Tech

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A Full Day With a Visit to the Big Muddy Badlands and Castle Butte

Today was the day to go get my booster, but it was also the day that my internet situation exploded media-wise. I woke up to a link in a comment to a write-up by CBC about our internet situation. I was, of course, pissed off by our reeve’s lack of support for the project. I was misunderstood/misquoted in a remark I made about the number of people affected and instead of saying something like, “The number of people don’t matter,” he just dismissed my efforts. Lovely to have community support. I then made the mistake of looking at comments and spent too much time replying to trolls. I’ve decided to not go back and look at any other comments!

I finally got on the road around 8:20. I stopped at the gas bar in Coronach before the border to get a coffee and was told I didn’t have to pay! It’s such a small thing, but it really reset my mood! And the coffee was actually quite good, to my surprise!

I was at the border about an hour after leaving home. The crossing was painless beyond having to explain what a cell signal booster does and why I need one. I then enjoyed a drive across Montana landscape that looks a lot like ours to arrive in Plentywood around 10:15. I was picking up my package at the Little Muddy Dry Goods store, which offers a package service for Canadians, but discovered that Main Street isn’t the road that cuts west-east through town. I stopped for fuel (saving 20CAD even with the exchange rate) and got directions.

The package service pickup is at the back of a bright clean open store. I was a bit dismayed that the room was open to the public, like the bar in Opheim I’ve used in the past, but was assured that the door is closed and locked when there is no staff around… I paid my 5USD and then lugged the huge box back to the truck. There, I opened up the package to make sure everything was there and I knew what I was bringing back across the border.

It was about 10:50 by this point. I was an hour earlier than I had thought to be in Plentywood, so it felt like a weird time to hunt down lunch, but I was ready to eat. I’d done research ahead of time and so I headed to the Cousins Restaurant to see if I could order off the lunch menu that early. I got to the restaurant and was greeted very warmly by a server. I find that sometimes these small town restaurants are light on the customer service because they’re not used to seeing strangers and the locals know the drill, but this was not the case here. I was handed a menu that had all their options on it, not just breakfast, so I figured I could order lunch.

The menu was pretty typical American diner fare, so I opted for a ‘patty melt’ which is a fancy term for a hamburger between slices of toast rather than a bun. This turned out to be a slice of ground beef with heaps of perfectly sautĆ©d onions and melty American ‘Swiss’ cheese’ between slices of pumpernickel bread. The menu had said ‘marble rye’, but the pumpernickel flavour was really strong, which was a plus! It elevated the sandwich from pretty ordinary to something special. The sandwich came with fries for 7.99USD. I gave the server my last 10USD (I’d withdrawn 50USD from my US account, so if you’re following my day, you’ll know that I had 10USD left!). I’m really glad I had lunch at Cousins Restaurant.

Then, it was time to head up to the border at Regway/Raymond, which I hadn’t even known existed between Portal and Scobey until John in Santa Fe told me about it! There, upon seeing my passport and being told where I live, the customs official exclaimed that he recognised me from the radio this morning…

I declared the booster and he had me go in to pay. Then something interesting happened. He clued in that I’d said I work from home as a transcriptionist/proofreader and that I was bringing in a booster, so he asked if I was bringing it in for commercial purposes. Oh, boy, I thought. This is going to cost me! I cautiously asked what’s the difference. He looked at me like I had snakes growing out of my head. “Has no one at the border ever told you that if you import stuff for your business you don’t have to pay the PST???!!!” HUH???!!! Well, that was news to me! Dang!

It was then time to figure out what I owed now that I was importing as a business. I had my USD invoice and my PayPal receipt showing what I’d paid in Canadian. He said that I’d probably get a better exchange rate through whatever system they use and I said that the exchange rate is worse now than it was when I bought the booster almost two weeks ago. He did the math and went, “Yup. According to your PayPal rate, you owe me $53. According to our rate right now, you owe me $61. That will be $53, please.”

