Cutting The Cable, Going Wireless

Recently, Linda and I went over to H.H. Gregg and picked up an outdoor HDTV antenna.  We've decided that we are going to tell Time Warner Cable to stuff it.

 

 

  

OMG!  How will you ever survive without Cable TV?

To be honest, we don't watch a lot of TV Shows that are available on basic cable.  Over the last few years, I've noticed that the cable channels have moved their "good" content over to their premium channels and have replaced the content on the standard channel with reality TV and all-day marathons. Because of this, we rarely actually watch these channels anymore, and we don't want the added complication of a cable box, since we use a Windows Media Center PC as our DVR.

Many of the TV shows that we did watch from cable TV are available online, either from somewhere like NetFlix or from the cable channel's web site directly.

OMG! What about the Internet? The World Didn't Exist Before the Internet!

While we will no longer have access to super high-speed internet, we can get a reasonably-priced alternative, Clear. For $50 per month, we get unlimited bandwidth and 3-6Mbps download and 1Mbps upload.  This is actually about the same level of service we have from Warner Cable now.

The biggest advantages to Clear are:

• Portability. Since Clear is based on WIMax cellular service, I can get my internet anywhere I can get a signal. So I'm no longer tied down to getting my high-speed internet at home.  If I'm going to some function somewhere that requires Internet access, I can take it with me.
• No Contract. Clear is completely without contracts.  In fact, you can even buy internet access by the hour if you only need it for a short time. Time Warner has been doing this "guaranteed pricing" business for the last several years and requiring their customers to sign a 2-year agreement with them in order to get service.  I don't like that. It restricts my options as a consumer.

Of course, there are some disadvantages, as well.  Most notably coverage area.  Right now, you'll only find WIMax coverage in limited markets in the US. So, when we get out to Texas, we will likely have to re-evaluate our internet choice, unless WIMax has nationwide coverage by then. However, it's unlikely that Cornudas will have coverage in the foreseeable future, since cell coverage of any kind out there is sketchy at best.

The Hardware

Television

Over the previous several days, I researched what would be the best antenna for our location and available stations. I headed over to AntennaWeb.org's tool to identify what antenna type I needed. To get all the stations in my area, I compromised on an external antenna for the "light gray" region. Since the stations I want to tune are located both north and south of me, using a directional antenna wasn't an option for me. I didn't want to have to futz with an antenna rotor.

Then, once I figured out what antenna "color" I needed, I started researching outdoor omnidirectional antennas. I wanted an outdoor model, since I planned to install it in my attic, and also plan to take it with us when we head to Texas.  I'll put it up on one of the wind turbine masts, some 30-40 feet in the air.  I might even be able to pick up stations from El Paso that way, and be able to skip satellite TV when we move out there. It was important to have omni-directionality so that I could get stations from both Dayton and Cincinnati.

I found several favorable reviews on the Terk FDTVO, and on H.H. Gregg's site, I even found some reviews from people in my area praising it.  It seems that price point does have a bearing on quality for these things.  The super-cheap ones usually aren't that great.  If you live in a place that has really strong signals, you can often get by with one of those.  However, since my walls are plaster (essentially ROCK), using antennae indoors is really an exercise in futility.  So, we coughed up the $100 for the antenna, fully intending to return it if it wasn't any good.

We did pay a price premium to get it locally rather than online, but I wanted to get it installed right away, and I wanted a local store that I could return it to in the event that it didn't work.

First, I just assembled the antenna and stuck it on the floor in the attic an ran the 50' of RG-6 cable down the stairs to the TV. I was able to get quite a few local stations that way, but I knew I could do better.  I went up into the attic to mount it in there, but decided that since there was a window in the attic that I would try to mount it outside.  I just barely got it to mount and allow the window to close. After the remount, I was able to get almost all the local stations in my area with the exception of WCVN-PBS in Northern Kentucky.  There is only one TV program from WCVN that we regularly watched, "Kentucky Afield."  We will miss that show, but perhaps I can watch it online.

Internet

I've already tried Clear internet, so I just need to get the hardware I need. I plan to purchase a refurbished modem (without Wi-Fi) from Clear.com for $20, and sign up for the $50 per month plan. I don't want or need a modem that provides Wi-Fi because I already own an Apple AirPort Extreme that serves as my internet router, and it's been far more reliable than any other router I've ever used aside from a Linux-based one.

