Our internet has been up and down and up and down ever since we got home. It's probably been like that for a while, given that I've gotten thermostat errors aplenty while we were away for the summer and had to get Lisa in twice to reboot the modem. I don't know what's going on; must call Spectrum.
Last night, trying to patch in John Ende from Ireland to our call, he didn't have cellular service but did have wifi (and doesn't have wifi calling with whatever service he uses), he was calling in with whatsapp. He tried various numbers that I gave him but whatsapp didn't work. So ... I called him with whatsapp with my cell phone and then dialed in with the so-called land line which is actually a voip line and placed the two phones side by side in speaker mode. That was ok for a bit and then the internet dropped. It came back up and I dialed both phones back in. It went down again and I gave up on Spectrum, dialed into the call with my cell phone, setup the hotspot, turned off cellular on Sandy's, connected to my hotspot and then called John with whatsapp on Sandy's cell. Dumb but it worked. McGyvor without duct tape. John said it was crystal clear. Amazing.
So that was that ...
Earlier, I'd picked up the X5 and one of the things on my list was to get the darn hitch receiver off the back. I had mounted and dismounted that a number of times in the Spring but then, after pulling the trailer north in May, I couldn't get it off. It was well and truly stuck. So the tech came out to show me how to do it and couldn't get it off ... and I felt well and truly gratified ! Finally, with more brute force, off it came along with some gravel. Seems that some sand had made it too tight ... on and off a couple more times and I guess that I have the hang of it - more force, perhaps some grease ?
Even earlier, I had gone online to the Volusia County website to renew vehicle licenses prompted by an email. A new website, it was not designed for someone with 2 boats, 4 trailers and 3 cars and 1 motorcycle. I had to enter each of the license plates and my birth date. Yes, my birth date 10 times !! It didn't want to renew the motorcycle, something about a new plate being required, so I went through the process figuring that I'd have to go to the place on Canal and do this one in person. Well, the website wanted to charge me almost 10% for using a credit card. Ridiculous ! It charged less for EFT but still ridiculous. Then it wanted to charge me $12 for mailing ... what ? I've always had these mailed. What the heck ! So I opted for pickup in person, since I had to go in for the Harley anyway.
Once notified that they were ready (a couple of hours later), I went and took a number, the lady asked what I was there for and I told her pickup and also the Harley plate. She took my drivers license and made busy for a bit, I looked around and saw that there was a huge crowd awaiting service. Ugh. She came back and I asked if all those people were ahead of me and yes, so I said I wasn't waiting, figured that I'd come back after the 1st when it was less busy.
I asked her about the Harley plate and she didn't know anything about the online service. In the package that she handed me was a replacement plate for a trailer and I asked why the Harley plate couldn't be mailed like this one ... and again, we know nothing about the online service.
Heading home, I got back onto the website determined to talk to someone about the Harley plate as well as the huge fees that they were now charging for services. Surely it was cheaper for me to do this online and not use clerical time to handle. Surely. Not finding a number right away, the website also provided a link to the DHSMV (Department of Homeland Security / Motor Vehicles), so I went there. After extensive identification - Plate #, Last Name, Soc Sec #, Address, whatever else, up popped the entire list of my plates with renewal options but the 9 had already been renewed and all I had to do was check off the Harley, pay no more than a $2 "convenience fee" by credit card and it would be mailed for free.
Clearly the new County website is a money grab. What a PO !!
Earlier than that ... I had tried to remove the semi burned out light over the grill, one of two. After the Phillips screw heads stripped, I drilled out the screws and found that I'd bought LED versions the last time. Lifetime. Right. Nothing is lifetime in the caustic salt air. I went to Home Depot (probably should have taken it back, as Jason suggested, but didn't), and bought the light bulb version which was cheaper anyway - installed that and used a CFL. I could have used an LED bulb but I'll save those for inside. It was a slightly different mount so I did some drilling to make it the same. More McGyvor !
This is a day in a retiree life. Oh wait, it wasn't quite over ... we had the usual Wednesday evening dinner at the club (remind me to never order the bowl of soup again, only the cup; the bowl is huge !) and then I came back for the aforementioned RUSA conference call. Prior to the call, I had done some research to get some global dial-in numbers for John Ende but then he didn't have cell service so I had 15 minutes to come up with the first solution that was up and down a couple of times before the "final" solution all via Verizon, that worked through the rest of the call.
Onward!
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