Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

[bill_g]

hmmmm ... Ziply customer satisfaction is hovering at negative one star. They cut off my DSL at exactly noon just as I was in the middle of a support Teams call for a down system. I finished on cellphone. I just chilled. Then I verified I could get a working hotspot going despite fair to poor coverage at my desk.

Ate lunch. Took a nap. Got up to a text msg from the cheery Ziply tech saying he was on his way with a time stamp of 1:44pm. He arrived at a quarter after 4pm. Nice enough guy. He dug right in. Determined the new fiber run was dark. Check at the crib in the street. New fiber drop good. Dark port. Checked down by the road. Dark there too. Put a fork in it. Closed his ticket, and handed it off to Zip Support. They texted me to chat with them at https://howthehellcanichatwhenmyinterne ... lliant.com.

I had the original service order and support desk direct number where I was able to reach "Danny". He was polite and enthusiastic, but there was a bit of a language barrier, and a whole lotta .........................latency. If I made any sound, he would get about six more syllable out before he would stop in case I was trying to talk. It was painful. But, he got right to work on finding someone to reconnect my DSL. I was on and off hold several times over the next half hour as he tried to get next level support on the line. We mutually agreed someone would contact me when they were ready to address the issue.

And sure enough at a bit before 10pm they called to have me check the DSL modem. Link up! Woohoo! But! How did they know I'd still be up at 10pm? (sigh) It's kind of odd being on the other end of a support call late at night. New experience for me. Check that off my list.

I'm looking forward to their solution.

[bill_g]

Like hey my dudes, check out the gnarly buds on my chard. Like totally epic man.

[bill_g]

My Ziply Fiber satisfaction is sitting on a positive 3 stars now. I'll give it a few days. Today was the fourth scheduled visit, and as in the past the 8 to noon thing went out the window. "Justin" showed up a bit after 1pm. I smiled, let him in, and didn't mention anything about missing the morning appointment. He's here. Let him work.

And he did great. He got the fiber port in the street crib working lighting up my drop. Then he installed all the required hardware, and fired it up. I've got 100/100mbps now instead of aDSL. Ookla Speedtest agrees. Measured 98 down and 96 up. Lovely. I was happy with 7mbps DSL. I won't even notice the improvement. But, it's half the monthly price. I'll notice that.

Probably time to cancel the house phone now too, and just use the cellphone. I haven't used the house phone in a long while, and everyone calls me on the cell anyway. That would drop my total phone bill by two thirds. That's a good incentive. And if I'm cutting throats, Comcast might be next. I do watch it because I'm paying for it, but I spend far more time on Netflix, Prime, and Paramount than I do on cable. That's an easy $140/mo cut. With the phone bill, that's three kilobucks a year. That buffers my inflation increases for a couple years.

I think I got me a plan.

[keith]

Yeah, im close to killing the landline too. I just need to train my sisters to call the mobile instead.

[Foggy]

A truck backed off the edge of our driveway yesterday afternoon and got stuck. Spun his wheels so much, he cut our fiber optic cable and our house is offline. Using hotspot now. Bill_g, if you're bored c'mon over and we can try to splice it or sumpin'. 'Course, they are going to have to replace it from the street to the house (125 yards or so). They'll be here at 2 pm. Then they'll have to call for the replacement cable, unless they carry that length on the truck.

Hotspot works, tho ...

[zekeb]

A truck backed off the edge of our driveway yesterday afternoon and got stuck. Spun his wheels so much, he cut our fiber optic cable and our house is offline. Using hotspot now. Bill_g, if you're bored c'mon over and we can try to splice it or sumpin'. 'Course, they are going to have to replace it from the street to the house (125 yards or so). They'll be here at 2 pm. Then they'll have to call for the replacement cable, unless they carry that length on the truck.

Hotspot works, tho ...

You can fix it yourself. Just kinda twist the broken ends together and the wrap the splice together with black tape. You need the black tape for waterproofing, that's all.