In order to get the best connection to the WiMax network, I plan to install the Clear modem in the attic near the window. I will then run along network cable along side of the RG-6 Antenna cable, and connect it to my AirPort Extreme in the living room.

I'm not totally sure what speeds I will see, but according to the Clear web site, there is a clear tower within about 1/8 mile of my house.  This should mean that I will get the maximum speed possible.

If I do manage to get the full 6Mbps down and 1Mbps up, I will actually doing better than I am now on the Warner Cable connection. Even if I get closer to the minimum of 3Mbps down, I'll be quite happy, since I am still reducing my expense, and I'm able to cut the cord.

Once I get everything tested, I'll call Time Warner and give them the bad (for them) news.

Conclusion

I'm quite happy with the results from the antenna.  There have been a couple small digital glitches in TV shows I've recorded, but it's quite tolerable. This will save us $30/mo and not impact our lifestyle very much.  It will put us a little bit closer to "off the grid."

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FREE GASOLINE!

How I have Become my own Gas Station

After the incident at MU, I took my Jeep home and repaired the leaking fuel tank. There was 20 gallons of fuel in that tank that I had to remove before I could lower the fuel tank and find the leak.

I used the Jeep's fuel pump to pump fuel from the tank into a five gallon fuel can.  I then checked my other cars.  I had just filled both the Subaru and the Miata so I could not store 20 gallons of fuel there.

Then it hit me:  There is a huge fuel tank (75+ Gal) on the Motorless Home! So, I dumped the fuel into the tank five gallons at a time.

Well, now the time has come that I need to reclaim that fuel. It's halfway through the month and I've used up all  my fuel money already. So, I'm going to use the electric fuel pump that is attached to the sick generator to pump fuel back into my five gallon fuel can and put that fuel into my cars.

Unfortunately, the fuel pump on the generator is a very low volume pump and it's going to take quite a while to fill may car.  I'm going to be there a while.

Personal vs. Professional: Dividing the Waters

Originally Posted on Facebook

Over the last few months, it's become clear to me that my personal life and professional life have certain incompatibilities.

Because of this, I've decided that I should separate my professional life from my personal one. In order to accomplish this, I've decided that I will use the two social media sites that I am a member of (Facebook and LinkedIn) for the purposes they were designed for.

Facebook was designed for people who have personal reasons to associate to connect and share stories about their personal lives.

LinkedIn was designed for people who have professional reasons to associate.

I have long held a rule about LinkedIn -- If I don't have a professional relationship with someone, I don't connect to them on LinkedIn. I've decided to apply the converse rule to Facebook. If I only have a professional relationship with someone, then I will not "friend" them on Facebook, and instead, will connect to that person via LinkedIn.

So, I will be trimming down my Facebook friends list. If I only have a professional relationship to you, I will be "unfriending" you on Facebook, and I encourage you to connect to me on LinkedIn.

There is nothing personal about this move; it's simply to better organize the separation between my personal and professional life.

You can find me on LinkedIn using my personal email address of 2twisty@gmail.com.

And Now You Know......The Rest of the Story

Completing the teardown of the Motorless Home's Engine

For years, Paul Harvey would entice us and fuel our curiosity when he would introduce the topic of his weekly radio show. He would give us just a taste to whet our appetites and then launch into a long, and seemingly unrelated story. After several minutes of what seemed to be completely useless information, he'd wrap it all up in a single paragraph. Then, in closing, he would utter his signature line:

"And now you know......the rest of the story."

Paul Harvey is no longer with us, and at times I miss the stories he told. His son has tried to take up his father's mantle, but alas, he is not as good as his father was.

Today, I decided to finally complete the teardown of the engine that is in the Motorless Home. While I expected that there could be additional damage on the left side of the engine, I didn't know that I would discover the key to the engine's failure.



Cylinder #1, pulverized

I climbed aboard and removed the left side exhaust manifold.  Then I unbolted the head.  When I removed it, I found this.

Now this is not really all that surprising, given the damage to the right side of the engine. What was surprising about this is the fact that cylinder #1 has the worst damage of all of them. It appeared that whatever did the damage, it had spent most of it's time over here on cylinder #1.

Cylinders 3 and 5 were undamaged. There was no indication that anything untoward had happened in those.

Then, I got to cylinder #7. It was similarly battered, but clearly #1 was the worst of all eight cylinders.

