Hi,

There are no pics this week.

It was a busy week. For many months, I have not been able to get a perfectly reliable internet connection at my office upstairs. It’s very good, but not perfect. About once a fortnight, it goes out for several minutes. Then it starts working again and it’s fine. It’s driving me nuts. I have been eliminating components one at a time. To get internet from the basement to the second floor, I’ve been using a pair of “Ethernet over power line” units. They were the only component I couldn’t eliminate. As Sherlock Holmes said, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

Our house was pre-wired for cable, data, and telephone. But the the way the did it, only the phone and cable worked. All wires go to a connection box in the basement. The connection box is not capable of handling Ethernet signals, the cables normally used for Ethernet had no connectors at the box, and the room I use for my office had all the wires (phone, Internet, and cable) in the wall behind a blank plate. I decided to wire it up. My first attempt was not successful. I decided to hire somebody else to do it. The salesman said the only way they could do the job would be to replace the connection  box (about $500). Then he showed me what I was missing. I ordered the stuff I needed on Amazon. It arrived this morning. (That’s right, Sunday deliver at no extra charge. What a country we live in!) I wired it up, and now it’s working. Before I button everything up, I want to add the coax cables in my office and put connectors on all the data cables in the basement. That way, if I want to make additional changes, all I have to do is plug and unplug the wiring that’s already there. I’ve done enough for today. (I am *not* getting more patient as I get older.) I should have everything wrapped up this week.

We tried to move our neighborhood web site and office Email to our domain again this weekend. It went very well. Everything is up and running with our domain and our new servers. I will have to set our office manager’s phone up to get Email when she is at work. That won’t be a problem. Wednesday, I’m giving a presentation on our new web site at a neighborhood breakfast. I’m quite happy to have everything “in production” before that presentation.

I bought a new bike this week. My old bike was a Trek touring bike. It had a steel frame — heavy but extremely sturdy. I won’t be doing any more touring, so I didn’t need the Trek any more. The Trek had 25,000 miles on it, and it was starting to show some age. Some things were starting to be a problem. They could all be fixed, but it would be kind of expensive. I was wondering how much money I wanted to spend on a 6-year old bike. Riding was literally becoming a pain in the neck. When riding the Trek, the rider leans forward because it’s very efficient to do so. I wanted to sit upright so my neck wasn’t bent so much. Finally, it’s really fun to have a new bike. I was able to get an aluminum bike with straight handlebars for less than it would cost to fix the Trek. My new bike even has disk brakes (the latest buzz in bicycles). It’s not a high-end bike by anybody’s definition. But it’s a nice bike and it gets me down the road. It’s not fully assembled yet. Fenders and a rear rack are on order. I’ll include a picture later when it’s done. I donated the old Trek to “Bikes for the World”. They can repair it economically because their mechanic labor is all donated. When they’re done, it will give somebody good service for a long time. It feels good knowing that somebody somewhere will get benefit from it.

Danita had some marginal results in her last blood work. The doctor ordered additional tests. Those results came in this  week. She’s fine, but would benefit from losing some weight. She’s been going to an aerobics exercise class twice a week and we’re both doing Yoga once a week. We’re thinking about whether there’s another exercise option that we can do together.

I’ll probably write late next  week and I’ll almost certainly have some pics. We’re going to Jul’s for a long weekend visit. We’re both excited about that.

That’s plenty of news for now. I hope this finds everybody doing well.