My family

Family Stories Vlog

NO KINDLE APOLOGIES

19 Dec 2016

I don't remember when I got my Kindle, but long enough ago that it was before all the fancy ones. I am still using my first Kindle.  I have read a lot of books on the Kindle and often feel apologetic, especially when people like my friends, used book owners in Hayward, look down their nose because I was essentially robbing them of a potential sale.

I almost never read on my Kindle at Logos because I feel it's "cheating" somehow to sit in a store, surrounded by books, while reading on an electronic reader. (To say nothing of the bad example that it gives.)

But the older I get (I will be 74 in February), the less guilty I feel about reading on my Kindle.  Why?  Because my eyesight is slowly deteriorating (again) and many of the books I decide to read while I'm working at Logos have print so small I can't read them...but if I have them on the Kindle, I can make the print size larger.

"My friend" at Logos the other day was talking about "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court."  We talked about Mark Twain in general and I mentioned that I went through a period of reading Twain, but had not read Ct. Yankee...but had seen the movie.  After he left, I thought I'd get the book he had taken off the shelf and start reading it.  But the print was so tiny I would have needed a magnifying glass to read it.  So I found that there was a free Kindle version on Amazon and I ordered that, where I can read a the most comfortable print size for my eyes.

Now, the logical response to all of this is to tell me to get new glasses.  I get my eyes examined once a year, in February.  Last February was right after my cataract surgery and I got new glasses.  In fact, long time readers of this journal may remember that by the time they added in the discount I got for being post-op, the sale they were having, and a couple of other discounts I was eligible for, the glasses ended up costing me nothing.

And initially the glasses were great, but I have noticed a big deterioration in my eyesight over the last six months.  I've had to increase the font size on the computer screen to read comfortably and I almost never read the newspaper because of the print size, unless I read something on line.

But I now longer feel apologetic about reading a good book on my Kindle...it's often the only way I can read that book.

My new phone came with a few (very few) instructions, starting with this important message;

And when  I turned it over, saw this:

That's literally how it looks to my eyes. and slightly larger then the real thing.  Fortunately when I scanned this, I could enlarge it enough to read and discovered that most info was unimportant, but I never knew that cell phones held too close to the chest of someone with a pace maker or other implantable device could cause problems.  Phone should be held at least 6" from the person with the pace maker.   But if I didn't have a scanner, there is NO WAY I could have read that.

So I ordered "iPhone 7 for Dummies" for the Kindle and am slowly bonding with my new phone, but my word is it intimidating.  I won't use 1/10th of its capabilities, I suspect!  But I'm anxious to try face timing to see how much better it is with this amazing camera.

Why I'll never make a chef.  I was making this simple crock pot meal for dinner tonight:

3 to 4 pounds chicken parts
1 (6-ounce) box Lemon Jello powder
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon prepared Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon dried minced onion flakes (or one tiny onion, finely diced)

The Directions.

Use a 4 to 6 quart slow cooker. I used a 4-quart for this one, and didn't brown the legs beforehand.  If you prefer more of a brown color, or more texture, go ahead and brown beforehand.
My chicken was frozen solid, too. If you have thawed chicken, shave about 90 minutes off of the cooking time.
Place the chicken into your slow cooker. In a small mixing bowl, combine the jello powder, melted butter, dijon mustard, and onion flakes. Stir together to make a paste. This isn't liquidy at all--- it's sort of a combo between paste and playdough. Smear this onto your chicken the best you can.
Cover, and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. I cooked our chicken on low for exactly 7 hours, then kept it on the warm setting for another 2 hours.

I got the chicken in the pot, mixed the mustard, butter, and onion together and coated the chicken, started the crock pot going ... and then realized I'd left the Jello on the counter.  Had to scrape all the mustard mix off the chicken and mix it in with the Jello.  I suspect it won't make a difference in the taste, but I felt pretty stupid.