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Forum: General Stuff Topic: Vince off the Grid started by: GORDON Posted by GORDON on Jun. 15 2015,13:11
So we know Vince is planning to leave the Jewel of the Mid South soon for a few acres in BFE.Will you have broadband, there? Posted by Vince on Jun. 15 2015,14:10
At this point. we're not sure of the limits to broadband there. I suspect we're too far out for your standard DSL and cable options. I've been looking at wireless options, but those all have data caps. So I'm pretty sure streaming video will be out.I think initially my updates will be coming via free Wi-Fi at McDonalds once a week or so for a couple of weeks anyway. Posted by GORDON on Jun. 15 2015,14:21
Man that's gonna suck.A lot of the more remote or frugal peeps out my way do wireless, with an antenna on their roof that has line-of-sight to the top of the local grain elevator. Posted by Malcolm on Jun. 15 2015,14:25
No wimax?
Posted by Vince on Jun. 15 2015,14:40
It will be an adjustment initially. We'll have plenty to do initially and we have a decent sized library of DVDs for slow times until we get figured out what we're going to do.I have two chicken coops to build right off the bat (one regular large one and a chicken tractor) and one bee hive to assemble for next spring. Plus a garden area to fence in attached to the large chicken coop's run. There's a lot to clean up around there and debris to burn that was left over from the house burning down and dude just took his little tractor and drug crap into the tree line. So I'll be dragging it back into a pile in the grass and burning it. Then it'll probably be hunting and trapping season, so we'll be doing that in the fall. I'm hoping we stay busy enough not to be impacted too heavily by it short term. At least until we figure out what we're going to be doing for TV and Internet. Alas, no grain elevators within line of sight from me. Posted by Vince on Jun. 15 2015,14:45
(Malcolm @ Jun. 15 2015,16:25) QUOTE No wimax? Honestly haven't ever dealt with Wimax. Will look into it. Posted by TheCatt on Jun. 15 2015,14:53
Whoa... permanently? At first I just thought it was a vacation thing...
Posted by Malcolm on Jun. 15 2015,15:02
(Vince @ Jun. 15 2015,16:45) QUOTE (Malcolm @ Jun. 15 2015,16:25) QUOTE No wimax? Honestly haven't ever dealt with Wimax. Will look into it. < Haven't tried it myself. Haven't needed to >. Don't know if there's one in your area, but those networks are generally for those who want relatively comparable broadband performance over wireless. Posted by Vince on Jun. 15 2015,15:17
(TheCatt @ Jun. 15 2015,16:53) QUOTE Whoa... permanently? At first I just thought it was a vacation thing... Yeah. Not sure what I'll be doing for a living there. Maybe break/fix work. Maybe something out of the IT industry entirely. Maybe installing satellite TV services. Just feel it's time to get out of the city. I'm lucky that I don't have kids to put through college, so if we just squeak by, then that's okay too. Posted by Vince on Jun. 15 2015,15:25
(Malcolm @ Jun. 15 2015,17:02) QUOTE < Haven't tried it myself. Haven't needed to >. Don't know if there's one in your area, but those networks are generally for those who want relatively comparable broadband performance over wireless. Seeing some forum chatter about a kywimax from about 3 years ago. They weren't wowing them at that point. Complaining that it was only about twice the speed of dial up and down more than it was up. Posted by Malcolm on Jun. 15 2015,15:41
(Vince @ Jun. 15 2015,17:25) QUOTE (Malcolm @ Jun. 15 2015,17:02) QUOTE < Haven't tried it myself. Haven't needed to >. Don't know if there's one in your area, but those networks are generally for those who want relatively comparable broadband performance over wireless. Seeing some forum chatter about a kywimax from about 3 years ago. They weren't wowing them at that point. Complaining that it was only about twice the speed of dial up and down more than it was up. Since telecommunications companies eliminate competition more than they do engineering problems anymore, that may still be true. Wimax 2 claims: QUOTE Also, low mobility users can aggregate multiple channels to get a download throughput of up to 1 Gbit/s < Nerd speak >. Posted by Vince on Jun. 15 2015,15:48
There will be a few things that I will have to have settled before we figure out what we'll be using. A functional physical address to start with. Then a job for myself so we'll have an idea of disposable income. The wife works for a hospital here that has a hospital that'll be about 30 minutes from where we're moving. They don't want to lose her, so we're about 95% sure they're going to be able to get her set up with her currently responsibilities at that facility which will be good.
Posted by Malcolm on Jun. 15 2015,20:12
Food/shelter are optional. Internet is not.
