It's been quite a day today! It has been marked on our calendar for over a week that today was going to be the day that a tech from Century Link, which is the company we get our internet from because there are no other options here in Lloyd, was going to be coming to rid us of our landline and...somehow magically increase the speed of our internet dramatically! WHOO-HOO!
I've always known that our internet is not the fastest but when we were in North Carolina, staying at the perfect house by the creek, I realized just how slow our service is. When I uploaded an image to my blog, it took less than five seconds in that house whereas here I can start the process here and go stir the soup and check on the bread and come back and it'll still be loading. Also, Mr. Moon was always complaining bitterly about the TV stopping and buffering, especially during the hours between 5 and 7:30 at night. So he finally called Century Link and they had services that might speed things up which of course involved getting a new router for a not-cheap price and paying for the service and so on. BUT, since we also wanted to get rid of the landline, it would probably end up being cheaper in the long run. So, yes! And like I said, we were pretty dang excited.
The tech was supposed to be here sometime between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. which is how these things work, of course. Last night we got a message saying that the hours had been narrowed to between 10:30 and 2:30 and by golly, the guy was here at 10:30! And he pulled the landline and he did some other stuff and showed us some corroded lines which he replaced and hooked up the new modem and we entered the new password into our devices and OH HELL YES! Our internet just skips right along now and I think back to when we all got our internet over the phone line and the beeps and squawks and more beeps and more squawks and the buffering wheel and how exciting it was when we got two phone lines into the house, one for the phone and one for our internet and now it's all just this one thing and I think I'll upload another image just for the enjoyment of how fast the process is.
Whoo-hoo!
That's what the sky looked like when I walked down to the little library box in front of the woman's house who chased me off the property across the street from her one time because of...who knows? And who has a sign on her gate that says, "Beware of God," but who I forgive because she put up that little neighborhood library. I had noticed that it was getting very, very sparse in there and so I gathered up some books, both adult and children's, and took them down there. I took some of the little children's books that I know I'll have no need of anymore and that I'm not that attached to and also two Magic School Bus books because I hate them and do not want to ever read them again.
There's still lots of room in there so I'll take more soon.
What was I talking about? Oh yes. The Speedy Gonzales internet.
Now- here's the ironic thing. For whatever reason, our cell reception is not happening. I'M TALKING ABOUT YOU, VERIZON! And it's not just our phones but also the tech's phone. He's on Verizon too. And let me tell you something- that company has no desire to help you figure out what's going on, even as to outage maps. Instead of our regular cell indicator at the top of our phone which is the little bars, it just says SOS which means that we can make emergency calls but no others and I am pretty sure that we're not receiving calls either. And of course...we no longer have the landline.
It's my darling friend Mary Lane's birthday today and I haven't been able to call her. Which- dammit. We always call each other on our birthdays. We've probably been doing this since about 1967 when our friendship began. I did text to alert her to the fact that I'm not ignoring her, I love her, and I am wishing her a happy birthday but I can't call her.
Sigh.
First world problem. I got a million of 'em.
I finally finished the puzzle that Jessie got me for my birthday today while the tech guy was doing his stuff. That's the picture at the top. I really enjoyed this one. And besides that...uh, I've not done much. Repaired a shoe strap on one of Mr. Moon's sandals, cleaned off the side board in the dining room.
Here's a picture that sits on that sideboard that I love.
That was Lily Rose Moon when she was about three, I guess? We were at Vero Beach and she was wearing a Seminole Indian skirt that I think I bought for May with a Dr. Science shirt which was also a hand me down. Look at that girl- as full of life and as bold as the Atlantic Ocean itself. Lily tamed me. She tamed all of us. My god, she was a force. She is still a force. There is no one like our Lily.
And since we're doing pictures of pictures on the sideboard, here's one of my very favorites of Hank and May when they were little.
This, I believe, was taken on St. George Island. I could be wrong. But that picture is so Hank, so May. Hank was probably the captain of a pirate ship in his mind there, and May was keeping watch, looking out, being happy to be with her brother. My beautiful children.
And this one which is one of those pictures, like the other two, that happened and I don't know why or how but I am so grateful it did.
Baby Jessie, definitely on St. George, waving to her PawPaw Jesse, for whom she was named. Lord, how he adored that child. And she loved him.
When I see the grandchildren fishing with their Boppy now, my mind goes right to this photo. Glen looks so much like his daddy in some ways and he, like his daddy, is such a very, very good man and grandfather.
