In the studio tonight.
Forecast has been saying rain all day. I got up early this AM, well early for me. I took off just after 8:00 in hopes of getting some of my steps in before I got wet. Based on the forecast, I had resigned myself to the fact that today would be a lousy day, walk wise. So going early I said to myself “almost 13,000 steps, if that’s all I get today so be it”. (I knew it was me ‘cause I recognized my voice).
I went back home, watered the window boxes in case the wind blows wicked hard they stand a better chance they won’t blow over. I finally had my coffee and breakfast. I was still waiting for it to rain so I goofed around awhile and figured now lunch was in order. Then after lunch, of course, I needed a nap, then I had no choice but to go to the cell phone store. This was the chore for the day, the chore that I had saved for today's rainy day. Hadn’t rained yet. I couldn’t put it off any longer though.
The story about the cell phone store is a rather long one. It started when we moved here on the side of Green Pond. A call to the local phone company informed us we could not get a wired connection for internet, we could get a phone line but not internet. Hold on… how does a person survive today with no internet service?
We found we could get internet through our cell phone provider. You can read the original post about it here.
We got connected and it worked great, expensive but works great. Until about three quarters of the way through the month then we get notification from the cell phone people that we have used up most of our data for the month. It got continually worse until it reached the point we had two of the cell tower routers trying to get enough data to live with without going completely broke. We stopped watching almost all TV, it sucks up too much data. Royal pain, change in lifestyle, no longer have TV going in the background while sewing etc. I missed that.
I would periodically call the land line people and continuously get the same story that I could not get service.
We got connected and it worked great, expensive but works great. Until about three quarters of the way through the month then we get notification from the cell phone people that we have used up most of our data for the month. It got continually worse until it reached the point we had two of the cell tower routers trying to get enough data to live with without going completely broke. We stopped watching almost all TV, it sucks up too much data. Royal pain, change in lifestyle, no longer have TV going in the background while sewing etc. I missed that.
I would periodically call the land line people and continuously get the same story that I could not get service.
I ran into the technician on the ground, so to speak, working at a neighbor’s camp and he tells me that there is no reason why we can’t get service from his viewpoint. Interesting, try again at that time, they tell me “no service”. I drop it again.
Fast forward over a year and I again run into the same area tech and he asks me where a particular address was. I tell him and he tells me that he needs to go there to connect the camper to high speed internet service. I’m flabbergasted. We can’t get it but a camper can???
I continue on my walk thinking, ok, now I’ve got something to do. I call the land line phone people again and proceed through the process of them checking to see if I can become a new customer. Sure enough, they tell me that no connections are available for my area. I tell the poor dude I don’t believe him. He tells me that he is reading it off his monitor right in front of him. I tell him to not always believe what he sees. I give him a hard time for about 5 minutes before he finally offers to get me a supervisor, I guess to explain to me what no meant. I told him I thought it was the best idea I’d heard from him yet.
I continue on my walk thinking, ok, now I’ve got something to do. I call the land line phone people again and proceed through the process of them checking to see if I can become a new customer. Sure enough, they tell me that no connections are available for my area. I tell the poor dude I don’t believe him. He tells me that he is reading it off his monitor right in front of him. I tell him to not always believe what he sees. I give him a hard time for about 5 minutes before he finally offers to get me a supervisor, I guess to explain to me what no meant. I told him I thought it was the best idea I’d heard from him yet.
He puts me on hold and I proceed to retrace my steps to where the tech is working on the work order we had discussed just bit ago. After being on hold for about ten minutes the supervisor comes on the line. I talk to the supervisor just about long enough before I reach the tech to realize she is going to do nothing but reading from the same scrip the first dude did. I put her on speaker phone so the tech can hear us and I ask her one final time “are you sure I can not receive a connection?” and she replies indignantly “no service is available in your area.”
I said to her, “Ma'm, you sound like a nice lady, but I can’t look you in the eye over the phone to get a better feel of your character. Your on the ground tech has been telling me for two years that there is no reason why physically I can not get connected. I am looking him straight in the eyes and I sure as hell believe him over you. The supervisor indignantly asks the tech what are you an independent worker? And the tech comes back “no this is DJ, I’m a 27 year veteran tech with this company and I see no reason this costumer gets told repeatedly he can’t have service.”
I said to her, “Ma'm, you sound like a nice lady, but I can’t look you in the eye over the phone to get a better feel of your character. Your on the ground tech has been telling me for two years that there is no reason why physically I can not get connected. I am looking him straight in the eyes and I sure as hell believe him over you. The supervisor indignantly asks the tech what are you an independent worker? And the tech comes back “no this is DJ, I’m a 27 year veteran tech with this company and I see no reason this costumer gets told repeatedly he can’t have service.”
They talk and after much back and forth the lady tells me that she will put the information she received from the tech through to the engineers for a final answer but it appeared that all would go through and we could get wired internet. No more counting gigabytes of data. She would call me back Monday-Tuesday at the latest.
Never hearing from her, on Thursday I called just like I had in the past to try to get set up as a new customer, except this time I was not told “no service” I was told I could get 20 megabytes download and 1.5 megabytes upload. In other words, the supervisor did everything she had promised, except call me back which she emphatically promised me she would.
So to the end of the story, my chore for the day was to go to the cell phone people and pay off the balance of the equipment we had needed to obtain internet service from the cell tower people. I also wanted a different plan on Carol’s and my cell phones so we had more data available when out and about. I now can stream music on my walks and when on the tricycle and make it to the end of the month without paying extra fees for exceeding data limits. It cost a couple hundred dollars to pay off the equipment (which if anyone needs to get cellular internet I have two almost brand new routers dirt cheap, maybe even trade for fat quarters). But in the end the change over saved me about $150 a month. Not too bad for a days work in the long run.
It was a good rainy day. As I have been ranting along here it finally started thundering and raining about 10:15 PM. I guess better late than never. I ended my day with a little over 18,000 steps. I don’t think I’ll break 1600 miles this week but it will be real close.
Since no real pictures went with my rant, here are few recents from my phone.
The first is the view out unto the pond and into the rain shower now finally falling.
So to the end of the story, my chore for the day was to go to the cell phone people and pay off the balance of the equipment we had needed to obtain internet service from the cell tower people. I also wanted a different plan on Carol’s and my cell phones so we had more data available when out and about. I now can stream music on my walks and when on the tricycle and make it to the end of the month without paying extra fees for exceeding data limits. It cost a couple hundred dollars to pay off the equipment (which if anyone needs to get cellular internet I have two almost brand new routers dirt cheap, maybe even trade for fat quarters). But in the end the change over saved me about $150 a month. Not too bad for a days work in the long run.
It was a good rainy day. As I have been ranting along here it finally started thundering and raining about 10:15 PM. I guess better late than never. I ended my day with a little over 18,000 steps. I don’t think I’ll break 1600 miles this week but it will be real close.
Since no real pictures went with my rant, here are few recents from my phone.
The first is the view out unto the pond and into the rain shower now finally falling.
Full moon the other night.
Dark Skies.
Enjoy the rest of your week. Love you all, stay safe.
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