As the subject makes clear, this post will kind of be all over the place. But first, I’ve created a Tip Page for the blog if you can help me to maintain the high costs mentioned in the previous post. So far, I’ve only included My PayPal account, but more services are forthcoming as soon as I figure out how to add them. I accidentally put the link as vlindtravel instead of blidtravel when I created it and haven’t figured out how to fix it, ah well.

Anyhow, a few interesting things have happened in the interim. Life depending solely on the NLS eReader display has been surprisingly smooth, as this device is proving quite functional. It crashes some, but then so did the Mantis that I’m pondering whether to pay for. It seems to be holding up to my heavy use well, and the battery life can’t be beat. I’m averaging nearly a day and a half of continuous use before needing to recharge. Even the 20 cell size as opposed to 40 cells isn’t that bad. I’m actually reading more books at a higher speed than usual.

And speaking of reading (or listening to? Some argue about that) books, I finally found an audiobook I could check out from Libby. If you haven’t heard of Libby, it’s an app that allows you to check out audio and text books from your public library, using a freely available library card. If you download the app, it walks you through the sign-up process. You only get 14 days to read the book though, so longer ones are more iffy.

What I really wanted to note about that is how accessible the audiobook player is. It makes it very easy to see how much time remains in chapter or the book itself, in a way that neither Audible or NLS BARD quite match. It’s nice to see a mainstream product with that kind of good implementation.

And that gets me to thinking about a company I keep hoping will get its implementation better than it currently is, Amtrak. I booked a recent trip in the app, and, well… First, once I selected my destination and went to the screen where I’m to note my assistance needs, VoiceOver would say nothing. I tried this a couple times without success, then had the thought to turn VoiceOver off and tap the bottom right corner of the screen to advance. This worked, but only because my assistance information had already been saved from previous transactions. It is still obviously a big accessibility problem, and yes I know it needs to be reported to them. I will do that.

Once I got on the train, it took us 30 minutes to even leave the station at which I boarded, Then we stopped at the next station for an interminable hour and a half because a bridge needed inspection. I understand that sometimes these things can’t be helped, but it was annoying. And both my outbound and inbound trains were Thanksgiving-level packed, I suppose as folks avoid chaotic airtravel. The good news about the delay is Amtrak is supposedly sending me a voucher to make up for the inconvenience.

So that’s some of what’s been going on in my neck of the woods. I’m so glad spring has sprung and am looking forward to increased sun and warmth! More next time.