Dec 26 - boxing day

Out of curiosity, I checked our Xplornet usage.  Up until the end of the summer it did not show usage.  I wasn't sure if they'd ever track usage against our 20gb limit ... well, they're now tracking it.  So far this month, in the time that we've been here, I've used 50% of my monthly allowance.  That's mostly Netflix usage; guaranteed.  The limit resets in 6 days, i.e. end of the month, so we'll not likely exceed our limit in January and it might be touch-and-go for December, depending on how much more Netlfix-ing I do :).

Now that they're tracking usage, I'll have to keep an eye on things.  I'll likely do what my original intent was, i.e. upgrade the package for the summer and then downgrade (or turn off the service) when we're not here.  I'll likely do that for this winter as well, once we hit the road.

Overage charges aren't much.  $3.50 per gb.  If we exceeded our limit a couple of months of the year, even if by 10+ gb, it wouldn't be a big deal.  It still wouldn't cost us what we were paying before Xplornet upgraded its satellite and reduced its prices.

I wonder if I get an email as I approach the limit ?  

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Out of curiosity I checked the bytes received before and after watching an hour-long episode of something and the usage increased by about 0.25 gb.  Of course there were other things going on at the same time and of course an hour-long episode is actually 45 minutes since they leave room for commercials !  So ... if I watch 4 episodes that would cost $3.50, which is pretty cheap or, assuming the same rate of usage, it would cost $3.50 to watch two 2 hour movies, assuming that a 2 hour movie is actually 1.5 hours long :).

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What does one do on Christmas Day -- why decorate the tree, of course.

What does one do on Boxing Day -- NOT SHOPPING -- rather, wrap the Christmas Gifts !  I spent 3 hours wrapping all the gifts.  There are a couple of small ones still to wrap and I'll get to those eventually.  I think that it took Sandy another three hours to put tags on the gifts ... and she spent a lot of time yesterday moving stuff, de-Zoe-ing the place.  It's not really infant-proof yet, but at least there are fewer things to watch out for.  The big one, of course, is the fireplace.  We'll have to watch her like a hawk.  The dancing flames could be fascinating for her.  At least it's not instantly accessible, since it's up on it's rock platform.  We'll let Abby stand guard ...

Neither flag went up yesterday but of course by the end of the day both minnows were gone.  My only fishing tale from yesterday was how good the pike was for dinner !

We got some more snow early on, perhaps five inches.  I did my snow-blowing thing and Susan had already called for the plow.  I went out to Loring for gas and didn't have any trouble driving on Osprey.  522 had been well traveled but not plowed yet so it was easy going.  While I was in town, which wasn't long, the plow had come through and done 522.  Sometime later Osprey was done.  This was really fluffy stuff so it was easy going.  Settled depth would be less so it was sort-of marginal for plowing anyway.

One of the door/window sensors failed which is odd.  They should be longer lived than that.  I had to bypass that one.  It's right under the motion sensor though so it almost doesn't matter.  I'll order a new one and put it in place in the spring.

Abby has gotten used to the cold, or at least the some-what-cold.  Yesterday the temp was in the 20's F and she stayed outside for quite a while.

Jeffrey and the gang are supposed to leave Reading around 6am today, give or take.  A straight shot would put them here at 6pm but I'm betting more like 9pm.  We'll see.  I wish that they had my SPOT so that we could watch progress !  I need a second SPOT.

I had the SPOT on when I went into town yesterday but I now see that it only transmitted the first signal when I turned it on.  I think that the batteries don't fare very well in the cold.  I'll have to replace them again.  Lithium's would do better but they're way, way more expensive and besides, disposal is an issue.

The town was pretty quiet again.  Jakes and Roxies closed, the liquor store closed !, Home Hardware closed ... only Buchanan's open.  I was the only customer there.  I filled two jerry cans (actually they're plastic) 3/4 full or perhaps more than that but not to the top.  Since I wasn't using my trusty bin in the back of the SUV, I didn't want them to sweat any gasoline onto the car floor mats.  It would be had to get rid of the smell. 

What else ?  Should I say that I brought wood in again ?  That's a daily occurrence, a few trips to the back-of-the-house woodbox.  Abby hangs out in case there are chipmunks there.  Ha.

I got the 3-wheeler started but couldn't keep it running for long.  I haven't replaced the spark plug yet, which I will do.

What else ?  nothing comes to mind.

Today we're going into Sudbury for a quick grocery trip, mostly veggies.  I'll also make a stop at Home Depot otherwise we wouldn't even go to that end of town.  Of course a quick grocery trip to Sudbury still takes a long time, since it's 1.5 hours away, at least, in the winter.

Onward !