Ahira's Hangar

Hey, folks, don't encourage Av too much. When he returns, I'm sure it will be with a vengeance, with new diabolical schemes for all of us. Sorta like Lord Foul after a few millenia's absence.

looks like your Michigan weather is headed for me Duchess!
Slippery mix, with change to snow - could get a couple of FEET of snow this afternoon/evening

Sorry you feel like crap, but very happy for you on your new computer and broadband internet! Yay!

I haven't performed a major upgrade on my PC since 2001! However, this past summer I did finally ditch my old 17" CRT and bought a 19" LCD display. LCD is soooo much easier on the eyes!

You have satellite TV, eh? Nice! Unfortunately, that's not a practical option for me.

I admire your patience in buying "big ticket" items. These days it's so easy to be lured into spending on credit all the time. But I gotta say, that jacuzzi sounds like a wicked idea!

Most people have satellite tv in these parts. The price is comparable to cable, and they have a lot more channels. Drive down to town and you will see a dish on every balcony in every apartment building.

I am pretty excited about the broadband, even though I have to wade through the hardsell from comcast to get it. And the new computer will be good, too. This one is getting to be very weird and buggy.

I have been having a sinus thing for awhile now. Have not missed any work yet, which might be why I am so run down for the weekend. yesterday I spent the day wrapped up in blankets drinking hot mint tea, watching corny old Doris Day and Esther Willimas movies on the classic movie channels. Today looks like mroe of the same. The guys wouldn't even let me go to the wrestling tournament today.

With the ice storm coming tomorrow, it might be really tempting to call in sick at work. Just saying.

I feel like we dodged a bullet today. That huge ice storm that has been nuking the plains states was supposed to hit us. But it is a bit too warm, so we have just been getting heavy rain all day instead.

I feel really happy for us, but really bad for the people who have lost their power and heat - that is terrible in the winter. Not to mention all of the people who have been killed on the bad winter roads. Not even four wheel drive can help you on ice.

Well, other than a bit of ice in the wee hours, which came down after I got home from work, we did miss the ice storm. It just rained really hard all day and night. I am so glad we did not get that monster storm!!!

Everything is all set for the big computer thing on Friday. The cable modem has arrived at our house. All of the new computer stuff has been delivered to the computer guru. He will come out on Friday morning and get the new stuff set up. The cable/broadband people will come out that afternoon and do their thing.

So the new computer and the cranky old computer (on its last legs) will be wired together in a network. That way when Calibaby is working on the internet (about a year ago I convinced him to do a lot of his business paperwork via email and he and his customers love it ) the kids can still play their Runequest game.

The upstairs will somehow be linked to the network, but will be somehow wired for wifi. That way Bigred can use his laptop anywhere upstairs, and when the little guy goes to to college and gets a laptop, too, he can also use it anywhere up there.

The broadband is expensive. We wanted to go with a high speed phone line, which is a lot cheaper, but we live too far out in the country to get that service. So it was between the cable people (expensive) and the satellite (even more expensive). They are slowly wiring the entire county for wifi, but have not reached our township yet, and are working really slowly as they do not have enough money. So in order to pay for the broadband, we are getting rid of our house phone (going pure cells) and getting rid of AOL as our ISP (we can still keep our AOL email adresses even if they are not our ISP). Between the those two costs, it comes within a few dollars of paying for the broadband.

We might not be around for a couple of days while the stuff is getting installed/moved/etc.

Duchess,

If you use any aspect of the AOL software other than email and it as an ISP, you can use the software free of charge with bring your own access connection. Of course the email is free and accessible anyway. But I much prefer AOL's email within the software than the webmail version of it.

You do give up technical support when you switch to BYOA AOL. But if it is not longer your ISP, how often will you need tech support anyway?

I've stubbornly resisted wireless internet. The only wireless, um, communications device I have is my cell phone, which I seldom use anyway.

How secure are wireless internet connections these days? When they first appeared, I recall there were stories about how easily wireless networks could be hacked. I don't know how much security has improved since then. I've been too lazy to find out. (Did I mention I'm a slacker?) For now, I'm perfectly content being "wired."

It's true that broadband still isn't cheap, but at least I save some money on my monthly bill by bundling my TV and internet service.

Hope the installation goes well!

The Web then becomes your playground.

As I just said on Watch: I'm too achy to go anywhere-I'm starting to get what Tam has and she's in bed as sick as a dog-so sick I had to put Elora in daycare. Time to make some hot chocolate, grab a blanket and curl up with FR-man this book kicks some serious ass!!!