I guess that's enough for this day. We had another good rain and tomorrow the temperature may not get over 90 degrees! What? To top it all off, Glen sold a boat. He advertised it on Craig's List and a guy named Tripp came to look at it and bought it. I got to meet Tripp as they had to come inside to do the paperwork and I absolutely enjoyed that experience. He looked just like a Tripp should look and as I told Mr. Moon, I do believe he has seen the inside of a country club.
Extremely polite young man from Valdosta, Georgia. May he catch many fish in that boat.
See you tomorrow.
Love...Ms. Moon
It's like stepping into a novel when I come in here, interesting characters, described in few but just right words, emotions I can observe, when they're not mine. It's a mini trip! Pictures, too.
ReplyDeleteI remember the fifteen minute loading experience I had many times!
Oh, goodness! Thank you so much, Ms. L. Those words mean a lot to me.
DeleteThis post was just a very fun post to read! Love the pics!
ReplyDeleteHave a good evening, see you tomorrow!!
Good- who doesn't need more fun?
Deletethose clouds in the photo.....wow! Hope your get your Verizon service figured out....good luck with that! If it's not one thing, it's another, eh? and those pics of your children.....fierce, each and every one! Funny.....you met Tripp today......and just yesterday I met my hubby's newest employee (of 4 months) Zeke. I expected a rasta hippy.........NOT what I met yesterday! I met a slender, quiet young man........ lovely and warm.....who was NOT like anyone I had envisioned. Isn't that odd how our preconceptions can lead us ....somewhere not *present*? Hope that makes sense
ReplyDeleteSusan M
Well, Tripp, as I said, pretty much looked exactly like I had envisioned he would. But very nice and polite.
Delete"Zeke" does sound like a man who could be a Rasta hippie. Ha! I'm glad you liked him, even though he wasn't a Rasta hippie.
Nothing more satisfying than a no complaint day, perhaps not including Verizon. They're my carrier, too, since the beginning of time, though not in the days of dial up. That was the land line provider, of course.
ReplyDeleteThe old photos of your children are priceless. Beautiful.
Thank you, Joanne. They are so precious to me, those photos.
DeleteI'm glad you are rid of your landline but Verizon had better get their act together. In some cases a landline is necessary because it is tethered and therefore cannot be lost. I remember dialup internet and it was not fun The only advantage was our phone line rang busy and i hated to talk on the phone. Still do.
ReplyDeleteI just laughed over your mention of the busy signal. Yah- that part would definitely please me now.
DeleteWhere I live, there is no cell service. At all. Can you make Wi-Fi calls on your cell phone? -Sarah in Vermont
ReplyDeleteI guess we can only make emergency calls. Can't do wi-fi calls. And if I'm wrong and you can, I don't know how to do it.
DeleteProbably haven't needed or used that land line in months or even years and the very day you have it removed you lose cell service. That would definitely happen to me. Those pix are great and a reminder that no matter how many kids you have each one is unique.
ReplyDeleteExactly! We have not even had that line plugged in in forever because we were only getting spam calls. Truthfully, though, this was not the first time we ever had one of those SOS situations on the cell phone.
DeleteIsn't every child completely different? Maybe if you had a dozen some of them would be more like each other. Not an experiment I'd like to have tried, though.
Great- a boat sale!! cleaning up the camp as it is called...when the old folks make the young folks happy with stuff well cared for! I am procrastinating doing that...besides all the youth up here only seem to be interested in farm equipment- I don[t have any...
ReplyDeleteBTW welcome to this century with Speedy Gonzales !
What?! No farm equipment? What sort of Wyoming girl are you?
DeleteBut yes, one boat down. It's a start. I'm really glad he got rid of it. Boats are just a pain in the ass and now it can be a pain in Tripp's ass although honestly, I hope it runs well for him.
It is nice to have "real" internet.
I truly thought that was Glen in that photo. Something about the way he is standing and waving. These are certainly photos and memories to cherish.
ReplyDeleteOh yes. Glen favors his daddy a lot.
DeleteThe jugsaw is lovely but the family photos are the best! Find out which cell phone service covers your area and ditch Verizon.
ReplyDeleteWell, from what I can, Verizon is the best of the lot. At least we can get reception in our house which not all of the services do.
DeleteThey're pushing fibre big time over here and my friend (who was with the same company as me) got it last year - and ended up without wifi for four months. The company were absolutely useless so she paid to get out of her contract and went with another company - who fixed the problem in 10 minutes. So I'm waiting until October when my contract runs out because if I do switch to fibre I'll be damned if I'm paying to get out of a contract that doesn't serve me! Who knows, maybe they've fixed the problem by now!
ReplyDeleteIs the fibre supposed to be faster? Having to buy yourself out of a contract would suck but I guess it's better than never having internet. Damn.
