Up up up up up up up up!
Aug. 15th, 2009 04:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogOur week of Things Going Bump In The Day continues unabated, but we're keeping even with the gremlins.
Taillight: fixed. Shower curtain: fixed. Humidity-activated smoke alarm: no sign of trouble in days (I think I'll rehang it). Vacuum cleaner: repaired. Emily's car: I don't wanna talk about it.
Power supply for Eleanor's computer: in process. Twice, even. I re-ordered from the place that got her one, queek and cheep, six months ago (hmmm, maybe explaining the cheep part), and a computer-guru client is fixing up a second for her as we speak.
However, it's the internet in the house that is the most interesting feature here on Mount Master of Disaster.
Cable Guy got here at about 3:30. The line to the modem seemed to have signal, so a switchout of the modem seemed to be the quick fix. It wasn't. We then took the grand tour of 40 years of wiring on two stories, much of it installed by the original owner and not doing much beyond acting as a clothesline these days. Ultimately, he diagnosed a signal-overwhelming split, put in when the cable first came in back in the Adelphia Administration close to a decade ago, and by taking Emily's television offline, the cable modem fired right up.
Boosting the signal didn't help. Changing the splitter didn't help. Finally, though, we went outside to make sure that nobody (licitly or otherwise) was splitting the signal out there. There wasn't, but then Harold looked up.
Our neighbor has the most amazing wisteria plants on that side of the house. I've been aware for years of their tendency to wrap their tentacles around anything generating heat, magnetism or anything else of interest to a plant intent on taking over the planet. At least twice a summer, I beat it back and disentangle the line from the cable box all the way up to the tree line.
I'd never thought to look up past that point, though. Audrey II continues her choking act all the way up beyond the top of the plants, twisting and turning around (and probably in some places through) the "drop"- the cable coming from the mainline 90 of televised entertainment to our little Exit 16 rest stop.
He's put in a work order to replace that portion of line altogether. Snip snip on both ends and Audrey shrivels and dies. At least now I understand it wasn't my rumbling tummy crying out "Feed me!" in the middle of the night.
Through all of this, of course, the dogs were loud and annoying. It's their job. Zoey, on the other hand, literally slept through the whole thing- including a moment where Harold and I actually moved the bed she was sleeping on to check where the inside cable lines were going.
----
Eleanor's home soon. Unless today was another overwhelmer like yesterday was, we're off to Time Traveler's Wife tonight. I'm still on to be off on Tuesday afternoon, stopping in Bingo, New England, Queens and possibly Brooklyn before getting back here a week from tomorrow.
Taillight: fixed. Shower curtain: fixed. Humidity-activated smoke alarm: no sign of trouble in days (I think I'll rehang it). Vacuum cleaner: repaired. Emily's car: I don't wanna talk about it.
Power supply for Eleanor's computer: in process. Twice, even. I re-ordered from the place that got her one, queek and cheep, six months ago (hmmm, maybe explaining the cheep part), and a computer-guru client is fixing up a second for her as we speak.
However, it's the internet in the house that is the most interesting feature here on Mount Master of Disaster.
Cable Guy got here at about 3:30. The line to the modem seemed to have signal, so a switchout of the modem seemed to be the quick fix. It wasn't. We then took the grand tour of 40 years of wiring on two stories, much of it installed by the original owner and not doing much beyond acting as a clothesline these days. Ultimately, he diagnosed a signal-overwhelming split, put in when the cable first came in back in the Adelphia Administration close to a decade ago, and by taking Emily's television offline, the cable modem fired right up.
Boosting the signal didn't help. Changing the splitter didn't help. Finally, though, we went outside to make sure that nobody (licitly or otherwise) was splitting the signal out there. There wasn't, but then Harold looked up.
Our neighbor has the most amazing wisteria plants on that side of the house. I've been aware for years of their tendency to wrap their tentacles around anything generating heat, magnetism or anything else of interest to a plant intent on taking over the planet. At least twice a summer, I beat it back and disentangle the line from the cable box all the way up to the tree line.
I'd never thought to look up past that point, though. Audrey II continues her choking act all the way up beyond the top of the plants, twisting and turning around (and probably in some places through) the "drop"- the cable coming from the mainline 90 of televised entertainment to our little Exit 16 rest stop.
He's put in a work order to replace that portion of line altogether. Snip snip on both ends and Audrey shrivels and dies. At least now I understand it wasn't my rumbling tummy crying out "Feed me!" in the middle of the night.
Through all of this, of course, the dogs were loud and annoying. It's their job. Zoey, on the other hand, literally slept through the whole thing- including a moment where Harold and I actually moved the bed she was sleeping on to check where the inside cable lines were going.
----
Eleanor's home soon. Unless today was another overwhelmer like yesterday was, we're off to Time Traveler's Wife tonight. I'm still on to be off on Tuesday afternoon, stopping in Bingo, New England, Queens and possibly Brooklyn before getting back here a week from tomorrow.