First time I came away from the border having paid less than I expected to pay. Lovely guy. And yet, he and another guard then emptied out my truck (thankfully, I had very little in it) and even went through my purse, which I had left on the front seat. It’s so lovely to be waved through into a foreign country and be treated like a criminal when coming into your own. But, hey, I saved $53…

From the border, I headed north into the Big Muddy Badlands, eventually pulling over to check my emails. I had a voicemail from someone at CBC Radio wanting to schedule ad interview for later that day, so I was able to return that call and set up a time for them to call me.

Then, it was time to head on to Castle Butte, a famous landmark in the area. I thought I’d have trouble finding it, but there was a sign announcing the turnoff. Castle Butte is a particularly remarkable hill in the middle of lots of other hills and was used as a landmark in the old days. I arrived, changed into a hiking skirt and my Keen sandals and pretty much crab walked my way to the top. It was very slippery! But I got up there without much incident and was surprised when I reached the summit effortlessly.

The trip down was another story, though! I crouched down and pretty much slid my way to the bottom. Then, I had a walk around the entire structure.

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And people think Saskatchewan is flat…

From Castle Butte, I took the back road through Harp Tree to get to Willow Bunch. There were just one or two signs the whole way there to assure me that I was heading in the right direction. Just as I was certain I was completely misplaced, I saw the red tower of the Willow Bunch Museum! Whew, what an adventure! But I wouldn’t have really needed a search party since I had cell service the whole way through this particularly desolate part of the province…

When I got in, I called Caroline, who got home late last night, to check in as she’d left me a message and asked me to do that. I asked if I could come by around 4:00 so I could do my interview from their landline. Of course! So I called back my contact at CBC Radio and gave him C&C’s number.

I then very carefully unpacked my booster, making sure I kept the packing material and did as little damage to it as I could. The materials are really heavy and obviously of better quality than what I’ve received from Wilson.

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I tried to set the booster up temporarily without mounting the antenna at any great height, but I got the ‘you have oscillation’ error message that means that the interior and exterior antennas are too close together. I managed to get the old antenna off the pole and the new one mounted with a minimum amount of effort, but I still couldn’t get the booster to work. I went so far as to install the booster in the shed, which was as much horizontal separation as I had cable for, but that still wasn’t enough… Tomorrow, I’ll go to town and get another section of pole and hope that another 10′ of vertical separation will do the trick. If not, I’m at a loss and will contact the sellers to get their thoughts. I’m disappointed, to say the least. I had a feeling this unit would be overkill for my small property and I might be right… But I’m not giving up yet!

Then, it was time to head over to C&C’s, where I had a coffee and catchup before my interview. I think the interview went well and I was able to share how I lose internet during the day and have to pack up my things and race up the hill.

I think I’m done with this issue because nothing is going to get done. I’ve fought a good fight, but with SaskTel not having to answer to anyone and my community management not willing to get involved, this will never get resolved. Time to start thinking about where I’ll spend next summer since it won’t be here…

After my interview, I got another coffee and then Caroline asked if I could stay for supper! Of course! šŸ˜€ She made her amazing whisky-marinaded salmon with scarlet runner beans, corn on the cob, and grilled zucchini. She is such a good cook! It was a lovely meal where we all came away replete, but not stuffed. They don’t do dessert, but they do do wine! So we sat out for a bit to finish our glasses of fermented grape juice, then I headed home with a giant zucchini.

When I got in, I remounted the old antenna onto the broomstick and stuck the whole thing in the truck like I used to have it set up, then restarted the old booster. It’s going to rain tomorrow, but hopefully I can do more work on the new booster Sunday and Monday and get it working… Croft, you’d better be online this weekend! šŸ˜‰

Whew, it’s been a very long and full day. Time for a hot shower and hopefully a good night’s sleep. I’ve been so stressed that I have been sleeping poorly, but hopefully the exercise I did today will help.

