HOME IS NEVER LIKE YOU LEFT IT.

Amtrak to Sacramento was a breeze. Got to Sacramento Knee and Sports Medicine on March 9th, to have Dr. Wang, a shoulder expert advise me. I was given a cortisone shot without a definite answer yet about surgery. So, its a wait, wait situation, but,  if surgery can be avoided, its worth the wait.

Murphys seemed relatively unchanged. Yet, I knew a heavy snowstorm accosted the area on February 12 while I was gone. The power was out for 72 hours. Fixed as quickly as possible by PG&E. With the live line across my driveway and orchard gone, only the telephone lines were left lying waiting for AT&T. It took them 9 days to restore phone service. That strikes me as a misuse of the word service. They apologized and made promises they didn't keep. And, from a bill of $84?  My credit amounted to $6 for internet and phone services. Doesn't compute. Being angry with the phone company is a lost cause. Then, when I attempted to blog yesterday?  It seems my modem was not working. I suspect the loss of service to be part of the problem.

So, even though all the lights light up, it won't take the signal from AT&T. And, the AT&T repair service did not reset this modem after the lines were down. They want to sell me another modem for $100. One that has horrible reviews by users. I'd be three to five days without service, unless I pay a premium to have it mailed overnight. I drove to Sonora and bought one off the shelf that AT&T told me they would not support or help connect for me.

My Linksys router that allows me wireless reception gave up the ghost around Christmastime. Its only given me about 3 years of service.
So, I bought a replacement for it. Its a nifty device called a Cisco Valet.

At $79, not cheap, but really user friendly.
So, now add the new modem for another $75. Is this a racket? My friend Jerry observes he has his old Royal Typewriter in his garage that still works like a champ and its 60 years old. Does make you wonder.

So, here is the new Zoom X-5 modem. I'm up and on-line. But, it hasn't figured out how to communicate with the new Cisco Valet, so I'm hard-wired to this modem and must blog from my office. All wireless capability is lost. I'll leave that for another day and be thankful I can check my mail and see to my blog. Basically, yesterday, besides shopping for a modem and filling my refrigerator,  I killed all the spiders that moved in while I was gone. I don't spray, but one on one? Wham! They are history.