Apple TV

Ever watch TV on a hockey puck?  For my birthday Jim sent me an Apple TV.  Looks like a square hockey puck

You plug an HDMI cable between it and the TV, then plug in a power cord.  It connects through our wireless router to DSL and accesses the internet.  You can stream movies, TV shows, music, photos, and more.

We've been watching Netflix for a long time.  A lot of movies, but the main thing we watch are TV series we don't have access to, things like shows from ABC and Sci-Fi networks.  But until now the instant view hasn't been possible.  Even with Wild Blue streaming movies didn't work.  But with this it works.  You can even watch YouTube.

The biggest trouble is convincing Sue that Netflix won't charge us any more for using the instant views and Frontier won't charge any more for the downloads.  Well actually I was a bit unconvinced myself until I checked with both to make sure.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go watch a Hillary Duff movie

Church Leaders Conference

It's been a long day but a good one. Terry, Morgan, and I pulled out about 5:30 this morning and headed for Lincoln, Illinois for a church leader's conference at Lincoln Christian University (http://www.lincolnchristian.edu/)
Bob  Lowery spoke, and he was good.
My photos weren't so good

We also caught up with Gary Sheets. He was looking very good

(a LOT better than my photo of him)

Bob was really showing the effects of his medical problems.  Motorcycle accident, then cancer, physically he wasn't 100%. He would speak from the podium a while, then sit and talk, then get up again.  It was actually more effective than just standing at the podium ... although Bob was not known for that.  Mentally he was as good as ever.  Here are a few quotes:

"I have turned my soapboxes into kindling wood."

"Sometimes the question has more than one answer."

"Leaders are shepherds, not cowboys."

"I am an unhyphenated Christian."

"Grace makes things a little messy."

"The older I've gotten and the more I've studied, my core values have shrank."

"We are a culture obsessed with titles ... I'm really bugged by some of you who want the title Senior Pastor ... if you are going to use certain titles be sure you understand the consequences ... I've found nothing in the Bible giving that title to anyone but Jesus."

DSL

Thursday evening a telemarketer from Frontier called wanting to sign me up for DSL.  I told him he better check his map again, it wasn't available n my area.  He said yes, it was, it had just been opened up.  So I signed up.
 

Well, Monday we got 'er done.  Everett unplugged the ethernet from the WB modem to the router and abandoned it.  Then we replaced the router I had with the new router from Frontier.  He changed a few wires in the phone system, plugged the router in to my phone jack (I had installed a 2 outlet phone jack when I set my office up because at the time I was still on dialup) and that part was done.  We had DSL to the local office.

We just couldn't get to the internet.

He talked to his suppport people wherever they are.  They ran tests which took way too long and the results totally confused them. They handed us off to other folks who ran more tests and were confused.  We spent the rest  of the day figuring out the folks who put the stuff in the local office had some wires crossed. Once he figured that out and drove down and fixed them things went to working.

The biggest problem I have had so far involves email.  We use gmail and access it with Mozilla Thunderbird.  As I understand it Outlook would have the same trouble.

Everything worked until I tried to send an email.  It would not go.  My smtp server was taking too long to respond.  THAT'S when it's really handy to have a brother who is a professional geek. (and I am going to use terms I don't understand, I'm just repeating things)  Smtp uses port 25 to send email,  DSL for some reason closes access to port 25. No big deal, you go to gmail an turn on IMAP and then set up an account in Thunderbird to access IMAP.  SInce I never removed my read messages from gmail they were all there. I could send test messages to Bob, worked pefectly. We declared it done and I took my wife to supper.

When I came home I discovered it had downloaded and removed all the mail in my gmail account inbox ... all 28,606 of them. I now had 28,606 emails in my Thunderbird inbox.  I had a new copy of every email for the last several years.

Fortunately I got a lot of RAM memory in my desktop when I bought it.  Unfortunately, when you are dealing with 28,000 email it doesn't matter.  Filtering, sorting, deleting .. it all ties up your resources.

So how does it work?  It makes AgTalk lightning fast. Oddly enough, some sites are no faster than they were on WB.  I think that tells me the bottleneck is on their end.  But so far other than my gmail problems the only real change is it works faster most of the time.  And I'm not falling asleep while the pages load (really, I have done that with WB!)

I'm still tweeking the email part of things.  I'm very tempted to just erase it all and start over again.  Then I come to my senses.

Don't forget it is Valentine's Day

Yes, I did ...

You're getting WHAT ?

Frontier marketer called Thursday evening wanting to set us up with DSL.  I said "Sure  .... better check your map again."

He did, and we are supposed to have it available.  3 times the speed we have with Wildblue for 2/3 the cost.  Actually a little less than that even because we will have unlimited US long distance, so we can cancel that service.  Supposed to be here Monday to get us going. I'm skeptical but hopeful.

Jill was home for a couple days.  Never long enough, never get said all the things you want to say or do all the things you want to do. When she and Jim come home I try to kind of be available but out of the way

Jr church was interesting today.  I printed out my notes, which included a recipe for making dough out of salt and flour for a lesson illustration. I sure wish I knew where I put them. So I winged it.  It was a little more difficult than usual because Brenda is recovering from surgery and wasn't there.  I forgot how much we relied on her to keep things rolling.  Our lesson was on salt and light.  For the light I had some chemical light sticks .. turned out I had one for each kid in class.  THAT worked out pretty good.

