Those who read this blog know that I am something of a “bi-coastal” person; that is to say, I stay at my wife’s house in Elk Grove (otherwise known as Baja Mack Road or Ghetto Centrale) and also at my house at the 4,000-foot elevation in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Fornicalia.
I’ve had my house since 1993 and it’s a two-story open-loft cabin surrounded by trees and a landscaped, fenced terrain. I own it now, outright. It is a stone’s throw from the original Central Pacific Railroad line built in the 1860s — now owned by the Union Pacific. Because of this, I found a reinvigorated interest in history, video and photography (I was, at one time, a paid stringer for The Sacramento Bee). This interest also spawned my train blog (which I highly recommend), Milepost154.
That said, my only connection to the internet at the cabin was via — no, I’m not kidding — a “dial-up” connection. For those who wish to relive their horrible dial-up past, click here. Because that was the story of my internet life for many years.
Of course, I tried alternatives. Hughesnet and SkyBlue were an incredibly expensive abomination which penalized you at the first sense of pressured bandwidth. ColfaxNet was simply incompetent. DigitalPath couldn’t make things work. Luckily, AT&T came through the area with the offer of their U-verse.
So, roughly an hour ago, AT&T left my cabin, leaving behind a vertical black plastic monolith with little winking green lights, hooked directly up to my Toshiba DX-735 “all-in-one.” I’ve disabled the wi-fi until I can figure it out. However, I’m “on the net” to the tune of up to 12 mbps.
At this point I’m listening to Hugh Hewitt over streaming radio, watching YouTube train videos, creating this post and clicking between seven open tabs.
A few minutes ago, I set fire to the tin cans and twine I used to access the internet. Because now — holey moley — I may not have the fastest internet connection known to Man, but it’s infinitely faster than eastern red-backed squirrels, carrier pigeons or this.
I’m a lucky guy.
BZ
