Bad news - good news.
Bad news: I ain't gonna get my *DSL service. Nope. I had them test it three different times, and the line quality in the neighborhood just isn't what it needs to be. I even asked my buddy Bob, who works for the phone company, to check it out for me, and he came by last night and explained it pretty well...
We live in an older neighborhood... the house was built in the '50s, and the phone service (and the electric service, and the water, and the sewer... the crappiness of all of which I've written previously about...) was installed then.
The actual hub is about a mile from here... but the wire goes a lot further than that to get from there to here. And the line had been sub-divided way too many times. So they can't do it.
Not unless they want to spend a lot of money... and they don't, of course. Although Bob said they they were going to upgrade sometime in the near future, that's not good enough to meet my immediate needs.
However... the good news.
I'm getting the cable modem hookup next Wednesday.
Which is just a fast if not faster than *DSL. And just about the same price.
The only bad thing about that is... I won't be able to run a HTTP (or FTP) server. For various reasons, one of which is that they won't let me. The other reason is that it wouldn't really be practical.... the IP number won't be consistent. There are a coupla other reasons, too... related to the hardware hookup.
So... I will be able to drop my ISP and the extra phone line and just about come out even... but I will have to maintain my $26/month hosting service. I was hoping to be able to get away from that, too. Dammit.
Karen was off today, and we'd kinda planned to go to Wichita and then down to Enid... but we decided to just go to Wichita, since Karen has to be back to work on Tuesday, that wouldn't give us much time in Enid at all. Next cycle I'll go down there for several days. Unfortunately, I'll have to leave Karen at home...
Anyway, we got up kinda late and then went out and had breakfast at the Fairlawn Cafe. Good food, fair service and a fairly stupid waitress... enjoyable mainly because of the company, though.
So, after breakfast, Karen and I accomplished various tasks around the house, and we took the Subaru down to the tire store and had a nail taken out of one tire and a slow leak fixed in another tire. We left it there, and went out to Sam's and to Walmart to look for a fake fichus tree... Karen really liked the xmas tree with the lights on it, and decided to get something permanent to put lights on.
Well, they had a very pretty one at Sams... for $100. And some ugly ones at Walmart for $20. We decided to wait.
We came home and accomplished a few more little chores, then picked the car up and I took it out to get the oil changed... something that I used to do myself, but I haven't for several years now. Not because it's hard or anything... it's just worth 30 bucks to have someone else do it. And I'm getting lazy, besides.
So... I work really hard for 3 hours to get the money to pay someone to do something that takes them ten minutes and would have taken me 45 and cost me six bucks for the oil.
Well, OK, I guess that I'm lazy.
I'm also tired. So there.
Moving right along here... I gave Tyler an ultimatum tonight... he gets a job within two weeks, or he goes back to Texas or elsewhere. Damn, I hate to have to do that, but I do have to.
Naturally, I love him... I love him a lot. And I like having him here... there were many years when I missed him, and nothing can ever make up for that, for either of us.
But...
He has to do something... something to make money, something to give him a sense of accomplishment, something to give him some goals, some ambition... even if it's just to get a better job because he hates the one that he has.
I've made it way too easy for him. And so has everyone else... he's a damned nice kid, and fun to be around...
But he need motivating. And I guess that means that Dad has to apply the threat of the boot... albeit unwillingly.
That's the way this damned world works. The way it's always worked.
The generosity of friends, relatives, society in general and Dads in particular... will always run out eventually. And then, and only then... do we start learning.
And yes, almost everyone that I know has had to learn the hard way.
Dammit.
More tomorrow...