Internet Glitches

Dear friends, I am not here much any more. Our internet access is atrocious. Today is a rare exception. It is because we can't get cable or ADSL where we live, and the wireless connection gets congested. There is no help for it apparently. We could try satellite, which is said to be a lot more expensive, or dial-up, whch is agonsingly slow. Or we can put up with this – best access early morning or late night; otherwise subject to getting kicked off at a moment's notice, usually off altogether during day or flipping in and out for a few secods of  'in' at a time. Ridiculous! But we don't want to move house either, so will have to find ways to deal with it, without disrupting our sleep too much.

What else is new?

At present I'm fluey; he seems to be staving it off. Yes, doing all the thingsthat are suppoed to help and they are - slowly.

Occupational therapist has looked at our house and recommended modifications to help Dear Spouse, e.g. with getting in and out despite steep front steps, and Housing Dept. is actually going to do it all within 3 weeks! 

On Wednesday I take DS to see geriatric specialist. After that we will get Aged Care Assessment to see what our specifc needs are. 

Meanwhle we have updated wills, powers of attorney and guardianship.

This last month I've been even more immersed in poetry than ever, following two sets of prompts., combining prompts when possible. It's all on my Passionate Crone blog.  I don't think I'll take on any more of these marathons; too much effort! Now I have lots and lots of poems posted in first draft, awaiting revision.

The Haku on Friday and Tanka on Tuesday groups on facebook have taken off in such a big way that my co-administrator reckons we should be charging admission! We actually don't have to do much administrating; the participants run things themselves in a glorious spirit of anarchy. 

I've also been made an administrator of Free Verse Weekends over there, which I didn't start but which is full of wondrous poets I delight in reading.  

And I've joined two online groups of blogging poets, Poets United and dVerse, which have connected me with yet more wonderful poets. Poets United has even featured me already in the Blog of the Week and Life of a Poet spots!

The beloved cats are well.

We had a visit recently from my Firstborn, for a few days. We have one of those pick-up-right-where-you-left-off relationships, and didn't stop talking for the first 24 hours after he came in the door! He is a great blessing in my life, and did a bit of spoiling of Mum while he was here. 

A friend lent me the first coupla seasons of True Blood and I was instantly hooked. I had a marathon of watching, then hired season three for more, and by the end of it all was thinking in a Louisiana accent! (You should hear me say a long-drawn-out,  'True Blerd'.)

OK, must go. Tempting to stay here all day, the opportunity being so rare these days, but....

Love and kisses!

Bloody Telstra! (And the same goes for our Federal Opposition.)

Our wireless modem connection suddenly and without warning cuts out late on 4th January. I phone Technical Support. The technician can’t solve it and says he will alert the senior technicians and it will take ‘two days maximum’ to fix the problem. A senior technician phones me next day and says they are still investigating and please keep the phone lines open so they can let me know the outcome. On the 8th (three days later) I have still heard nothing, so I phone to see what’s happening. I’m told it is still under investigation and they have to send technicians to the region; five days maximum and please keep the lines open. I phone back on the 14th, i.e. six days later. Then I am told that the problem was resolved on the 8th; they found that it was not a fault in the network so I must have a faulty modem. Nice of them to let me know! The guy I’m talking to does some checks and finds that my modem is indeed faulty. They will replace it within three business days, i.e. by the 19th. Had we been informed on the 8th, we could have had the new modem by now.

I’m annoyed that, in a time of disastrous flooding nearby, when family and friends interstate and overseas wanted reassurance of our safety, we were left off the internet longer than necessary and asked to keep phone lines clear (so when people did phone, we were short with them).

Furthermore, this is the second faulty modem we’ve had within 12 months. What sort of crap are they supplying?

Unfortunately we are locked into a contract for another 12 months and it would cost too much to get out of it now. I was under the impression we had a very limited choice of servers here as we can’t get ADSL and must opt for wireless/ Telstra offered the best deal of those I investigated. This best is not very good in practice — the signal strength is so weak that our connection is sometimes as slow as dial-up. I have since learnt the choice is not so limited as I’d thought, but I won’t be able to take advantage of that for some time yet.

Of course, I wouldn’t have been in this pickle if we had cable. Will the Opposition PLEASE get out of the way and stop obstructing the roll-out of the National Broadband Network to rural areas?!