Elders and Others: Free Audio Book Resources. Have at it Jeff’s Daddy!

My Pick-of-the-Month

(Better than a Starbucks Pick-of-the-Week cuz I brew it myself)

The Simple Romantic singing a traditional American spiritual on youtube

 On the way back from the pre-supper dog walk tonight, I ran into my neighbor Jeff . He might have been planning to finish unloading his car from a trip to the snow, and I might have thought I was going to go in and make supper. Well, so…. instead there we were visiting at the foot of our driveways, while Dave went on in and got the cornbread started.

Jeff mentioned that his father has recently gotten an mp3 player and started to listen to audio books. As anybody might expect, elder citizens commonly have vision and auditory issues. Reading may just be harder than it used to be. Their own headset attached to an mp3 player, ipad, kindle, or good old-fashioned computer,  can make a big difference to their leisure reading. Heck, audio books are easier for me to process now that I have to pull out a pair of reading glasses.

Hmphhffff! When did they start making that print so small?

I listen to both audio books and podcasts on an mp3 player quite a lot, while walking and also when I have domestic tasks. Not being a big fan of housework I’d rather be listening to Michael Krasny’s “Forum”, NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me”, or Mark Twain’s,  Roughing It  then focusing on a greasy dish or dusty piano lid.

Though I’m glad to hear that Jeff and Chris bought several audio books for his Dad, that he’s apparently enjoying quite a lot, there are a  resources for FREE audio books that are particularly useful for people who might be on a fixed income. Just for a start those include:

·     Public Library Systems Online

·     Project Guttenberg

·     Librivox.Org

Jeff asked for some form of electronic communication he could send on to his dad that listed just a few of these resources. Here it is. The links are both spelled out and displayed, in case you want to print this for somebody.

Have at it Jeff’s Daddy! 

1) The public library. My library system allows me to check out an audio book from home, via the web and the barcode on my card. Yes, I do know that barcode by heart. I can get audios from different libraries within our county library system. The audio will be available for me to listen to for three weeks. My local reference librarian told me that I should be able to get a library card at most libraries in California by showing them my local card. I currently have cards for three different nearby county systems.

Figure out how you, and an elderly relative, might get creative with that between the two of you.

Most public libraries also have books on cd that you can check out by visiting the library. Or maybe your library has a Book Mobile that stops in at the senior center. Our library system has an excellent online catalog that allows us to search for materials we want delivered, from libraries throughout the county.

2) Project Guttenberg is the Grandaddy (or is that Grandmama?) of the free, public domain ebook. They have audio books as well as ebooks and full-text  public domain books people still read the old-fashioned way but on new fashioned electronic readers like their home computers, iPad, Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone, Android or other portable device. As of today Guttenberg says that they have 33,000 free public domain volumes.

Go to  http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Full text is handy also when you’re looking for that elusive reference. I was once surprised to find  that somewhere in a Jane Austen novel, she used the word ‘lame’ just as it might be used today. Wait a minute while I check the full text of “The Complete Project Gutenberg Works of Jane Austen, A Linked Index of all PG Editions of Jane Austen” and tell you where I found that. (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31100)

I’ve used Project Guttenberg on the web since 1993, but  the project goes back a lot further than that http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:About

3) I’m also a fan of Librivox. They specialize in free public domain audio books.

Some people find favorite books by reading book reviews. I tend to find them by wandering around in the stacks in a library. The Search by Genre link on Librivox reminds me a lot of wandering around within the collection itself.

http://librivox.org/newcatalog/genres.php

My sister prefers the Advanced Search page.

http://librivox.org/newcatalog/visitor_advanced.php

Here’s the  main Librivox cataloglink.

http://librivox.org/newcatalog/

….

A Taste for Tidal Salt

Ummmm, yummmm the taste of tidal salt.

Pretty delicious, particularly if your name is Pickle Weed, Cord Grass or Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse.

You may also enjoy A Baylands Bouquet

Go ahead and click on the picture to enjoy this really salty repast.

