At the bottom of the main panel is a status bar containing such things as icons for selection tool, razor tool, spacer tool, mode, and a zoom slider, etc. To the left of my "normal mode" icon there is also an area that has a blue "meter" of some sort. Mine currently says "50%". What in the world is this item?

So it is not one of the items shown here
http://userbase.kde.org/Kdenlive/Manual/Timeline/Editing#Bottom_Tool_Bar
?

I wonder if I have that on mine. Have to check when I get home.

Nope. It is something more. The person who included that image in the user manual commented that it was an old image. I wish I knew how to include an image with my post here. I'm going to try to e-mail you a screen shot.

This might be the timeline zoom level. See if it changes when yOu zoom timeline in and out

This might be the timeline zoom level. See if it changes when yOu zoom timeline in and out

It isn't zoom a meter because it doesn't change as I change zoom level. I think it is the progress meter for when it's developing the thumbnail as I add a clip to the timeline. But since I began adding effects and other things before the progress reached 100% it got stuck? This is the only theory I can come up with.

Ah yes. I see this too. I guess it is a progress bar for stuff that kdenlive does when you load documents. I see it moving when I load a project. And when I add a clip - "creating audio thumbnails". I note that it does not allways get removed after the job finishes. Which I guess would be a very minor bug.

One more question (but a different topic): sometimes when I go to render it says "waiting". And this waiting can take a very long time sometimes. What in the world is it waiting for? How can I find out?