My big project for the weekend was replacing the flapper valve (OK, the toilet flush valve repair kit) in the toilet tank.  It was leaking just a little, just enough that while you were showering the fill valve would turn on and top the tank off.  You always knew exactly when it happened.

One of my most treasured possessions ...

On my wall is one of my most treasured possessions.  It's really kind of unremarkable.  Probably wouldn't bring a quarter at a yard sale.  It's just a wooden plaque with a paper glued to it.  But you'd have to talk some pretty big money to get me to part with it.

It reads like this:

To dad, this is the first father's day I haven't been there for. In remembrance of the years I was ...

When I was 1, well, I don't remember being one.  But I know you were around.  I saw the pictures.

When I was 2 I was your little helper, I was all about that farm stuff.

When I was three, I became your BIG girl.

When I was four, you became just "dad".

When I was five, we made doggie dropping cookies and mom got embarrassed.

When I was six, I was a wild-child, the makings of a good tomboy, wanting to be like her dad.

When I was seven, school was easy, afternoons were great, and I waved when you drove by on a tractor.

When I was eight, you started delivering pizza's late at night in the big city.

When I was nine, you helped me build a tree house.

When I was ten, I was really kind of afraid if you.

When I was eleven, we got this dog named Sam ...

When I was twelve, you stuck me in a truck and said "drive".

When I was thirteen, you were completely unreasonable and didn't understand.

When I was fourteen, I finally realized how important my family heritage was.

When I was fifteen, I was introduced to the little pregnant roller skate by you, and learned not to "ride the clutch."

When I was sixteen, I realized you were always a farmer, and that farmers were really the smartest men alive, they just chose not to show it.

When I was seventeen you cried, hugged me, and got in the van and left me to be a big girl on my own.

When I was eighteen, I wished there was a good ole farm boy for me to marry so he could take over for you someday.

When I was nineteen, you finally grew up as much as I was.

Now I'm twenty, and it's your twenty-first father's day, rally the twenty-second since you knew you were going to be a daddy. I'm honored that you're proud of me, I'm glad I can be a big girl, i still look for Case International tractors in the field, I can drive a stick-shift, I know the value of a cold pop on a hot day and more importantly - the company that brings it, I appreciate the smells of harvest and maple trees, and I'm awed at your support. And you'll always be my daddy.

You can't imagine how tough that was to type.

It's difficult finding photos of her, she is usually the one holding the camera.  Here are a couple...

 

She went to college in East Tennessee, and liked it so much she stayed.

I may never forgive Milligan College for that.

She's done some amazing stuff, volunteering, getting other folks to become involved, working with an adoption agency, teaching Jr High Sunday School, currently she manages grants, helping other folks help other folks.  Plus working toward her Master's Degree.

 

No particular reason for my mind wonderings.

I was just setting here thinking about how far away East Tennesse is.

Washing machine repair

OK, for any single guys who happen to be reading this, or perhaps married guys who haven't had the experience yet, let me explain something.

You know nothing about washing machines.

You may have been doing your own laundry for years, or may have never looked inside of one.  Doesn't matter.  Washing machines are a woman's domain.

Until it quits, then you better be an expert.  Our Kenmore make everything cleaner with lots less water and soap miracle worker started making a funnier than usual noise.  I said it that way because when this one starts the spin cycle It makes the windows rattle in my office.  It make a little noise elsewhere, but there seems to be a direct link to my office.

When we first got it the laundry room had a concrete floor.  Nothing vibrated.  But when we moved the laundry room it was not on a wood beam floor. It didn't like the move and was constantly trying to walk back to the old laundry room.

I finally convinced the laundry lady to let me bolt it to the floor.  It hasn't tried walking away since then.

But like I said, it started making a new noise, then it stopped making noise and flashed an error code. With clothes and water in the machine.

The laundry lady was not pleased.

So I did some diagnosis.  OK, WE did some diagnosis. She found the owner's manual which wasn't a lot of help.  The answer to almost everything is call Sears service.  Well ... our local Sears store sells them, but they are not a service center.  So I did some more looking and poking.  The code (once we started looking at the right one) seemed to suggest a drain problem. I checked hoses, looked poked and prodded.  I decided the either the drain pump motor or the relay on top of it was the culprit ... and finally noticed this big plug at the lowest point of the machine.

I said to myself "I bet that is a drain."  So I got a couple buckets and drained it.  Then I removed the plug all the way and found a debris screen in the inlet of the drain pump.  In the debris screen I found this

(that's in a gallon ice cream bucket)

14 quarters, a similar number of dimes, several nickels and pennies, a couple ink pens, a 1/4 self-tapping screw driver adapter, a drywall screw, ear plugs, a push pin ... oh yeah, and a seam ripper and wedding ring.  I was SURE GLAD to see the last two.  Because I KNEW they were not in MY pockets.

I was a hero for finding the wedding ring.

I then pulled the inlet hose off and found a couple safety pins and such.

But we still hadn't figured out the problem.  Like a dummy I put it all back together and tried it again.  15 minutes later, once we got all the water drained again, I took the pump apart.  The impeller was broken. Probably some foreign object got into it ... like that screw driving adapter with all the extra marks on it like something beat on it for a while.  Like an impeller.

Searsparts.com has 7 million parts.  But none of these in stock in a store within 100 miles.  So Monday our new $90 with shipping pump should be here. Before I install it I think I'll run the drain hose and check for dimes, etc. And then I can go back to knowing nothing about washing machines