A Baylands Bouquet

California buckwheat,

Eriogonum fasciculatum var. foliolosum

Please click on the picture above to immerse yourself in the detail of this lovely buckwheat bouquet

What's so great about the

Baylands Nature Preserve?

• I never saw anything like it before I moved to the Bay Area in 1978. Open, flat views of water, mud, birds and pickleweed gave me a new vision of what romantic meant.
• Though we often drive out to walk the trails, it’s possible to get there on my around-town cruiser bike.
• Birds have priority over people, or as it says on their web site “A substantial resident population of birds as well as being a major migratory stopover on the Pacific Flyway”

I've seen Marsh Hawks, Great and common Egrets and Great Blue Herons many times. And I'm not even a birder out looking for them. Of course there are tons of common shore birds: seagulls, ducks, godwits, willets, curlews, coots and sandpipers.

• Sometimes I get out there and there’s nobody on the expanse of trail but me, but I feel safe because it’s so wide open and people can see me from a distance. So I can sing REALLY LOUDLY

Ring out them Bells, Why Don't Ya! (January Calendar Page)

Please click on the calendar for more heart-RINGING detail

Sewing- In No Kind of Hurry- The Never Too Many White Shirts Project: 2.2 Designing The Perfect Shirt

Related History

Entry 1: Sewing- The Never Too Many White Shirts Project: 1 IMAGINING The Perfect Shirt

Entry 2: 2.1 DESIGNING the Perfect Shirt - Sketch 1

...

Entry 2.2: DESIGNING the Perfect Shirt - Sketch 2

Here is my second design sketch page.

....

* This entry represents one sewers progress

in the Never Too Many White Shirts Project at http://sewingontheedge.blogspot.com/

Sewing- In No Kind of Hurry- The Never Too Many White Shirts Project: 2.1 Designing The Perfect Shirt

Related History

Entry 1: Sewing- The Never Too Many White Shirts Project: 1 IMAGINING The Perfect Shirt

Entry 2.1: DESIGNING the Perfect Shirt

Despite the challenges of the season I managed to get my

golden mustard fleece vest with it's Phoenix birds French trim and it's mustardy comrade teeshirt done. Hooray!

I've even made serious inroads on the seond fleece vest I cut out last year during our short California cold season, an irritating little fuzzy white creatures whose long hairs hide pins and get caught in the zipper. I'm working on getting Sir Fuzzy done in very short sewing increments, before my next semesters classes begin in mid January. A little extra inspiration comes from having seen a woman wearing a white regular-type-fleece vest or a dark, long-sleeved teeshirt when I was traipsing around San Francisco with my daughter last week. Hummmm I have a cranberry colored turtleneck and a long sleeved black tee shirt. Won't the contrast look nice under the fuzzy white vest once it's done?

Does anybody else make notes about other people's color choices on their ipod Notes app when they walk around a big city? I particularly like looking back at these later to find that the app changed all my spelling to words it knew, but they aren't the words I meant. So the note now reads, "Really good choice of exfoliant with pump".

My vision of that perfect first white shirt is beginning to blossom. This is a wonderful chance to really take my time and focus on designing and improving some sewing skills while also taking my time getting the first one done.

Two podcasts inspired me to slow down and smell the steam iron as I begin this project. The first was Lori's Sew Forth Now podcast interview with Barbara, of Sewing on the Edge. Barbara is the creator of the Never Too Many White Shirts Project. The talk between Lori and Barbara brought home to me that it might just be ok to really take my time to think things through and practice on this project, no matter what else is going on in my life.

My second source of inspiration was a recent podcast from one of my other favorite shows, To the Best of Our Knowledge from PRI (Wisconsin Public Radio). A recent episode, "Change Over Time" included an interview with Slow Movement promoter, Carl Honore. Listening to this reinforced my plan to take a thoughtful approach to this project.

I regularly sew things in a hurry. This time I'm going to just take my time and think it through. Here is the first of the design pages I've begun.

....

* This entry represents one sewers progress

in the Never Too Many White Shirts Project at http://sewingontheedge.blogspot.com/

Train is a Comin': The Simple Romantic Sings Traditional American Music