I came to the conclusion that this engine had been disassembled before I bought it.  The head gaskets seemed very new and the internals of the engine were very clean and everything came apart very easily. 

To me, this meant that whatever befell this engine was clearly related that disassembly. I hauled the head off to the garage for later inspection and continued working.

After wrestling with transmission cooling lines and oil cooling lines, I was able to get the radiator and core support removed from the engine.  Then, I removed the water pump assembly and disconnected the power steering pump. After getting done with all the disassembly, it looks like I'll easily be able to remove the engine from the Motorless Home through the front.

After this achievement, I decided to go look at the head I just removed.

Here you can see the #3 cylinder. This is one of the ones that was not damaged. You can see that when the exhaust valve is closed, it is only slightly raised above the surface of the head.  It rests on a specially hardened steel seat. This stuff is some of the hardest metal you'll find in an engine, since it needs to withstand the extreme temperatures of the exhaust.

Now, take a look at cylinder #1. This exhaust valve is not only chipped and missing a piece, but it is recessed into the head.  Closer inspection revealed that the hardened valve seat was missing!

So, it's my opinion that the valve seat came loose and fell into cylinder #1, where the piston beat it into little tiny pieces that travelled via the exhaust manifold and the exhaust crossover in the intake into the other cylinders.

The hardened exhaust seat would definitely be hard enough to have caused the damage seen in the other cylinders.

So, the real question is this: was this damage already present in this engine before I bought it or is this what created the strange noise I heard when I was driving it home?

I'm on the fence on this, but I'm leaning toward this:

The previous owner rebuilt the top end of this engine.  He put a new cam in and refreshed the heads.  Whoever installed the exhaust seat did a piss-poor job. Clearly, it wasn't installed correctly if it fell out of the engine. This is probably the sudden sound I heard while driving down the highway.

I've decided not to rebuild either engine.  This fall, I will just buy a remanufactured engine from AutoZone and drop it in.

So, in honor of the late Paul Harvey, now you know......the rest of the story.

Playing Catch-Up

For those of you who just recently stumbled upon (pun) this blog, here are some of the posts you'll want to read in order to catch up.

Let's Get this Party Started!

Start at the Beginning: A Very Good Place to Start

Have You Lost Your Minds?


The HexHouse - Decisions, Decisions


Plenty of Time for Planning...Thankfully.


Lol... I am such a n00b.


Step By Step ...


Letting People In

And for some real belly-laughs make sure you read THIS one:
---->  There and Back Again: Murphy's Revenge

Next Steps

Motorless Home is Home

Buy Land. They Aren't Making any More of It

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

The Kroger Company Wants Me to Shop Elsewhere!

UPDATE: This issue is finally being resolved!

Click Here

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Our local Kroger grocery store, #934 in the Cincinnati KMA (Kroger Marketing Area) has finally gone off the deep end. The store manager actually told Linda to "take her business elsewhere."

In the morning of May 3, 2012, my wife called the Kroger Pharmacy (513-868-5440) on 1540 S. Erie Blvd, Hamilton Ohio 45011.  She spoke to a male pharmacy technician.  She told the tech that she wanted to order refills for all my medications.  Rather than have Linda list off all the meds by name, the pharmacy technician pulled up the records of my meds and went down the list asking Linda if she wanted each medicine filled.

At one point during this conversation, the tech asked her if she wanted my Metformin refilled.  She said "no." Then, the tech asked if she wanted my Gemfibrozil refilled and she said "yes." They continued down the list, and then went over her meds.  She told them that she did NOT need her Lantus filled, but did need her Novolog.

At around 4:30, I stopped by the drive-thru window to pick up the medications.  Since I did not know exactly what had been ordered, I just accepted everything they had ready.

When I dumped out my haul (which was quite a bit), it soon became apparent that there was something wrong.

First, Linda had ordered Lantus for me (not her) and Novolog for both of us.  She got Lantus, and no Novolog, and I got Novolog and no Lantus.

Then, I noticed that I only had my "large" insulin syringes and none of the small ones that I also need.  Then, when looking over the pills that arrived, I had no Gemfibrozil and I did, in fact, have Metformin.

Linda and I often joke with people (only half-joking, really) that every six months, we need to have a "come to Jesus" meeting with the store manager and the pharmacy staff.  If it weren't for the fact that its incredibly convenient to get our prescriptions filled at the grocery store that we like to shop in, we would have permanently changed pharmacies a long time ago.  Well, it looked like it was time for "Come to Jesus."