[Foggy]

Yeah, that'd work just fine, but ... I can't even see the broken ends. I inspected it yesterday. I'd have to use a hoe or sumpin'. It's muddy and there are 20 years of autumn leaves at the bottom of my driveway. It's kinda gross, tbh. That's why I need bill_g, he's younger than me.

The guy dug down about 8" with his truck tires. I thought the cable was buried deeper than that. Maybe there's some other cause of the loss of network connectivity.

Back this afternoon. Pool opens at 10, and it was warm enough that I SWAM FOR THE FIRST TIME IN TWO YEARS, YAY. So I'll be there when it opens.

[bill_g]

Yeah, im close to killing the landline too. I just need to train my sisters to call the mobile instead.

Oddly enough, me - the guy that works telecom - is the last to cut the cord. The kids have always been CPO (cell phone only). I don't think any of them ever had a landline. All my siblings dropped their service long ago. Two of them are devout Apple owners. The rest of us are Android. I don't think any of the kids use Apple products.

I have three cellphones. I've got the company phone with the same number since the early 90's when Nextel was a new thing. That's the one everybody calls me on. I have my own phone on AT&T / Consumer Cellular. I purchased it shortly after "retiring" not anticipating that I would linger on the company roles as long as I have. Nobody has that number. I don't even have it memorized. And now I have Mrs old phone too. To this day she gets a call a week from doctor's offices reminding her to schedule her next appt. I haven't quite decided when to cut that service. But, everbody we know *has* that number. So, it would be a quick edit for them to change it to my name in their contacts.

Wheels are turning, and we are past six months of the grieving process. I have a new normal ... kind of. Still refining it, and phones are in the equation.

[bill_g]

A truck backed off the edge of our driveway yesterday afternoon and got stuck. Spun his wheels so much, he cut our fiber optic cable and our house is offline. Using hotspot now. Bill_g, if you're bored c'mon over and we can try to splice it or sumpin'. 'Course, they are going to have to replace it from the street to the house (125 yards or so). They'll be here at 2 pm. Then they'll have to call for the replacement cable, unless they carry that length on the truck.

Hotspot works, tho ...

Oh wonderful. They will charge somebody dearly for that repair. I don't know if they'll come ready with a 500ft connectorized jumper or not. Depends on how good their record keeping is. They won't splice it in the dirt. They'll pull a new strand, and abandon the old one.

The primary tributary cables are usually pretty deep. They want to get below any other buried service (power, water, cable tv, sewers). They always run a 2-4 inch diameter PVC duct (heavy plastic conduit) as they do the horizontal boring from crib to crib, and then pull their distribution through it.

Those ducts can take a heavy equipment shovel strike, but not the small drop to the customer. The final drop to the PoP (point of presence) at the subscriber house is always shallow and barely cut into the dirt. The property owner needs to make a mental note where *NOT* to thrust a shovel in the garden or yard.

[bill_g]

A truck backed off the edge of our driveway yesterday afternoon and got stuck. Spun his wheels so much, he cut our fiber optic cable and our house is offline. Using hotspot now. Bill_g, if you're bored c'mon over and we can try to splice it or sumpin'. 'Course, they are going to have to replace it from the street to the house (125 yards or so). They'll be here at 2 pm. Then they'll have to call for the replacement cable, unless they carry that length on the truck.

Hotspot works, tho ...

You can fix it yourself. Just kinda twist the broken ends together and the wrap the splice together with black tape. You need the black tape for waterproofing, that's all.

Use a drinking straw filled with Vaseline.

Cleave the broken ends with a super sharp edge like a utility razor blade. It's gotta be square to the cable, and perfectly flat on the end. Clean with alcohol and a lint free cloth (not your tee shirt). Cut a plastic drinking straw about four inches long. Pack it with Vaseline. Insert the two clean fiber cable ends into the straw until they butt against each other. Wipe off any Vaseline that is displaced by the cable. Carefully hold them in the position as you secure the cable to the straw with black electical tape. The Vaseline will fight you, and prevent the tape from sticking. Just persevere.

