Before Star link today:

After Star link today:

Only being up about 15 minutes. Needless to say: I’m Impressed. And so is SWMBO.

For us, the $120/mo is only $40 more than we’re paying now but looks to be completely worth it.

Fuck That’s Fast.

Years ago, a young Navy Pilot was injured while ejecting from his A-4  Skyhawk due to engine failure during a catapult shot from the carrier.

 Due to the heroics of a rescue helicopter crew and the ship’s hospital staff, the only permanent injury was the loss of one ear.

 Since he wasn’t physically impaired, he remained on flight status and eventually became an Admiral. However, during his career, he was always sensitive about his appearance.

 One day, the Admiral was interviewing two Navy Master Chiefs and a Marine Sergeant Major for his personal staff.

 The first Master Chief was a Surface Navy type and it was a great interview. At the end of the interview the Admiral asked him, “Do you notice anything different about me?”

 The Master Chief answered, “Why, yes, Admiral. I couldn’t help but notice that you are missing your starboard ear, so I don’t know whether this impacts your hearing on that side.”

 The Admiral got very angry at this lack of tact and threw him out of his office.

 The next candidate, an Aviation Master Chief, when asked this same question answered, “Well yes, Sir, you seem to be short one ear.”

 The Admiral threw him out as well.

 The third interview was with the Marine Sergeant Major. He was  articulate, extremely sharp, and seemed to know more than the two Navy Master Chiefs put together. The Admiral wanted this guy, but went ahead with the same question. “Do you notice anything different about me?”

 To his surprise, the Sergeant Major said, “Yes Sir. You wear contact lenses.”

 The Admiral was impressed and thought to himself, what an incredibly tactful Marine. “And how would you know that?” the Admiral asked.

The Sergeant Major replied: “Well, sir, it’s pretty hard to wear glasses with only one fuckin’ ear.”

Last Wednesday after taking SWMBO out for breakfast, we stopped by the Chef’s Store and bought 2 10-lb chubs of 80% burger. $66 +/-. Thursday I cooked up 10 lbs and started it in the freeze dryer. Today I did the same to the 2nd chub but saved enough out to make some kick-ass chili. And it was. The beans, mushrooms, and corn came out of our pantry (well, technically the can of Mexican Style tomato’s did too) since we NEED to start really using the freeze dried stuff. But, man, that chili was good. And, yes, I’m freeze drying the left-overs.

While all that was going on I re-initialized our modem to factory specs to see if that would help our Internet connectivity. Nope. Not really. But I do have way fewer “things” attached to the modem now. And re-installed only a few of the WI-fi electronics. (Our phones. My tablets.) Had to set up new ip addresses for all the devices and make everything connect to each other. Kinda fun but kinda a pain in the ass. But SWMBO has the NAS for her music and shows so she’s not complaining to me about not being able to do anything. That’s a plus.

So now we wait for the Century Link Tech to get here sometime Monday. I figure our drop-outs and really (really!) slow speeds are either the modem is just too old or there’s some type of of actual damage to our lines. Which was caused by our neighbors digging them up the last time we had these kinds of problems. (But, of course they called the “call before you dig” folks and THEY said it was okay to dig there …NOT!) Personally, I’m kind of hoping they’ve done it again and the Century Link folks turn them in or whatever they can do.

Absolutely not a lot of anything else going on. Still cold and wet out and has even snowed a few times this week. Did get out and start up my tractor and run it up and down the driveway a few times to be sure it (and I) still worked.

Coffee last Thursday with some of the NMARES members at the QFC. Didn’t order a $6 coffee this time. Had a $3 gator aid type drink instead. Holy Shit things are spendy in the QFC these days!

Bought another pump for the hydroponics experiment. Didn’t work much better than the last pump I bought. Looking at the chart on the side of the box I need the largest pump they make (195 gpm or something like that) to get my plants watered automatically. Next payday probably. Bought a new lamp that puts out different colored lights for what stage the seedlings are in. I don’t quite understand that part; yet. I will though.

The DSL and Internet lights on the modem are dark. Reboot.

So, let’s see if this will post.