Linda called the pharmacy and spoke to a female pharmacy technician.  Linda tried to explain that they had made an error and filled the wrong prescriptions and failed to fill several others. The pharmacy tech was quick to point the finger at us; "You must have ordered it if it got filled.  We don't just pick and choose stuff to fill unless you're on the auto-refill program." We're not on the auto-refill program.

Linda tried to explain that the male tech she spoke to went down the list of meds for her to approve or decline.  The tech said "It doesn't happen that way. We don't do that." Linda was starting to get upset about this, because she knows what happened and this girl did not. 

Eventually, the girl says "OK, I'll get the Metformin ready for you..."

Linda tried to interrupt her to tell her that we already HAD Metformin, and did not want or need more; we wanted Gemfibrozil.  Unfortunately, the girl was too busy running her mouth to listen to what Linda had to say.  That's when it hit the fan.

"You have two ears and one mouth.  That means that you're supposed to listen twice as much as you talk," said Linda

"Ma'am, you can't talk to me that way. If you are going to--"

"Oh yes you WILL listen to me, or I'll take it up with the store manager."

"Perhaps you should do that." The girl hung up.

Well, that just lit a fire under Linda.  I probably should have stepped in and made the call to the manager since she was so upset.  I didn't.  She called the store's main number (513-868-5420).

She asked to speak to the store manager, and the man that came to the phone said that he was the manager. Now, I don't believe that for a second; there have been other times when we have asked to speak to the store manager at that location, and the person who showed up and verbally confirmed they were the "store manager" was actually an assistant manager, as evidenced by the title printed on their Kroger name badge.

Linda relayed the story of how the pharmacy technician treated her.  The manager asked to put her on hold to confer with his staff.  After a few minutes, he came back to the line and said "So, did you use expletives when you spoke with her?"

Shocked, my wife said, "Expletives?" The manager took this as an indication that she didn't know the meaning of the word.

"Bad words," he said. "Did you use the F-word?"

"NO!" exclaimed Linda, "I *never* curse!"

"Well, my pharmacy tech and my pharmacy manager both say that you used the F-word." Now here's where I get confused.  How could the pharmacy manager have heard this conversation?  How can he "confirm" anything that was said on our end of the call?  He wasn't on the line!

"They're lying to protect their jobs," says Linda. (This is when Linda explained why we shop their store and how many pharmacy dollars we bring their store each month.)

"Well, I think you should take your business elsewhere."

"You want me to take my business elsewhere?" said Linda, shocked.

"Yes. Please take your business elsewhere."

I then piped up.  Since Linda had him on the speakerphone, he could hear me.  I asked him for the name and phone number of the district manager, because I wanted to call them about this issue.

"I don't have that information to give you," said the manager. Now, if this guy is the store manager, you can bet your patootie that he has the number for his boss, the district manager.  I'm sure there's some policy that says that they can't give that out, but he should have said that, not that he didn't have it.

I tried to ask for his name, but he had already hung up on me.

So, I called the Kroger Customer Service Center and was connected with a man calling himself David, who had a strong Haitian accent.  I told him the entire story up to that point, and explained that I wanted someone from the Cincinnati KMA to call me to discuss this.  Since I did not get the manager's name, David wanted to call the store and get the names of those involved and he put me on hold.

After several minutes on hold, I figured he was not only getting the names, but their side of the story, as well.  I continued to wait.  And then the dangers of using a cell phone hit.  Random call drop.  I lost the call.

I called right back and asked to speak to David.  The lady I spoke to on the phone said that they have no way to reconnect me to him and since I didn't have a case number, she could not look it up.

So....I had to start over.  I told her the entire story. I also explained that Linda and I both take a lot of medicines and our pharmacy needs alone represent thousands of dollars in revenue to that store every month, let alone our grocery business. I suggested that by telling me to take my business elsewhere, the manager is telling customers to go shop at the competition, which I'm sure is not in the policy manual.

I told the girl that I cannot allow a company to abuse my wife like that. I explained that she is a cardiac patient and that upsetting her like that can have dire health consequences. I also told her that until I get some resolution in this matter, I will not shop at Kroger stores for any reason, and I will post on Facebook and on my blog urging my Facebook friends and blog readers to boycott Kroger.