By the time you have that accomplished, the repair crew will be there to take over, and they'll cut all that stuff out. But hey, you weren't bored while you waited.

[bill_g]

Yeah, that'd work just fine, but ... I can't even see the broken ends. I inspected it yesterday. I'd have to use a hoe or sumpin'. It's muddy and there are 20 years of autumn leaves at the bottom of my driveway. It's kinda gross, tbh. That's why I need bill_g, he's younger than me.

The guy dug down about 8" with his truck tires. I thought the cable was buried deeper than that. Maybe there's some other cause of the loss of network connectivity.

Back this afternoon. Pool opens at 10, and it was warm enough that I SWAM FOR THE FIRST TIME IN TWO YEARS, YAY. So I'll be there when it opens.

I'd love to help, but my fingers are allergic to rocks and sand. And mud. Gotta wear special rockproof gloves, and my old ones went missing. I'll be over as soon as I find some good replacements. The Chineses knockoffs I got from Temu didn't last a single day. I'll call ya!

[Foggy]

Use a drinking straw filled with Vaseline.

Yep, that did it. And I have some duct tape in a lovely mac-and-cheese pattern, that I put on top of the electrical tape, to keep that Vaseline in there. Actually, I mixed a little bit of oatmeal and sawdust in the Vaseline, to make it more stable. That'll last for years, so I sent the repair crew away.

Thanks for the tip, I have fixed the problem.

[bill_g]

Use a drinking straw filled with Vaseline.

Yep, that did it. And I have some duct tape in a lovely mac-and-cheese pattern, that I put on top of the electrical tape, to keep that Vaseline in there. Actually, I mixed a little bit of oatmeal and sawdust in the Vaseline, to make it more stable. That'll last for years, so I sent the repair crew away.

Thanks for the tip, I have fixed the problem.

Nice Foggy! Well done. Glad to help.

Pro-tip: heat the vaseline in the microwave 10 seconds at a time until it is liquid. Then you can draw it into the straw with a little suction.

[keith]

New title coming soon to Amazon:

Electronic Repair for Fogsters

[Foggy]

Hay mister funny man, I'll haz you know I did a perfect restoration of my internets by adjusting the framulator and replacing the horizontal drathonishtal elevenor struts. It's all over now, sorry you missed it.

[bill_g]

Damn it!

I was helping Shizzle with ideas to help his Dad, remembering what I needed to do for Mrs, and the radio played Blink 182 "One More Time". That song was in heavy rotation on the radio back when I traveled back and forth to the hospital daily to visit Barbara last October and November. It became the theme song for her death.

Opened that wound right up.

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28avi-bsg bedside.jpg (6.87 KiB) Viewed 1874 times

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[MN-Skeptic]

It's funny, too, how all of a sudden you listen to songs from the past and where they're all about losing a boyfriend or a girlfriend, now you listen to them with the view of the permanent loss of a spouse. You know that's not what they're about, but it still hurts all the way through. Dang.

[Uninformed]

Ow! So many triggers, so many memories

[keith]

It's funny, too, how all of a sudden you listen to songs from the past and where they're all about losing a boyfriend or a girlfriend, now you listen to them with the view of the permanent loss of a spouse. You know that's not what they're about, but it still hurts all the way through. Dang.

While reading this just now this is shat was playing on my silverdisc music machine

[bill_g]

Thanks Keith. That was a good cover of a classic. And a surprising pair.

***

Happy Pappy's Day. Good long evening with my boys. It's been a while. Cathartic is overbilling it. Releasing would better describe our time together. A lot got thrown around the table. Loud at times, but in a good way. And a ton of memories got told.

We all ate together at a new-ish sammich restaurant in Beaverton. Kramers. Off Lombard. Part of a redevelopement of the near downtown area over there. Three floors of condos over several first floor commercial spaces that included four eateries and other shops. The kids wanted the tri-tip French Dips. I went with the spit roasted chicken on sour dough. They do it all including baking the bread and making the aioli. Easy four of five star.