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Proof That the SaskTel Governance Is the Issue

I’m scraping my jaw off the floor. I found a quote by the president of SaskTel from March of this year:

“‘High Speed Internet is essential in this day and age, whether you live in an urban or rural centre,'” said Ron Styles, SaskTel President and CEO. “Saskatchewan people deserve the same opportunities this access brings and SaskTel’s continued investment in providing this service is evidence of our commitment to this philosophy.'”

What a two-faced, lying, hypocritical rat bastard! This is the man who hasn’t answered any of my letters despite the office of the Ombudsman assuring me he would.Ā If any of this prattle was true, his customer service team would have been advised to fix mistakes as soon as they were made aware of them.

So there’s the problem with SaskTel right there. I’ve always known it wasn’t the front line people (who are superb). With a hypocrite like this at the helm who knows that he has all the power in deciding which communities get service and which don’t, it’s no wonder nothing is getting done. Shame on him!

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Disdain For the Internet

One of the CBC reporters said something to me yesterday that was ratherĀ an epiphany. I said to him, “I want internet access to be able to work. It’s not like I’m asking to do Netflix marathons.”

And do you know what he replied?

“This is the 21st century and we’re in a developed country. Getting on Netflix shouldn’t be an issue.”

He made me realise that I’ve been mad at the wrong people, like Google and Apple, for creating services that don’t take into consideration that not everyone on the planet has super duper high speed internet with unlimited bandwidth. They’re not the problem. The problem is ISPs. And in Canada, that means the problem is the government because it has given telecom monopolies all the power to set rates and service levels.

Not only does the Canadian government have a measure of disdain for this vital resource that the United Nations declared in 2011 as being as basic a human right as access for fresh water, but so do the people who decide who can and who can’t get the service. Whenever I’ve called SaskTel, they have been flummoxed by why I could possibly need internet that badly, wondering what the hell I do with all that bandwidth every month. It’s none of their business! I have an ‘unlimited’ data plan and I pay my bill eachĀ month. What I do with the service, as long as it’s not illegal, isn’t their concern and should have no impact on their decision to give me service or not.

It’s interesting that even after 20 years of internet coming into our collective consciousness, it is still regarded as a frivolous thing by so many people.Ā Whine about no access to television? That is a big deal. Whine about no access to internet? You’re an addict who needs to get a life.

It’s funny that things people consider to be necessities. I’ve lived long periods of my adult life without running water and electricity beyond what I could generate for myself and I have never had television. PeopleĀ think I’m nuts to live without those things. But I get by fine without them.

The only thing I need to have a quality of life, I have been denied at every step. When I had my house in Quebec, it was the exact same bullshit as here.Ā I briefly had good hard wired internet in a rental house before going RVing, as well as during my Campbell River and Lethbridge winters and many other stops along the road (thank you, lovely hosts!), but otherwise I’ve struggled with mobile bandwidth being cost prohibitive. Internet access has been, and remains, as much a struggle for me as it is for folks in Nepal.

It feels like I’m getting close to the future the internet promised me so many years ago. Finally, finally, I haveĀ an unlimited data plan at a rate that is fair at this time and in this place. Right now, in this country, my planĀ is the pot of gold at the end of the telecommunications cable. Yes, it slows to molasses speed after I use up 10GB, something I will address in a future fight, but for the first time ever I’m not worried about how much bandwidth I use and I don’t have to pay an arm and a leg for it!

SaskTel pissed off the wrong customer. They thought that by ignoring me, they’d get rid of me. How very wrong they were. I’m savvy about the issue, understand the technology, know my way around government red tape, and am used to speaking publicly. I am also tired of dealing with this crap. Now that I’m living somewhere I’ve decided to grow roots, I will not back down until I get satisfaction.

I still believe in the good things I’ve said about SaskTelĀ in terms of how much they’ve improved telecom in Saskatchewan in just a few years. But they have dropped the ball here with their stubbornness to rectify an obvious mistake and by treating me like I’m an idiot. I don’t live in the middle of a desert island in the high arctic, so stop telling me that I should go with satellite service.

