HughesNet

We have HughesNet internet service around here. Their technical support bureaucracy is astounding. 

To send a technician, HughesNet representatives, located in Texas and India, the ones I spoke to, must schedule with a company named Perfect 10, whose job is to dispatch service visits to small contractor companies covering various geographical areas. These small contractor companies include Advanced Wireless and Appalachian Mountain Satellite. Then these small contractors must schedule with actual technicians, who seem to be stringers of sorts and may work for several of the small contracting companies.

Thus HughesNet requires 24 to 48 hours just to schedule the service visit - never mind to visit.

Wood Pellet Stove

Went to Tom, the general contractor's, to drop off his final check. He showed me his family's new house under construction and their corn/wood pellet stove.

Gift

First overnight in the new cabin and with the new kitten. Temp outside down to 32 degrees Farenheit, wind and light snow. Power out several hours. Which means, here, in addition to no hot water, no well water at all, and no electronics - also no heat. Had prepped, piling all the blankets I own onto the bed, and was warm enough.

By mid-morning, the electricity and heat had been restored, and we were toasty. I petted the kitten a while, then sat up and slid out of bed. Turned around to arrange the blankets, and found a little gray mouse smushed in my pillow, where my head and neck had lain.

ATVs

You can drive ATVs on the roads here, it seems. People can and do use them as ordinary transportation. Often outfitted with canopies that make them look like golf carts.

You see them pulling up to gas pumps, just like any other vehicle. You also see tractors pulling up to gas pumps. Sometimes on trailers. Generally speaking, gas pump traffic is more interesting around here.

Cars

I think people are more conscious of cars around here than I'm used to. They recognize each other by them in passing along the roads. I'm pretty car-oblivious though, so I'm afraid it's mostly lost on me!

Roads

Most roads around here are one-lane blacktop with wide gravel shoulders. Cars are meant to pass each other on the shoulders.

Poof!

I learned last night not to touch a damp sponge to a lit light bulb. No matter how thick the dust upon the bulb. I had a slight déjà vu about it though. I may have failed to retain this knowledge once already.

Replacement Flapper Valve for 1969 Eljer Toilet

This is my contribution to the collective web knowledge about toilets!  I have an old Eljer toilet, possibly from 1969.  I recently successfully replaced its worn-out flapper valve with a PlumbPak “Flush valve assembly for Eljer Touch Flush,” purchased at Lowes.

Stamps inside toilet tank: PAT 101 697 (or possibly 191 697) and 2 623 216

Inside lid: 5540, MAR 14 1969, 2036, and PAT 191 697

Poor Norbert, R. I. P.

My car, Norbert, was fatally wounded this icy night, in an eleven-car pile-up, in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Belvidere

Happened upon the town of Belvidere (Warren County, New Jersey), quite a large town, full of charming clapboard homes with peeling paint. Belvidere was in the midst of its Victorian Days festivities. There was also a large show of antique autos and a small show of old military vehicles.

Sheep Creamery, Ford Model A

After yesterday's "Renaissance Day," today was the "Shakespeare Festival" here in Clinton, New Jersey. Much better attended.

KH planned what was surely one of the nicest afternoons a gal of my inclinations could hope for. He broke out his beat-up, tried-and-true Ford Model A convertible, and we enjoyed a lovely Sunday drive. Rather bumpier than expected through beautiful Ken Lockwood Gorge in Califon, New Jersey. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection must plain not maintain that magical road along the Raritan River.

Feature destination: Valley Shepherd Creamery, in Long Valley, New Jersey. A bona fide, state-of-the-art, little agri-tourism sheep creamery—who knew! We got a tour from one of the creamery owners, who made no bones about anything. The sweet little male lambs? Straight to the freezer! The business of the creamery was totally fascinating.

KH and I continued on, to the falls at Hacklebarney State Park. There we enjoyed a lovely, late, picnic lunch of fruit, crackers, salami, and, of course, sheep's milk cheeses.

Along the way, KH attempted to teach me to drive the Model A. For this special vehicle anyway, I couldn't resist assuming the cliché role of the woman who can't operate a manual transmission. If the car could have been broken, I surely would have done it. KH was very brave.