Rog has a new toy! The ads said "on sale, easy set up, portable, pay as you go," etc., and after thinking about it for a month (or more) Roger finally decided to buy himself a "tailgater" satellite dish. The RV is wired for cable/satellite so what could be difficult? Our cable signal is really poor here at the park (and always has been anywhere we've been) and the over-the-air antenna channels are limited and mostly Spanish speaking so that helped in the decision making process. The equipment arrived two days ago and as of this afternoon is working and working well!!! The day it arrived we opened a Dish account, plugged in the receiver and the dish per the instructions, turned on the receiver and.......nothing. Well, that's not entirely true - there was a large, in your face message that said the antenna couldn't find the satellites (odd since there is nothing but clear sky in all directions.) So, Roger went out and moved that cute little thing around - 3 times. Still, nothing. He then climbed up on the roof and set it up there. Still nothing. I got on the computer and did a "live chat" with the tech service folks. After an hour of trying all kinds of things we were instructed to do, the tech mentioned that the receiver box has to be plugged directly into the antenna dish - it can't go through the cable system in the RV. After much thinking, Rog came to the conclusion that because the electrical power for the dish antenna comes "up" on the coax cable from the receiver box, and that the coach's cabling system has a small amplifier in it, the satellite signal would never reach the TV. Nice! We walked around the park and checked out others. Sure enough, they had their dish on top of the RV with the cable running in through a window. Tacky!!!
The first night that is what we did - cable coming in the window, across the desk area to the receiver. Worked quite well! Not a solution, though. After lying awake for hours trying to figure this out, Roger decided that the cable in the RV just had a loose connection somewhere and if he could find it and tighten it then find a way to bypass the amplifier, voila!! He spent most of the afternoon yesterday searching for all the connections, tightening the ones he found, and still we got no signal. There are probably more connections that are unreachable but he would have to dismantle a lot of the RV and hope he could follow the line. Those connectors probably have been shaken loose while on the road. At this point he decided, reluctantly, that he was going to have to drill a hole in the side of his new RV and install a "through-the-wall" coax connecter avoiding all of the integral cable in the coach - an easier solution than trying to follow all the wiring, tighten connections, and then find a way to bypass the amplifier.
Of course all of his drill bits are in Sparks and the batteries for the drill are dead. A trip to Lowe's and the Home Depot for the right sized drill bits, some battery charging time and this afternoon he braved it! The whole system now works like it is supposed to!! We are in business! We only pay for service the months we are traveling and it's about half the cost of what we pay at home for Direct TV. Despite my original lack of enthusiasm for the purchase I am happy that he bought it and he is happy because he won't have to listen to me whine because I'm missing Masterpiece or Rachel Maddow or NCIS and he can get his sports, science and movie channels!!! Once again, Mr. Fix-it saves the day!!!
Our other adventure this week was discovering we were one of the Target hacker's victims. We got a call late Monday night from our credit union fraud folks. Someone in Georgia was using our number. Fortunately the system caught it right away and we only have one $75 charge to dispute. We got the new cards via FedEx yesterday and I have been updating all my "auto pay" accounts. It's been a minor inconvenience and certainly could have been worse if not for the security system checks the credit union has. The lady told me that the $75 charge was suspicious because we had charged something in Santee, CA at an RV parts place and an hour later someone was using that number in Georgia at a Kroger store! We should be all set now as we only used that one card at Target.
The back of the RV faces directly into the sun most of the day and when it is warm the RV heats up significantly, e.g., it's 72 outside but 85 inside during the early afternoon. This week we had a custom-made sunscreen put on the back window - one of those that reflects the rays, that you can see out of but not into, and helps keep the temps down inside. It has helped a great deal already and by the end of the week, when it is supposed to be in the 80s, we hope that it will help limit the amount of air conditioner time we have to have.
Some familiar faces have reappeared here in January. We've spotted Zinc Man out riding his bike and The Twins walk daily. They are a couple who appear to be older than we are who look like Mutt and Jeff in size but they wear identical clothing - hats, coats, pants, shoes, etc. We've seen them now for a few years. The Yahoos behind us, the Danish couple, the Shoe People, and the Shrine People are all still here in their respective sites.
We get rabbits, raccoons and coyotes at night. The rabbits and raccoons leave us little presents and the coyotes leave fur balls and feathers. Maggie has decided that the droppings are good to eat! She went out yesterday and it was like watching a vacuum cleaner - she just Hoovered up a bunch of droppings before we could stop her. Her other favorite thing when outside is to crunch the acorns from the tree behind us. Well, she and I paid for her indiscretions at 4:30 this morning. She decided to bring them up and deposit the remains on the throw rug at the end of the bed! She was feeling pretty bad so she and I cuddled on the coach until she stopped shaking and fell asleep again. Roger awoke and sent us both back to our respective beds!
I've got the back, front and one sleeve of my sweater completed. One more sleeve and then I can put it together and hope it fits! The last two books I checked out of the library are going back - one I've read (or seen a movie) and the other was just plain boring. Life is too short to waste reading boring books!!
I've been matched with a player on "Words With Friends" who is supposedly my speed and we have been playing this week. It's sort of weird playing a game with someone you don't know. At the same time I continue two games at one time with Rachel!!! Between the knitting and Words I keep busy during the commercials in the evening!!
I've downloaded an app called Duolingo - a free app to learn a language. I'm trying Spanish. It's been two weeks and I am still on the basics, of course, but the lessons are not quite as boring as when I took a class years ago. The app lets me go back and "practice weak skills," so I've been going over and over the same thing but lose fewer points each time. Maybe someday I'll be able to get past Lesson 2! The app does nag me when I don't practice so I can't forget to do it.
No excitement anticipated in the near future so I don't know if I'll have anything to journal, but who knows!! Stay tuned.
We get rabbits, raccoons and coyotes at night. The rabbits and raccoons leave us little presents and the coyotes leave fur balls and feathers. Maggie has decided that the droppings are good to eat! She went out yesterday and it was like watching a vacuum cleaner - she just Hoovered up a bunch of droppings before we could stop her. Her other favorite thing when outside is to crunch the acorns from the tree behind us. Well, she and I paid for her indiscretions at 4:30 this morning. She decided to bring them up and deposit the remains on the throw rug at the end of the bed! She was feeling pretty bad so she and I cuddled on the coach until she stopped shaking and fell asleep again. Roger awoke and sent us both back to our respective beds!
I've got the back, front and one sleeve of my sweater completed. One more sleeve and then I can put it together and hope it fits! The last two books I checked out of the library are going back - one I've read (or seen a movie) and the other was just plain boring. Life is too short to waste reading boring books!!
I've been matched with a player on "Words With Friends" who is supposedly my speed and we have been playing this week. It's sort of weird playing a game with someone you don't know. At the same time I continue two games at one time with Rachel!!! Between the knitting and Words I keep busy during the commercials in the evening!!
I've downloaded an app called Duolingo - a free app to learn a language. I'm trying Spanish. It's been two weeks and I am still on the basics, of course, but the lessons are not quite as boring as when I took a class years ago. The app lets me go back and "practice weak skills," so I've been going over and over the same thing but lose fewer points each time. Maybe someday I'll be able to get past Lesson 2! The app does nag me when I don't practice so I can't forget to do it.
No excitement anticipated in the near future so I don't know if I'll have anything to journal, but who knows!! Stay tuned.
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