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Inexpensive Waterproof Kindle E-Reader

I submitted a review of this on the waterproofing website but alas I was too wordy. I had to shorten my review down to below 1,000 characters but feel like it’s missing some important information so I’m posting the full review here. The review is for a Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 3, waterproofed by WaterFi. As of this writing, they have refurbished ones for $100 (wifi) or $130 (wifi/3G) with free shipping (http://waterfi.com/refurbished-waterproof-kindle). You could almost buy three of them for the price of the new Amazon Kindle Oasis, which is admittedly a superior device but too pricey for some of us.

Review:

I’ve been keeping an eye out for the refurbished Kindles to come back in stock and finally was able to buy one. I had some problems with ordering but support was quick to respond to my email with help and told me a new batch was just about to hit the online store. I ordered Monday and had it in my hands on the other side of the US by Thursday.

I was looking for an e-reader to use in the pool and at the beach. I use almost all the popular ebook stores but my library leans heavily on Amazon. I also prefer their Kindle reader apps and think they keep reading position synced better than any of the others. I’ve only had it for a few days but I’m not worried about the shorter warranty on the refurb. In my experience if it works for the first month, it’s likely to continue working unless I abuse it. Although Amazon has the new Oasis waterproof Kindle, it’s almost three times the price! I could buy a lot of ebooks for that. I also am not worried about only having 4 GB to work with. eBooks are generally small files and I don’t need my entire library with me all the time. I spent $30 more for the 3G version so I could download any of my books at any time, even when I’m away from wifi. I don’t think it says in any of the spec on this page but the one I received is the Paperwhite 3, the latest version as of this writing. The reader is pretty heavy but it otherwise feels great in my hands. It has a slightly rubbery feel, which I prefer. The screen is amazing but if it gets very wet the water causes pages to turn. If accidentally wet this isn’t an issue but don’t expect to read underwater. If rinsing, turn it off first. It’s not required but it helps to keep from losing your page. The one I received had some light scratches on the back, which makes sense because it was a refurb. I don’t mind. I saved a lot of money and am likely going to scuff it a little myself. But the screen does not disappoint. It is flawless, reactive, clear, and bright. Much more responsive than my older BN Nook Glowlight. The only other possible negative is that the power button is hard to push. I suspect it’s because of the waterproofing but it doesn’t seem to move so it’s hard to know if I pushed it enough to turn the device on or off. The slight delay in reaction time means I sometimes turn it off and on again because I’ve pushed it twice thinking the first push didn’t work. I’ll adapt and can live with this flaw.

Overall I’m very pleased! I would also consider buying this as a gift. As a heavy reader who likes to be outside, I would prefer a refurbished, waterproof Kindle to a new, non-waterproof one.

Waterproof Kindle Paperwhite 3
Waterproofed by WaterFi. A good deal at $130 (3G version).
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May in February

I know, I know, global warming and all that, and I’m sure there will be consequences for the absolutely beautiful weather we’re having right now but I can’t say I’m not enjoying it. Who doesn’t like birds singing, sunshine, fresh air, and less constricting clothing? After a frigid January when our electric bill more than doubled to around $300 (despite very conservative thermostat settings), February has caused us all to prematurely wander the aisles of the garden center and think about what kind of flowers to plant this year. Our car windows are down and house windows are up. This very morning I wandered outside in shorts and a t-shirt. I’m thinking about grilling something outside for dinner. I’m determined to bring my YTD electric bill average down by not using the air conditioner, though this has led to more sweat than we’ve probably ever seen in the middle of winter. Yesterday hit at least 80 degrees and if our pool was ready I would have been tempted to dip my toes in it. Don’t get me wrong, these aren’t complaints. We’re enjoying every minute of it, even if we seem a little grumpy when moderate effort to do outside chores overheats us. Overall, we’re optimistic and happy. I feel like we can clearly see the light at the end of the winter tunnel. But I made the mistake of looking at the weather almanac to see how far off of average we are and discovered that these highs and lows are something we can’t expect to see regularly until May (these highs) or even June (these lows). You know…three or more months from now. That brought me back to reality, reminding me we shouldn’t pack out winter coats away just yet. Our neighbors are quick to remind us that it wasn’t that long ago (1993) that a surprise blizzard ground normal life to a halt here in east Tennessee in early March. The flowering trees that bloomed last night don’t seem to care but I worry about them. The wasps don’t seem to care but I don’t worry about them. I’m sure somewhere there are snakes waking up from hibernation but I’m trying to not to think of them, even as I keep a careful eye on the ground as I walk these days. At the very least, though, I’m happy to have missed a couple of weeks of winter. Now all we need is “longer days”, brought to us soon (March 11) by the start of daylight savings time.

As I struggle to finish a cup of hot coffee (cold brew is steeping), I’m keeping an eye on the Naples Pier Cam, where Earthcam tells me it’s 72. Brrr. Those poor Floridians.

