Monday Meanderings - 7.25.2016

Woke up the other morning to no Internet. Bummer. Spent about half-an-hour determining the problem was Time Warner (soon to be absorbed by Charter and become Spectrum. Can't wait for that to happen). Spent a bunch of time on the phone with TW with various hard-to-understand technical support people.

Finally got Internet but still no wireless. After more time on the phone with Linksys (with another hard-to-understand support person) we managed a factory defaults reload and rebuilt all my settings. Phew!

Now all I had to do was go into every wireless device we own and re-connect. It is embarrassing how many wireless connections two old people have. Three computers (not to mention 2 others cabled directly to the router), 2 phones, 3 iPads (don't ask), a Kindle, a Roku streaming device, a wireless printer and a range extender.

I thought this stuff was supposed to make your life easier? I'm just glad that we didn't have a thermostat, security camera, house lights and an Alexis unit to deal with!

The other day I received an Amazon order - from Amazon. A big fancy truck with the Amazon swoop logo on the side pulled up and a guy in a uniform with the same logo brought my package to the door. Since Amazon is United Parcel's biggest customer and 2nd largest FedEx client, they might be getting a little nervous. FedEx's biggest customer, you ask? The US Post Office. Since 2001, FedEx has carried most of the USPS Express and Priority Mail on its fleet of more than 600 airplanes.

Got lost the other day driving to San Marcos. Yes, I know, San Marcos is a straight shot down IH-35. And technically, I wasn't lost - I was just not on the way to San Marcos. In Austin, it is always a good thing to avoid trying to go through town on IH-35, so we took the 130 toll road, which bypasses the city proper and joins up with the 145 toll road which joins up with IH-35 a few miles before you get to San Marcos.

That's all well and good, but if one is directionally challenged, one might just end up in Lockhart if one happens to miss the part where 145 goes off to the west. It's possible. Fortunately, Google correctly figured out where San Marcos was and Barb successfully translated their directions into real roads and streets and we arrived within 5 minutes of our original time estimate.

I've found Google to be helpful about 50% of the time. We have a friend who lives in an out-of-the-way place and has a sign in his yard that says "Google is wrong. This road does not go through to the lake."