DeleteI love that jigsaw, just the type I like...not too hard!
ReplyDeleteExactly. I am not good at them but I do enjoy them.
DeleteWonderful pictures, I wonder if pictures from way back are so precious to us because we did not have the gadgets we use today when we take gazillion pictures.
ReplyDeleteThe lady who chased you off the property once, maybe she is dyslexic? Beware of God could also mean Beware of Dog.
Heh-heh. She could be dyslexic but I think she's probably trying to be...funny? I think she has problems.
DeleteI believe you are right about how much more precious pictures used to be because they were much harder to produce.
Magic School Bus books. Now that's a truly awful read aloud experience. I could never follow them. Whenever my children insisted on reading them, which was often--or at least it felt that way, I'd think, "What's wrong with this teacher? She takes kids on field trips without so much as a permission slip. And she takes them to dangerous places like the inside of a colon or a reptile museum with no cages or the surface of the sun. How can she get away with this without so much as a scolding from the principal?"
ReplyDeleteHow do these books escape the book banning fascists? Aren't these much more dangerous than learning the unvarnished truth about the history of race in America? Kids might get ideas from books like these.
I'm not really suggesting banning them. No books should be banned. But they make for a truly miserable reading aloud experience.
Susan- I always had the same feelings about that crazy-ass teacher. I mean, I appreciated the concept but mostly the "story" was a nightmare. And that one kid who's always getting lost in a hurricane or whatever? And if kids want to read these books when they can read, fine. Do not ask me to read them out loud.
DeleteMy cousin has a tin roof on her house. They have kept their landline because she says the roof interferes with their cell service. I don’t understand it but maybe worth researching. MS Nell
ReplyDeleteWell, I doubt that's true about the tin but it may be. We've been told that for us its the horsehair plaster with sheetrock over it that makes it more difficult for us to get reception. Who knows?
DeleteI learned years ago that aluminium insulation just inside the roofing tiles (or whatever other material is used for roofing) is what was blocking my TV signal. The antenna was inside the roof space and as soon as we got an outside antenna the TV was fine. Horse hair plaster and sheet rock shouldn't be any problem at all, probably that is their excuse for not wanting to do more work to fix things in the hope that you would buy new products.
Deletechildren know who they are from the very beginning don't they? that picture of Hank and May, Hank knew who he was even then. those are some great pictures. there's a little library across from the post office here. I filled it up with a box of books a neighbor gave us that we had read them all and didn't want to keep them.
ReplyDeleteHank has always known exactly who he is. I love that about him. Among many other things.
DeleteThose little library boxes are so cool. Jessie actually has one in her front yard.
I love the pictures of your children, and your rambley ambley recollections. Verizon doesn't DO customer service. We have Breezeline, which is our only option here. We went through a year of hassle. We finally got it straightened out but lord, I spent hours on the phone. HOURS.
ReplyDeleteI've never even heard of Breezeline.
DeleteYou're right about customer service and Verizon. One thing that cracked me up is that when I was trying and trying to log in to the site to get some answers (and could not) it said that even without logging in, you COULD make a payment. Haha! I bet.
I enjoyed seeing those old photos. Don't you just sometimes wonder - where did the time go? How did it all happen so fast? I'm glad you have many sweet, memories to celebrate and those treasured photos always help with that...
ReplyDeleteAll the time. I wonder where the time went all the time. Except for when I'm wondering where it's going now.
DeleteLovely old photos of babies and children.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand the "Beware Of God" sign. Will god smite thee? Or, is there no god and it's all a scam so beware?
I have no idea about the meaning behind Beware of God. If it's a joke it's not very funny and if it's not a joke, it's sort of disrespectful in my opinion.
Delete37paddington: I love the buoyancy of this post and all the old photos that you can now upload at the speed of light. How I adore seeing your babies as babies. Such life and joy in them from then!
ReplyDeleteAnd I adore seeing the pictures of your babies as babies.
DeleteWell, that's exciting -- to be rid of a boat! Isn't that a famous expression -- the two best days of a man's life are the day he buys his boat and the day he sells it? (It's a rather sexist expression, but I'm sure it applies equally to women.)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you stocked up the neighborhood library and I hope others appreciate it! Love the old family photos. I do remember that woman throwing you off that property, even though it isn't hers!!
Yes! I had forgotten that saying! But it's true, I think. And let's face it- it is generally men who buy and sell boats.
DeleteYes, I wrote about that woman kicking me off the property when I was trying to take some pictures of the old house on it. I guess everyone needs to feel important in some way.