Small Flowers
Little purple flowers are popping up all over the lawn.
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Hello New Year

It’s 15.1° outside but sunny. Today is the first day back to work after the Christmas holiday break but it’s the start of a four day work week. The year feels like a new slate and I’m sitting here with the chalk in my hand. Some things will be unavoidable, some things will be amazing and others will be unwanted. I vow to try and find something beautiful and positive in each day, to not wish my life away waiting for days in my mind that will be even better.

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Eclipse Madness in Retrospect

Excitement about the eclipse didn’t hit me until a week before. We’d been talking about it in our community for months. Despite the televised shortage of eclipse glasses, many of us bought ours well in advance in preparation. Almost all small towns in our area that were directly in the path had some sort of party. Local government officials scrambled to estimate how many visitors we should expect, with some predicting highs of 250,000 visitors to our small county. Bread, eggs, and milk cleared shelves and plans for school, work, and anything else that Monday were canceled or postponed. Law enforcement and other emergency personnel called everyone in for service and spread them at strategic locations across the area. News vans setup live Facebook coverage and as the time drew nearer, live television broadcasts. It felt like a holiday weekend at the beach. As a resident you know something big and exciting is happening but you just want to touch the outside edge, not get too close to the middle of it.

Monday arrived and I was glad I took the day off from work. I could hardly contain my excitement. I checked traffic delays and despite suggesting there is no way I would be on the road, decided to go through drive-through at a fast food place nearby. Traffic was much busier than usual but the area hadn’t been paralyzed, thankfully. The few people I bumped into on this short trip all spoke of the craziness and hoped they would be able to take a break for a few minutes to view totality. I hope they did. On the way home I saw more license plates for other states than our own. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood.

Around 1 PM I scrambled to setup a GoPro camera to attempt a timelapse. I promised myself I wasn’t going to spend the entire time with my face in a gadget so this was my backup plan to try and capture some of it for later. I should have planned ahead a little because for some reason my GoPro wifi password didn’t work and resetting it didn’t help. Of all times to experience some weird problem, I thought. I struggled to set the camera up using the tiny LCD screen with the help of YouTube videos that were much longer than they had to be. By this time the moon had already begun to budge in front of the soon. I setup the GoPro, huffed and puffed a little because I was annoyed and then sat down in a lawn chair under a tree in our front yard. I remember thinking what the heck were we going to do for an hour or so before totality but this time went by incredibly fast, especially as we periodically peeked at the sun using our eclipse glasses. We looked around to see if we could find the crescents we were told to expect in the shadows but didn’t see them right away. They eventually showed up on flat surfaces and then everywhere we looked. I took lots of pictures of these, exclaiming every time like a big kid discovering a geocache.

As totality approached, the reduced light was noticeable and it had an eerie look. It wasn’t like a storm cloud covering the sun or dusk but more like looking through tinted glass covering my entire head. Nearby some of our community was gathered and I could sense the excitement building. It was contagious. Knowing the time was approaching, we got into position. Darkness came fast, the shadow of the moon traveling at over 1,800 mph and crossing the US in 90 minutes. We took off our glasses and looked up.

When we tell people about the Grand Canyon, we never feel our descriptions are adequate enough to convey the enormity of it, the important of experiencing it. It just comes off sounding silly and over-hyped. Life-changing can’t be explained or demonstrated, it must be felt. That is how it felt looking at the sun with the moon perfectly covering it. Sure, it was a big black dot with a brilliant glow surrounding it, with waves of light moving in waves all around it. But there is something about seeing a thing so rare most people you meet have never seen it. There is something about a moment when three planets are in perfect alignment and you’re in the center of it. The goosebumps weren’t just from the almost 10-degree drop in temperature but in the fact that at that very moment millions of people were looking up at the sky with tears in their eyes, clapping, cheering, hugging each other…experiencing the eclipse.

And now I know why people drive a thousand miles, fly across an ocean, brave crowds, and spend lots of money trying to see a total eclipse one more time.  I plan to join them in seven years.

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That was bumpy

I’ve migrated blogs to new servers a few times but this was one of the more challenging. I switched to SSL and somehow couldn’t get the software to work well with it. A couple of Google searches later and I have a working solution. Luckily this site isn’t critical.

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And fall has returned

I just noticed that I posted something back in late 2010 about fall returning and it occurred to me that in the blink of an eye, 6 years had passed. Savor life, for it passes quickly.

Walmart Christmas TreesI can hear gunshots in the distance, shotgun if I’m not mistaken. I’m wearing long sleeve shirts again, at least in the morning. And finally the orange wreaths everyone has had up for almost two months now (not kidding) make sense, though it’s still WAY too early for the Christmas trees and Christmas music that Walmart is piping through the speakers out in the garden department. “Baby it’s cold outside” somehow doesn’t work when it’s 80+ degrees. Those poor garden center workers are probably already sick of the holidays.

Now the mad rush for me to get outside projects done before it gets too cold. I put things off because it was too hot but too cold is just as bad or worse. There is a small window of opportunity.

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Just Like A Chap

I came across this video some time during the last year and come back to it every once in a while for a smile. Brilliant. What’s old is new again. Rapping like the 1880s.