Good Morning!!! With my Internet back up, it seems strange to be rattling around Winterpast in the dark, fumbling for coffee and ideas. My internet is back up!!! In the wild west, services are often out of the olden days. Such is life in my little town. I’m lucky to have any internet at all.
When VST and I first moved to Virginia City, we needed to select a television provider. Of course, the two obvious companies available on Mount Davidson were Dish Net or Direct TV. Both were quite expensive, considering our TV bill had been $0 for the last 7 years in California. Perched on our California mountain top, we’d been lucky enough to get free television signals from an inexpensive antennae. Thirty high definition channels were quirky and free. Okay, one was in Hindu and the other in Hmong, but, they were still High Definition entertainment.
On one of our first nights in VC, while enjoying dinner with the new neighbors, the topic of television services came up. Just WHO should we choose for television service.
“Comstock Television.”
A choice of which we knew nothing. Just like that, we were introduced to the world of Red Neck Television.
Stop by and chat with Mabel, who lives at the house on the corner with the wild poppies. Her husband, Bob, died a few years back. She isn’t always there, so just keep trying until you reach here. She’ll set up an account.
Stan, across the street, tends to the power cord and antennae on the mountain. Cord runs to the Atkins, right under the rock “V” on the side of Mt. Davidson. Stan takes care of the antennae. Let him know if the reception gets grainy. He may need to go clean it off. Be patient. His jeep doesn’t always run just right. Might take him awhile to get up there.
Reception in the snow? Well. FERGETABOUTIT. Besides, in the snow, everyone is either out shoveling it, or inside watching it fall. Better things to do than television watching.
Price? Oh, Yeah. $25 a month. About 18 channels. Not high def. Some days, no def.
Being cheap, for the first four years we lived in VC, we went with Comstock TV. Everything ran just as the neighbors had said. For $25/month, we had all the channels we could handle. A pretty good assortment. News. HGTV. Three Western channels. Sci Fi. Three local channels. Everything worked great unless the antennae was dirty or covered with snow.
Each month, a hand-typed carbon paper bill arrived in our PO Box, signed in blue ink by Mabel. Every month, VST wrote out a check and sent it back to her. We never met even though she lived in the house on the corner with the wild poppies. She had her woes and we were busy working. Always busy working.
Stan wasn’t the best at keeping the antennae clean. He had a real job with the VC utilities. But, we would catch him when we could. I loved watching his faded red jeep snake up the mountain road to the antennae at the top and right by the “V” which is made of white rock. All the towns in these parts have their town letter on a hill above them. Made it easier for travelers in the olden days to head in the right direction.
In my little town, I was hoping for fiber optic internet of the fast kind. It would be great to get the best connections for all my surfing needs. I soon learned to FERGETABOUTIT here, too. Mountain communities sacrifice good services for the joys of living with nature, or something like that.
The realtor told me I should check on a little provider located in the county seat, 45 miles to the south. The price was right, so I signed up for internet services only. Some days are great, other days are not so great. The company sold a year ago, with price hikes and many days of no service at all. When it’s the only game in town, you just go with it. No other choice.
This last outage was planned for equipment upgrades. However, during the upgrade, there was an additional little problem. The fiber optic cable feeding my company was cut clear through with a shovel. That’ll do it. Luckily, they got things working again.
When moving from a real town into a pretend one, patience is key. Expecting Nevada to be California never works out well. When the internet is down, one must find other things to do. Unplugging gives one time to think about things that are truly important in this world. It gives a writer a chance to regroup.
On this first day back with you , it’s finally snowed again. Thank goodness. Maybe things can get back to normal around here.
More tomorrow.