Day 45, May 7, 2020 - lots of ZOOM!

Had a nice run this morning along Plumas street.  There is plenty of room for me, the bikes, the moving cars and the parked automobiles.  What a beautiful day in Reno!

Here is my popcorn ball tree in the backyard.

I'm waiting now for a couple of Zoom meetings.  One with my college friends who will be logging on at 2 pm their time while it is still morning for me.  The other is at noon our time with a few ladies who are in a virtual book club.  We don't all read the same book, we just talk about what we can remember of the books that we have read since the last time we met.  I swear that while I am reading the books it is clear as a bell but about a week after I have finished, I am already forgetting what the thing was about. 

While I was working out in the basement this morning as it happens, I was laying right next to the paper shredder and noticed this information on its top. 

At first I thought it was an insult to my intelligence but really, it is a reminder to everyone and it is in a universal language.  Can you figure out what it is trying to tell you?

I got out of the house today and am trying to make some arrangements to ship kids books to Uganda.  One of my online running buddies says that since they have been on lockdown, the kids are suffering with no educational materials.  I went to the post office and, as usual, the employee there was little help.  But she did tell me that we could not use the USPS to ship to Uganda right now.  So, I am at a stalemate.  

But wait!  one of the other friends of this fella indicated in FB that she wanted to help.  So I sent her a message and asked her to be my friend.  She lives in New Jersey and she has a contact that normally ships to that area of Africa so I am hoping she can either turn me onto that contact or I can ship the books to her and she can package them up and include them.  The power of social media.  I'll keep you all posted on the outcome of this.  

I got a text last night from one of the ladies that I approached about playing pickleball.  They invited me to play tomorrow (Friday) at 4 pm.  Should be a scorcher but I am anxious to get on the court and practice.

News flash, the Gold Hill Hotel and Restaurant in Virginia City, NV has begun to take the money that has been pinned to their ceiling off so that they can survive.  The lack of tourism up there has left them in dire straits too.

Here's some good books that I learned about in my book meeting:

Lost Vintage by Ann Mah

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (I have read it and this is a good one)

Becoming, Michelle O'Bama

The Murmur of Bees (didn't get the author)

Book Woman's Last Fling by John Dunning

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides (my suggestion and really good)

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (my suggestion and really good)

By the way, under the subject "did you know?" here is something that I learned.  Not exactly sure of its veracity but I have run into the inability to purchase an ebook when I try to do so on my cell phone (Iphone).  I have tried through the kindle app and through the amazon store app but they both say that I can't buy the book through this app.

This, apparently,  is because Apple wanted to charge Amazon a fee per book.  Amazon apparently said no-no.  Like I said, this is the only solution that makes sense to me but you go ahead and try it yourself (if you have an Iphone).  I bet you get this message -- This app does not support purchasing .....If you have a droid I am pretty sure there is no problem.  

So since I have an Iphone, I have to purchase my kindle books directly through my kindle.  They still show up on my kindle app on the Iphone but I just can't purchase them there.

Oh, I got this information from google.

Business.

enough for now