Tech

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Saturday Morning Sundries

My Social Life

Yesterday evening, I headed over to Laura’s for Friday night canasta, not sure that it would happen since Charles and Caroline have a house full of guests. Well, the guests (two of Caroline’s sisters) came to learn how to play (so I was no longer the newbie) and another frequent attendee also materialized, as well as Charles. So we were seven around the table and we played in pairs. Caroline brought wine, Laura pulled out some sweets, and we played to just past midnight. It was a lot of fun!

The Weather

It was June first when I walked home last night. The walk was about a block. I was frozen solid when I came in and went to bed wearing flannel jammies, a sweatshirt, and heavy socks and I still woke up in the middle of the night to add another blanket.

Twenty Cents Well Spent

I hate when I think I need something, buy it, and realise that the need arose from a one-time occasion. That doesn’t happen much anymore, but when you have a kitchen full of cooking implements, it’s easy to think you can get by without certain things. Well, I have used my slotted spoon and splash guard several times since I bought them last week, so they were worth taking home!

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The splash guard is the exact size I need to cover my cast iron pan!

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Internet

It is very mercurial. I got up this morning and it was fine, not blazing fast but steady, and then it just… stopped. But I couldn’t even connect to the Mifi, so I figured I was having Mifi problems and rebooted it. But that didn’t help the connection. It came back when it wanted to. And it dropped out in the middle of this part of the post. No rhyme or reason at all.

Readers Mark and Jack sent me some helpful information over night about cable length and signal strength respectively. Jack said to go through all my menus and sub-menus until I found a numerical value for signal strength. I Googled something along the lines of “how to find signal strength MiFi 5792” and found instructions for an older model of Verizon Jetpack that gave me enough breadcrumbs to find the answer. It’s About –> Diagnostics and then you have to look for RSSI:

signal strength

The RSSI this morning has varied between -108 and the current -103 since I added an extra foot of height below the antenna. But even those that -103 is technically better than -108, I’m still experiencing the same unstable internet connection. I still have a couple of feet of cable, so I am going to try to get the antenna even higher and see if that helps.

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What’s Next, Brimstone?

YAY! The rain stopped!

BOO! The rain stopped because heavy winds chased away the clouds!

What a strange weather week…

At least there’s sun now and I’m actually getting some amps in!

And in other happy news, my internet connection has been GREAT all morning. I only have one bar, but I haven’t had any drops at all and I was even able to stream Netflix without it occasionally pausing for ages to load the next bit. Maybe the high gain antenna isn’t a total dud. Then again, I got good service like this occasionally with the stubby antenna, so it’ll take weeks of good service like this for me to believe it’s the norm rather than the exception.

Speaking of antennas, just before bed last night I heard the pot on which the antenna is resting slide across the roof. I ignored it until morning. I woke up around 7:00 to torrential downpour and decided to go see if the antenna was okay then go back to bed to warm myself up.

I went outside, and found the antenna on the ground. The magnet on that thing is really strong, so I that was rather surprising. I climbed up to the roof, holding on tightly since the ladder was slick, and found the pot right at the edge of the roof and turned over. I got the antenna resituated and wedged the pot into the space at the top of the ladder where it can only slide in one direction.

I was sopping wet by this point, even though I’d only been out for a few minutes, so I was glad to get back into my flannel jammies and under the covers! Some mornings just aren’t meant for getting out of bed…

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It’s Still Raining!

I never seen so much rain in all my natural life!

Wow, it’s like Vancouver Island out there! And there’s no end in sight! 🙁

I am desperate for power, so I’m taking the day off from computer-related stuff even though I badly need to keep working. 🙁

Once we get into June, it’ll get sunny, so I just need to hang in there. I am staring at a neighbour’s exterior electrical outlet, but he uses it for his sump-pump, so it’s not sharable. 🙁

What I don’t get is that I ran the engine for over an hour this morning with the computer plugged in and I got my amp hours right up, but I didn’t get more than 10% charge on the laptop. Very frustrating.

I’ll need to fill the big jerry can next time I go into town. Gas in the RV tank is down a full quarter from half, so I only have about 12.5 gallons left, or 12 hours of run time… plus I need to be able to drive out of here in the fall! I figure that if I add a jerry can of fuel every few weeks, I’ll be able to keep the gas level up high enough to make it to a gas station in the fall.

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Wilson High Gain Antenna is a Dud

The coupler for my Sleek and high gain antenna arrived today. No exclamation point because there isn’t an iota of difference between the stubby antenna and the high gain one.

I’m trying to decide if I am going to live with this pretty much useless internet connection all summer or if I will try to get a partial refund and buy a different solution.

It is cloudy again today and very humid, which has definitely affected my signal since I got the Sleek, so I may give the bigger antenna a couple of days before I decide to return it or not.

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Town Day

I’m crazy busy, but today was the one to go into town as I needed gas, propane, drinking water, groceries, and to send and receive some massive digital files.

Propane in Assiniboia can be had at the Co-Op gas station, which is next to the Co-Op hardware store. I stopped at the latter also to get prices and options for cement pavers on which to park Miranda.

I then stopped to check out The Bargain Shop!, a discount retailer, to see what they have. I found better prices for paper products than at the Co-Op grocery store, so I stocked up.

Next, got my groceries, including a pre-roasted chicken and everything I need to turn its carcass into soup. Meat is otherwise too expensive in town and I’ve been eating pretty much vegetarian since I got here. The chicken and a loaf of fresh baked bread will be a real treat tonight!

I almost forgot about my files, so now I’m parked at the top of the hill waiting for the download to finish. I can’t wait to get home; the smell of that chicken is about to send me over the edge!

I really need to come up with a better solution for drinking water. In the US, I could buy a gallon for $0.70. The same gallon here is $4.00!!!!!!! Now, I don’t drink anything else, so I don’t mind buying water, but this is getting to be expensive. The tap water in the village isn’t potable without using a ceramic filter, so I need to find one of those. I was going to go with the undercounter kind, but that makes no sense for when my fresh water tank is empty. So I need to find a countertop or pitcher unit.

I’m surprised that I wasn’t itching to go to town today and would have gladly waited if I didn’t have such pressing needs. I think that once I come back in July with a truck full of supplies, I could easily not go into town for weeks. I’m simply not having any trouble at all filling my days and I have enough social engagements to keep me from going stir crazy.

Yay, my download is just about done. Back to work I go.