This has been a tough week for us, particularly as it relates to this blog!
On October 4th, I tried to open a hot spot on my phone, as I do whenever I want to go online. I got a message that basically said that if I wanted to do that, I needed to sign up for a plan that allowed it. Never mind that the only plan I’ve ever had on this phone allows exactly that!
A call to our provider, AT&T, revealed that this is a glitch they were trying to overcome. I got instructions on resetting my network settings, which should clear it up.
This was the old “new” termination dust. The snow’s down to the beach on The Mountain With No Name now (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).
It did; it also disconnected my bluetooth headset, which needed to be re-paired; it also changed other settings randomly, like my ring tone.
For the next 10 days, I reset my network settings virtually every day. It seemed necessary every time I turned my phone back on after turning it off. Since we live out in the woods, and battery power burns every time the phone searches for a signal through our numerous dead spots, turning it off only makes sense.
Then, on the 14th, I couldn’t get a hot spot, even after resetting repeatedly. Neither Michelle nor Aly could get one on their phones, either. All of us could get on the internet with our phones, but we couldn’t set up hot spots for our computers, on which we keep the numerous files we send and receive as part of my business (Yeldagalga.com) and fulfilling orders for my brother’s business (Triloboats.com). Not to mention managing orders from our web store.
So, no cat videos would be one thing. But, we have internet-dependent micro-incomes!
Michelle went to town for work, and while there, called AT&T and read them the riot act. We got our hot spots back on the 15th, and I’ve been playing catch up ever since.
Which explains why we’ve had no posts since then. Also, I got the “things” posted on our Patreon page, including the October episode of our audio discussion, A Place At the Table, (see April Episode of A Place At the Table Launched) and a complementary essay. On A Place At the Table we talk about the autumn foraging season, Aly’s tiny house, art work, and new job, Michelle’s recent work travel, and we looked forward to Halloween. The essay, called Wildcrafting, argues for being more selective in weeding a garden. Both of these are exclusively available to Patreon patrons, depending on the chosen tier.
So what have we missed? Haines got its first sticking snowfall yesterday, a couple of inches on the ground. We got some snow in the air here, and some on the trees and ground on the west side of the ridge. And, we’ve been plagued by moose, particularly since the Tier I Subsistence Moose Hunt ended. We may have had a pair, or more of them in the yard, probably cows. They ate from the garden, wiped out our cherry trees, post-holed through a log bridge on the trail, and made some pretty deep gouges elsewhere on the property and trail. Loads of fun. We haven’t seen them, but they are making their presence felt. They even knocked down the fence around our biggest cherry tree!
One of the trail rails got pressed into the trail by something moose-like? This turned out to be comparatively minor damage (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).