I told her that I would give Kroger one week to contact me to work out this issue or I would begin posting this story. She told me that it normally takes 7-10 business days to escalate a case like this.  I told her that it's unfortunate, but *my* window is one week. It's not my problem that it may take them 7-10 days to respond.  I told her that I wanted to post all this immediately, but decided to extend the Kroger Company a one week courtesy in which to correct this problem.

We concluded the call.

Well, it's now one-week later, and as expected, I have heard nothing.  So, please pass this around the Internet.  Let's give Kroger a big black eye for treating Linda so badly!

Right below this post are some sharing tools.  Click on the Facebook icon to share this story on your Facebook!  You can also tweet right from here, or +1 it on Google+.  I need your help here.  Show Kroger that treating customers badly can grow far larger than "just one customer."

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UPDATE: This issue is finally being resolved!

Click Here

The Beginning

Let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start. When you read you begin with A-B-C. When you post on a blog, you begin with topics.

Linda (Ratwife) here. As Chad (the Rat) has already told you, I'm interested in homesteading topics: sustainable living, gardening, herbal medicine, spinning and weaving fiber (from animals such as sheep and goats), solar energy, chickens, straw bale and earth-bag building.

Chad has been trying to encourage me to write posts for a while but I feel like I'm a better plagiarist/editor than a writer. What I'm really good at is researching or finding information. I've been compiling lists of links on various topics. The downside is that sometimes I get lost for hours while I'm Googling or tunneling YouTube.

One of the sites I continue to enjoy is Frugally Sustainable by Andrea. Be sure to read Why Frugally Sustainable. It will tug at your heart! Frugally Sustainable has thousands of blog subscribers and fans on Facebook and hosts several fascinating posts each week. Through the entire month of May, she's discussing "Creating a Kitchen Pharmacy."

A few years ago I had quite an extensive garden that I planted with every medicinal perennial I could find in Ohio, Indiana or Kentucky. I had lots of fun making herbal teas, tinctures and salves. Now that we are planning a move to the Chihuahuan desert in West Texas I’m going to have to learn a whole new group of plants and herbs!

Thanks for the Help, But...

To all my blog readers: thank you for reading my blog.  It's nice to know that I'm not typing at the wall.

It has recently come to my attention that some of you may be trying to "help me out" by clicking on the ads you see here on this page.  It's true that I do get paid when people click on ads, but it's also important for you to know that Google monitors who clicks and how often in order to try to track and eliminate "click fraud."

Q: What is "Click Fraud?"

A: Basically, if you are clicking on an ad because you know it will pay me and not because you have a genuine interest in that product or service, you are commiting click fraud.

Q: So, what happens next?

A: If Google decides that that click activity on my account is "suspcicous," they will shut down my Adsense account permanently, with no chance to have it reinstated.  This is very serious business, and Google protects their advertisers aggressively.

Q: So, what do I do?

A: If you have a genuine interest in one of the products or services served in an ad, by all means, click on it.  If, however, you're thinking "I like Chad and Linda.  I'll click on this link here to help them out," then DON'T.  You're actually hurting me and placing my ability to make money with this blog in jeopardy.


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Thanks!

Automotive How-To: Maintenance Items on a 2002 Subaru Forester

A friend recently hired me to do some overdue maintenance on her 2002 Subaru Forester. She needed front brakes, both front axles, and a timing belt.

This car had only 82,000 miles on it, but it is 10 years old.  It doesn't get driven many miles annually, but the driving it did get was all city driving, which wore out the axles earlier than in cars that drive a more balanced mix of city and highway.

I replaced the axles on the Subaru, and then I tackled the front brakes.

Then, it was time to do the timing belt.  I've been adding automotive how-to videos to my YouTube channel for a while now.  However, shooting the video of the timing belt replacement was my most ambitious project yet!

Most of the how-to videos on YouTube are very terse.  Many people prefer them that way.  However, there seems to be a dearth of videos that go into exacting detail.  If you're someone who wants to learn how to do this and you're a total noob, then my videos are for you.

After compiling the timing belt video, it came to over 80 minutes!  Linda and I both felt that this was too long to be absorbed in one sitting, so I broke the video up into three segments.

Part 1: Intro and "Clearing the Way" 

 

Part 2: Completing the Disassembly

  

Part 3: Installing the Belt and Final Assembly

 

So, in case you were inclined to replace the timing belt on your Subaru yourself and just didn't have the courage to try, these videos are for you.

Enjoy.