Persistence Pays Off...Finally

So.  Audible.  

Today was the day I was going to get my Audible accounts straightened out.  It took 3 phone calls, but in the end I am VERY pleased.

I have been buying books from Audible for many years and have been enrolled in several plans over the years, and then thought I'd quit entirely and started new accounts.  Ultimately I had four or five different accounts in variations of my name and e-mail addresses.

This has not posed a problem, until I tried to download two books yesterday and Audible suddenly realized I had more than one account and wouldn't let me do it.  The first rep I talked to helped me merge all of my accounts into one, which, he assured me, would mean that I could now download the books I wanted to download (which I had already purchased).

Only it didn't.  iTunes still saw that I had two accounts, so I called another guy who said that he would delete both of those books and credit my account for two new books, plus another credit for all of my troubles.  Since I had received a credit yesterday, my monthly "free book" (not exactly "free," of course) and had downloaded the book immediately (without problem), I was thrilled to have THREE credits to shop for more books.

But then when I checked my account information, I discovered that rep #2 had enrolled me in the wrong account, so I called back again to ask to be switched to the proper account.  I was already downloading one of the replacement books, which used one of the credits I had been given by guy #2.  Guy #3 switched my membership and gave me a free credit.  So I still have 3 credits.  Then I went to download the second book I had ordered and discovered that today only it was on sale for only $4!   So rather than use one of my credits, I just paid cash for it, so I still have 3 credits and I THINK that all of my problems are solved.

Audible is solved, Amazon is solved, Snapfish is solved.  Now I just have to write my Rock of Ages review.  It's another productive day!

In the evening, there was a book club meeting in Sacramento.

I almost didn't go.  It was raining, and I don't like driving in the rain at night, but I hated to miss out on the discussion of the book ("The Floor of Heaven" by Howard Blum) and had lots to say about it.  Also, Walt went to the symphony in San Francisco and had rented a car to get there so I could have the car to drive to Sacramento.

(Walt realized several years ago that it is so seldom that we need two cars that our second car, which had been David's car which we took after he died, just sat in the driveway for weeks on end and we were paying more to insure it than we were to drive it, and that if we got rid of it and rented a second car when we needed one, it would cost us less money ... so far that has proven to be true and it is rarely when we have to rent a second car.)

I didn't want to admit to Walt that while he was driving a rental car, our own car and I were sitting at home because I didn't want to drive in the rain, so I decided to go, and I'm so glad I did!

This week, I got there early and instead of sitting in the car listening to my audiobook, I went inside.  

Several of the members were already there and this time I started talking to them.  One woman had found a book on Downton Abbey and the three of us were fans of the show, so we talked about that.  

Then, as we wandered around the store, we began discussing our book collections.  One woman is very disciplined.  She only allows herself two shelves in her house for books.  If she get a new book, she has to get rid of an old one to make space for the new one.  The rest of us found that difficult to believe, as we all seem to have homes which are bursting at the seams with books.  Our own house could easily be a small used book store, if we were to consolidate all the books we have all over the house.

We set up the chairs for the discussion.  Twenty-two people had RSVPd for this meeting, but the rain must have kept many of them from coming, since I think there were only a dozen of us there, mostly women and one man.

"Floor of Heaven" is about 3 men whose paths ultimately cross in Alaska during the gold rush (one of them was George Carmack, the man who discovered gold in the Klondike originally).  Unlike "The Stupidest Angel," the last book we discussed, the reaction to which had been very divided -- we either loved it or hated it (I was in the latter camp) -- we all really liked this book and it sparked a nice discussion of the story (which is non-fiction), the conditions in Alaska in the late 1800s, conditions in general at that time, and comparisons to life today which, in many respects, isn't all that different, at least poliltically.

I was very glad I had come and have even started remembering the names of some of the other people.  Tonight I remembered Gail, Wanda, Leslie, and Ted.  

 
Now if only I can continue to remember them for next month, when we will be discussing Willa Cather's "My Antonia."