TV's on the Fritz Again

Wouldn't you just know it, the frickin' TV did it again. Well, to be honest, it's not the TV that's to blame (although I'm sure it's played a part). It's probably the satellite and it's so-called 'receiver'. It could also be the dish. Or, it could be the cables (there's two, one innie and one outtie). Hell, it could also be the screws and nuts and bolts holding the thing together.

Our Trusty Receiver

I know what the problem is. They didn't use any duct tape when they initially installed the thing - and they called themselves "professionals". Hah! Red Green would'a called them on that right then and there on day one.

To be fair, the thing has operated more or less trouble-free for several years now. It just went on the blink the day before the election. I'm not sure if we were lucky or not with that because it got fixed in time for the big day.

Fixing it was easy. All it took was several phone calls - long distance ones too, I might add. There's an online self-help section where you can hit a button and get your 'receiver' reset. Weird that you're limited to four times in a day to do that. Did I mention that that didn't work? Well, it didn't.

The next step involved the first of several of those long distance calls I mentioned. Without talking to a real live human being you can get their 'great computer' (this has to be said with the 'tone and voice of Doom' for best effect.) to do some sort of magic reset of your 'receiver'. This I did three times, and lost my patience.

At that point, I decided it was necessary for some human intervention, but first, I thought I'd check the TV and the 'receiver' just on the off-chance that the thing was fixed. This was on the morning of the election.

Whoa! it was. It worked great. In fact, better than great. We were able to look at channels that we hadn't been able to see for months. I guess it's not unusual to have the system drop the odd channel now and then. If you're on your game, you can use the online bit to reset your 'receiver' and regain the use of the missing channel. I obviously wasn't - and wasn't for some time as we had probably over half of our channels that were non-functioning.

It's easy to convince yourself that the problem is related to weather. I mean, we're just coming to the end of hurricane season and that would likely spawn all kinds of problems. Plus, it's the tropics, it's hot, humid and it rains a lot during the rainy season, which is the same as hurricane season.

Well, since the channels were all working, there seemed no need to seek human intervention, right? Right. So, we enjoyed unfettered television for the rest of the day. We could, if we wanted, watch every pundit on Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC, CBC, BBC (At times, I swear, the Brits and Canadians were more into the election than we were... Not that we were really all that 'into it', but you know what I mean), and the Comedy Channel, especially the Daily Show with John Stewart. Oh, my mistake... That's where we get our real news.

I managed to stay up real late and watch the election until 9:00 PM Belize Time, which is more or less, the Central Time Zone, except we don't follow daylight savings time down here. At that point, I decided sleep was the most important thing that I could do. I'd find out who won and who lost in the morning. I went to bed confident that I'd be able to get up in the morning and be gloriously surprised at who did what when it hit the fan, or didn't, as the case may be.

Well, I was surprised alright. Tuesday morning turned out to be a repeat of the day before the election. Did you know that in Singapore, the day before an election is called the 'Cooling Off Day'? That sounds like something that would be worthwhile to consider here... Maybe make it a month or so, instead of just a day.

Man, these digressions just get the best of me. So, the 'receiver' is up to its old tricks again. And again, I tried three or four times for the online reset method. Naah. That didn't work last time, nor did it work this time. Ok. Time to call for the human interface.

After I made connection with the human (Didn't even have to wait in an electronic queue), things were progressing well. the human had me accessing screens and punching number sequences. It felt good, I tell you. A few more key strokes and... Click. We got disconnected. I should have known. Back to the tried and true methods.

A few more times of logging-in to the reset section and a couple more calls to the automated reset bit. Waited about a half hour. Drank some coffee, got distracted and happened to glance over at the Tube. It's working. Once again a miracle has occurred. All that day, it's fine.

Then comes the night. We actually considered leaving the thing on all night just to keep the 'receiver' happy and full of channel selections. No, we were confident that we had cracked the nut and everything was going to be fine, so off it went.

Here comes the following morning. Guess what? You know the drill. Nothing, nada. Just the 'Standby. We're reloading your frickin' channels once again' message on the screen.

May I Have Your Attention Please

Only this time, that's it. That's all we got. All day. We even involved or neighbor, Vivien in the fracas. Late in the afternoon, she's all set up with a cell phone in each hand. On one, she's talking to the human at tech central, on the other she's talking to me, then to Dianna, after the tasks required more than just one hand.

Well, we got nowhere. the human at you-know-where, was convinced that the problem was somewhere outside - which meant that in his mind, the dish was misaligned or the cables were shot or something, even though I swore on a stack of user manuals that I had already checked all that and everything was copacetic.

After, about a half hour of wasted long distance time, we hung up. Vivien had given us the name of somebody down here in the 'remote jungles of Borneo'... Oh, wait, that's in the book I'm reading. He's here in Corozal and apparently fixed Vivien's satellite TV problem not more than two or three weeks ago.

Well, what do you know? A local expert.

I wonder if he has duct tape?

We're Reduced To Actually... Reading

Yesterday, about 4:00 PM, or so, our pleasant and mostly mindless TV watching came to an abrupt halt. Yep, Star Choice or Shaw Direct or whatever, according to rumor and actual fact, pulled the plug on satellite boxes physically located outside of Canada.

Boring Movie, Not Much Action

 Not for everybody, I guess. Some of our neighbors still have the ability to watch hockey and F1 (Formula One for the great unwashed) and cooking and remodeling and the Cubs. I guess they must have 'shared' connections. That is, an account up north and an additional box or two that they've brought down here to paradise.