I want 21st century internet speeds! I want to be able to sync my devices, do security updates, and send emails without any drama!

And being able to stream Netflix would be nice, too, thank you very much!

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The Plot Thickens

I had no sooner hit post on the last post when the phone rang. It was CBC Saskatchewan wanting to drive down to interview me about my internet situation!!!

A few hours later, a couple of handsome guys showed up and I was able to tell them my story in both languages (the French one said he hit the jackpot in getting a bilingual interviewee!). They were very sympathetic and outraged.

What is most interesting is that they called SaskTel to ask about our internet situation and as soon as SaskTelĀ heard where exactly, they completely clammed up. I now know that I have stirred up the ant’s nest and that they are not actually ignoring me. The reporter said it sounds like they’re scrambling behind the scenes to come up with a response.

Stayed tuned for the next riveting installment of We Want Internet Service On the Prairie!

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An Unsustainable Situation

I haven’t said much on the subject of work these past few months, afraid to jinx myself again like I did last time something wonderful happened in that sphere. So I’m going to tread lightly with the details and say that I finally got my dream job. It’s not transcription, it pays a professional wage, and I have reason to believe that it would be long-term (there is no job security in the freelancing world). I work set eight-hour shifts three days a week and I need reliable internet because I have to respond to emails very quickly.

This is why my internet situation has become so critical this summer. I can no longer go up the hill in the morning to download work for the day and then go back up in the evening to send it. I really need to be online and available every second of those shifts. Every shift since I got this job has been incredibly stressful because I never know from one second to the next if I’ll be able to do a Google search or send an email. Now that someone is working alongside me during my shift, I know that my unacceptable internet situation is going to be coming obvious because he can respond to emails while I’m still waiting for them to come in because the attachment is so ‘heavy’ (less than 1MB).

Let me reiterate that I did my due diligence when I bought my property. I had every reason to believe that I would have internet here after the building of the new tower in 2013. But SaskTel screwed up and I have no recourse against them.

My booster is waiting for me in Plentywood and I’ll head out there first thing Friday to pick it up, then will have a four-day weekendĀ to get it working. I don’t think I’ll want to do any permanent mounting until I’ve lived with it for a bit. I’m not expecting it to provide me with a miracle. All it will give me is, hopefully, a more reliable connection. I’ll still have the slow speeds when I’m throttled.

So the booster or a mobile office are going to be band-aids, nothing more. The fact is that this is it for internet at Haven forever because SaskTel will not bring us any sort of service except satellite, which is not much better than dial up, incredibly expensive to set up and use, and which has punitive bandwidth restrictions. They boast that I can get 40GB per month (which would be enough), but I read the fine print and there are daily restrictions that would slow me down to dial up speeds. I get better speeds than that on cellular when the connection is working okay, even when throttled.

Do you know how far hard wired broadband internet is from me? I bet you don’t and you will be surprised. I had a reader comment that I live ‘in the middle of nowhere.’ It does feel that way when you come from Assiniboia. But Willow Bunch has hard wired broadband and it is just 18KM away. When the gravel is well graded, like it was last night, I am tenĀ minutes driving distance from the nearest house that has hard wired broadband. Ten minutes. It might as well be a hundred years because SaskTel won’t consider bringing that to my community either.

I have at least twenty working years left, possibly thirty. So if I were to spend my summers here, that would be ten to fifteen years of my life struggling with the internet.

I’ve always made plans for my current income becauseĀ I’m not one to make plans for ‘the day I win the lottery.’ But now, it looks like I might haveĀ options I hadn’t anticipated.Ā I’m mobile. Why would I come here and struggle to work when I could go anywhere in the world? All that would happen would be that I would come to resent this place I love so much. Haven will always be that, a safe port, a place to drop off stuff and to sit and breathe for a few days or weeks. I cannot anchor myself to this place at this time, but it will always be a security blanket of sorts.