift for my birthday, and yes for Melaney’s use as well.  I promised to get her a new calculator for her birthday, and we will begin looking for one next week.  I have to let her pick, because she knows just what she wants in a calculator.  She brought three from Kelowna in her baggage, but not one of them works.  They are all quite old, and the jostling probably didn’t work for them.  They have fresh batteries, so that isn’t the problem.  The old calculator that I used in 1980 when I was in Real Estate still operated at the time of our departure.  It had a special battery in it that was top line when I got it, and I never replaced it.

            I am so fortunate and we share such a lot of joy.