Anyway, we're re-discovering this wonderful thing that you actually do with your hands and eyes and inside your brain where there's this wonderful undocumented feature called imagination. Where, if you're skilled enough at 'reading', why, it's almost like watching a movie, complete with color, sound and action. Unfortunately, there's no advertisements - Oh, wait. That is a benefit not a problem.

A Little Bit Of Our Library

 So, this means that I'll probably finish 'Rise and Fall of the Third Reich' in the next day or two, and then, actually have to explore some of the almost 600 other books that I have on my eReader, and some of the many other actual books that we have virtually all over our house.

My Sony eReader

In all reality, this is actually a boon. We suddenly have much more time to devote to one of our favorite activities - reading. What a joy!

We are actually missing some of the shows I mentioned above. Well, maybe not the hockey or F1, although some of my neighbors are hooked on those sorts of programs. We'll keep plugging away at this 'reading' thing and let you know how we adjust over the next few days and if a solution to the satellite thing becomes apparent or not.

I wonder what my next book is going to be. I can't wait! Just my luck. This'll probably be the year the Cubs go all the way!... (in my dreams).

It Must Be the Rally Fries!

Through the miracle of satellite technology, I'm sitting here in our living room (Dianna went to bed) and I'm watching the Seattle Mariners playing the Detroit Tigers at Safeco Field. With Ichiro in right field and Junior (Ken Griffey, Jr.) back with the M's after a long stint in, where was it, Cincinnati or somewhere, everything just seems right with the universe.

The M's just rallied in the 5th inning, down 3-0, to take a 5-3 lead. Woohoo!

Still with the miracle of satellite technology, I'm still sitting here watching the game, but I'm also writing this for the blog. As soon as I hit [Publish Post], zing, away it goes over the ether, to travel around the world to appear on your PC.

With luck, I'll be able to catch a few of the M's games this year. Even with the satellite system and it's menu, it seems I still have a hard time catching their games. Well, that's not entirely true. What is true, sometimes I do find their games, but I have a hard time staying awake long enough to watch them. Like tonight. The only reason I'm up watching this game, is I took a nap this afternoon before we went to Gail and Earl's for a fun party for their daughter and her friend, both visiting from Canada, eh.

I just heard from Perry. He got into town this afternoon (well, Consejo), after a trip through Mexico. H left me a message saying that he was able to pick up some bits for me for the antenna. Hopefully, I'll be able to meet up with him fairly soon.

We're getting near ready to start work on the waterfall for the swimming pool. I lined up an angle-grinder from Jim. It's air-powered, and he as a compressor. So, with a bit of luck, I'll soon have the notch in place for the waterfall. Hooking up the plumbing should go pretty easily. The hard bit will be installing the mosaic under the waterfall.

Oh, my God. The announcer for the game just said the temperature at the ball park had dropped down to 50° (f). I couldn't stand that anymore. The lowest the temp got here this last winter was 58° (f) and we froze!

It is really nice seeing Junior in a Mariner's uniform again, facing the pitcher and locking in with his eyes... and getting a base hit. It was also neat seeing him, late in the game, still able at 39 (I think), to charge around the bases from 1st and score.

Oh, yes. Before I forget, the"rally fries" - seems to be the catch phrase for Mariner's fans this year. Especially since the Safe has such great food. I love that ball park.

The Mariners just won! And the Angels lost tonight too, giving the M's a 3 1/2 game lead. M's are in first place! This could be the year...

It's 10:37 PM... Way past my bedtime, nap or no nap. I'm going to bed.

Cheers,
Dave

Still Keeping On

Even though we're into our rainy season, and it's also hurricane season, and we've had Tropical Storm Arthur, work must go on.

Dianna has been working de-rusting her old iron railing/trellises, and has been positioning them around the yard. Here, she's painting a wall on the well house prior to putting one of the trellises there so she can have a vine grow up and over the well house.

The Artist At Work

Besides spreading gravel, we've had Cody busy making more curbs. This time, it's around the palapa, so we can contain the gravel in the parking/driveway areas.

Cody's Handiwork

Forming the Curbing

I've been busy too. It's taken several days of effort, and my back has let me know about it too (only at night), but the big truck is finally empty. I've told Carlos (Jim and Melanie's Caretaker) that he can earn a commission by rounding up a buyer for me. He seems to have a knack for that sort of thing. A regular wheeler and dealer of the vehicular sort. I hope it sells soon too.

Empty as a Cavern

Everything that was in the truck had to go somewhere. Since we didn't throw too much of it away, guess where we put it. That's right - in the basement. Here's some shots of my workshop and Dianna's hobby room. there's almost enough room to slip through.

That's until we have some shelves and benches made. Then things should look a lot better.

Looking Towards the Door in My Workshop

Looking From the Door in My Workshop

Of course, it really is a relief to have everything under one roof. We've been working toward this for a long time.

Dianna's Hobby Room - Filled to the Brim

The rest of the downstairs isn't doing too bad. the utility room actually has room to spare - even with 5 bags of water softener salt stored there.

The Utility Room Gets By Lightly

Relatively Neat and Tidy

And the tool and storage room is looking very prim and proper (Notice the pool toys below...). I can't wait to get a full complement of shelves throughout the basement. Then we'll be doing fine.

Tool Storage Room

Beer Fridge is fully stocked

And the last thing for today's entry. After 4 months of glorious relaxation with a good book, in fact, many good books, including the electronic kind (I have a Sony eReader, which I love. It currently has almost 150 books stored in it.), we've reentered the land of commercials and buy, buy, buy.

We got Star Choice satellite TV. From Net King in Belize City. They set you up with a Canadian account and so we can now watch all the hockey we can stand. Ok Hosers!

Our Satellite Dish Farm

The Dish Farm