Then the womennen said Good Night and went in one direction, while all us mennenen went to my place. It's hard to believe my children are 50 and have grandkids of their own now. Whoa. But, we actually kept it pretty tame. We're all old men on statins now. So, no liquor. Just water. And only a couple hits on some Mimosa I had.

That turned us into chatter birds. Took the safeties off the switches. Talking about times in basic. Trips through airports after 911. That time on Lake Michigan. That time he reacted badly to the shot he got in a dentist's office. Some were retellings of stories we've heard before. Others were new memories never shared filled with gasps and laughs.

Good Day.

Happy Pappy's Day!

[bill_g]

It's funny, too, how all of a sudden you listen to songs from the past and where they're all about losing a boyfriend or a girlfriend, now you listen to them with the view of the permanent loss of a spouse. You know that's not what they're about, but it still hurts all the way through. Dang.

I watched the Yellowstone prequels 1883 and 1923 on Paramount+ this week, and they were loaded with triggers for me. I almost stopped watching 1883 because of all the death and agony. Every episode had something that hit deep. I stuck with them. Overall good shows. I have no idea how historically accurate they are. YMMV

[bill_g]

I've had the fiber internet for better than a week now, and am satisfied with the service so far. In general I don't notice the enhanced speed over DSL. I mostly watch TV at 780p which is not much of a bandwidth load these days. Where I do see the improvement is uploading documents and photos. Returning forms and scans is painless now.

So, with that in mind I canceled service to my landline. I looked through the Call ID list going backs months, and none were family or friends. Only a few were people we did business with. The rest were spam or unidentified. We've had the ringer turned off for quite a while, and screen every call through the recorder. That should have been an indicator we could have cut the cord a year or more ago. I held out hope that we were helping people keep a job and career. But, it's clear the telco industry is moving away from copper and going fiber. So, I made that move, but dropped all voice services. I can always change my mind later.

***

Graduation week for neighbor's high school and college children. We've lived here for over thirty years. We watched all these kids grow up. Every one of them has mowed my lawn, or done something to help around here. Their gifts through the years of painted rocks and handmade bird boxes still grace the front flower beds for all to see. I ate more than my share of spicy chicken, BBQ fish, tater salad, and other people's favorites at their house. I got to catch up with the ones that were married with kids now returning home to celebrate this milestone of their siblngs.

Tick tock - where has the time gone?

***

I dipped my toe back into the water of cleaning out Mrs' stuff accumulated in the bedrooms. I'll keep doing it through the Summer for as long as the clear weather is with us. Friday is garbage day. So, Thursday morning I set a number of useful items at the end of the drive for people to see as they drive by. The new-in-box Ninja Smoothie mixer did not last long. Neither did the plastic rolling cart with six drawers, or some old tools. I set the garbage can right next to them so it was within easy distance Friday morning for some of it. The rest will go to Goodwill today.

Nobody wanted the unright bagless Hoover with attachments. It was our primary at one time. We've gone through so many vacuums. I think we've had one of everything. I don't recall what I've done with retired ones in the past, but Goodwill doesn't take these anymore. Too many were non-working, and Goodwill's mission does not include being a landfill concierge service. They refuse them at the receiving dock even if you're willing to prove they work. It's fate may be cut up with my sabersaw to fit in the garbage can. I have three vaccums. I don't need a fourth.

[qbawl]

Just a thought if you have a nearby Community Theater group the may be interested in the Hoover (or other things) for use as a prop or set dressing.

[bill_g]

Just a thought if you have a nearby Community Theater group the may be interested in the Hoover (or other things) for use as a prop or set dressing.

:out-of-the-box-thinking:

!

Hmm ....

[AndyinPA]

Just a thought if you have a nearby Community Theater group the may be interested in the Hoover (or other things) for use as a prop or set dressing.

:out-of-the-box-thinking:

!

Hmm ....

Yeah. My husband had two tuxes. I didn't give them to Goodwill as I think a theater group might be interested.