electronic lazarus

It was not the Hindenburg going down in flames.  No cries of "Oh, the humanity."

But my world was shaken for a bit.

My Kindle died.  At the beach.  Not in Mexico, as I had predicted, but in Oregon.

I had been having trouble with the sliding power switch for a week.  It would catch now and then when I turned the Kindle on or off.  That should have been a warning sign.  The equivalent of dizziness for a diabetic.

I bought the Kindle solely for use in Mexico.  I love reading.  But, I have loved books even more.  The feel of their weight in my hands.  The smell of leather bindings.  The texture of the paper.  Hedonism writ large.

Books have always been one of my favorite sensual pleasures.  So, I was a bit surprised when I started using the Kindle.  It turns out that reading is my true pleasure.  And I read more using the Kindle.  No idea why that is true.  But I hear it from my fellow Kindle users.

That is why I was a bit concerned about the power switch.  Something bad was about to happen.

On Saturday night, I was well into James Swanson's Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse when I stopped to do something.  I turned off the Kindle.  When I returned to resume my reading, I flipped the switch and -- nothing.  I tried again.  Nothing.


Thinking I might have drained the battery, I plugged the Kindle into the wall.  Nothing.  Not even an indication that power was getting to the device.Amazon has a good reputation for fixing or replacing damaged goods.  But my departure date for Mexico would probably arrive before a repaired Kindle could UPS itself back to me.

I decided to try one last option.  Before my Kindle arrived, I loaded the Kindle software on my laptop.  The user guide was part of my electronic library.  I started browsing the trouble-shooting chapter.  Of course, I had taken each of the steps recommended.

But there was one last step I had not thought of.  Before I retired, my favorite professional device was a Compaq iPaq -- a PDA.  I loved it.  But it was notoriously unstable.  I had to soft reboot the device regularly.

I never thought that the Kindle might have a similar reset button.  But it does.  If you hold the power switch to the left for 15 seconds, it will do a soft reboot.

In my case, it worked.  I was back to reliving the days following the end of the Civil War in minutes.

Just like Lazarus, what was dead, now lived.

And the power switch is sliding easily without catching.

Its ultimate fate (and value) now resides in Mexico.