Posted by Vince on Jun. 22 2015,10:05
As we continue to prepare the house for selling and our moving, I had a couple of thoughts on the process.First off, it sucks. I've been in this house for about 19 years. Lots of memories both good and bad. Through a few jobs and all of my marriages. I've heard that moving is the third most stressful thing we deal with after family deaths and losing your job. I've noticed quite a few dreams about my first ex-wife and dreams about working still at Cleo (from 11 some-odd years ago). Just strange brain stuff. Posted by Paul on Jun. 27 2015,20:24
Wait... is there a thread I missed about Vince going Kaczynski?Too drunk to search. I've had DSL in my area for less than 2 years. I lived off dial-up and trips to town for bigger downloads. I was impossible to call my house because I was on dial-up pretty much 24/7. Posted by Troy on Jun. 27 2015,21:53
Yeah, i'd be interested to how you came to the decision to go all "into the wild"
Posted by Vince on Jun. 28 2015,14:34
My wife and I have found that oddly enough we like doing the outdoors stuff. We'd talked about retiring up near my dad's property. And it had also been my SHTF plan for many years. We've talked here about what an EMP event would look like for the country, etc.The more I watched the world economic news, the more I started to think the shit might not so much "hit" the fan as slowly dribble into it until everything's covered in it. So when does one leave the city? That has been a standard stanza in my prayers. "Let me know when it's time to go." You wait too long and you're sitting on property you can't sell. But I really didn't want to pull the trigger too soon either. Also even if I get out of the city just in the nick of time, we're out in the country trying to figure out how to do a lot of stuff when learning how is much more essential. I'd rather have a year or two to figure it out while we can all still go to WalMart if the learning curve is steeper than expected. So last fall some stuff happens at work and in those conditions I knew I'd have to find another job. The thought of even looking for another job here just turned my gut in knots. Something was very wrong with that. The thought of trying to find a job in KY crossed my mind and even knowing the job market is slim and making as much money as I do today isn't likely and I might even have to find something far outside my career field... even taking all that into consideration I had a calm come over me. It just feels like it's time. So in two or three years I'll either be in a really good place compared to most the rest of folks, or I'll be proven an idiot. So that's the big story. Plus a couple of years ago we were heading back to Memphis from a long weekend out at my dad's. I think we'd been semi-hunting (read: piddling out in the woods with firearms and the Rhino) and as we approached Memphis traffic again watching the idiots on the highway trying to text as they drove I turned to my wife and said. "Humans weren't meant to live like this." I realize there will be idiots in the rural areas as well, but the concentration will be less. Posted by Paul on Jun. 28 2015,20:31
What part of KY?
Posted by Vince on Jun. 29 2015,04:12
Western KY near the TN border. Mostly farm country.
Posted by Paul on Jun. 29 2015,06:44
I'll be staying in the Land Between the Lakes area later this week.Western KY is the only part of the state to have water moccasins. Posted by Vince on Jun. 29 2015,06:50
Be careful in Land Between the Lakes. They have pygmy rattle snakes there.
Posted by Vince on Jun. 30 2015,11:03
I think I've mentioned before that moving sucks. Have a contractor working on the house with minor inside repairs and painting. Most everything is moved out. but what isn't has been piled into the center of three rooms. So our bed is covered with stuff. So we slept on a comforter on the floor last night. The suck level is pretty high right now.Thursday I'm going to go ahead and rent a U-Haul and move the lion's share of stuff that's still in Memphis up to KY. We're going minimalist in the house. Two place settings and one pot and one pan for cooking. Air matters to sleep on. Laptop to meet our computing needs. No TV. Posted by TheCatt on Jun. 30 2015,17:36
< Vince, the Internet is trying to help you out. >
Posted by Malcolm on Jun. 30 2015,18:59
(TheCatt @ Jun. 30 2015,19:36) QUOTE < Vince, the Internet is trying to help you out. > BT4 Kickstarter did better its first two days. Posted by Vince on Jul. 01 2015,06:56
(TheCatt @ Jun. 30 2015,19:36) QUOTE < Vince, the Internet is trying to help you out. > I think the reality is starting to sink in for some of them over in Greece. And I think as long as they try to play nice, that will prevent the reality from setting in everywhere else :-) Posted by TheCatt on Jul. 01 2015,06:56
< Greece changes mind >Too bad they already defaulted, and the ECB bail out program expired yesterday. Posted by Vince on Jul. 20 2015,06:11
Got our bank accounts opened up there and a PO box. Probably going to be sleeping on the floor at my dad's for a couple of weeks when we first get there. Found a job prospect in the IT field not far away. We'll see how things roll.Still no idea as to what we'll be doing for Internet. Though we do have a physical address for the lot now. Posted by Vince on Jul. 23 2015,08:18
House went on the market for sale yesterday. Got a cash offer from a Hispanic couple today. Too far below my asking price, but I consider it a good sign.
Posted by Vince on Jul. 27 2015,09:48
Cleaned out the attic this weekend. Is this the last thing gone through and packed away for anyone else? Three dot matrix printers, a couple of old PCs and monitors. Stuff that belonged in a museum, really. An IBM XT Owners Manual. A whole bag of 5 1/4 floppies.
Posted by Alhazad on Jul. 27 2015,09:50
(Vince @ Jul. 27 2015,09:48) QUOTE A whole bag of 5 1/4 floppies. You should really throw those away after you cut them off. Posted by Malcolm on Jul. 27 2015,09:55
(Vince @ Jul. 27 2015,11:48) QUOTE Cleaned out the attic this weekend. Is this the last thing gone through and packed away for anyone else? Three dot matrix printers, a couple of old PCs and monitors. Stuff that belonged in a museum, really. An IBM XT Owners Manual. A whole bag of 5 1/4 floppies. I still got a sealed box of 3M 5.25" diskettes. It's like a joke that never gets old. Posted by Vince on Jul. 27 2015,10:11
I had enough Christmas wrap to last a dozen lifetimes. The lack of climate control and 10-15 years turned the paper into this unusable brittle stuff. So a lot had to be thrown away. Now only have enough Christmas wrap to last 3 lifetimes.
Posted by GORDON on Jul. 27 2015,10:46
Ha, fuck you Cleo for those shitty xmas bonuses of wrapping paper.
Posted by Vince on Jul. 27 2015,10:57
The guys in engineering had what they called "over rolls". When calibrating the machines that measured and cut the paper on the cores, they would often end up with rolls that had way more paper than they should have. one in particular is a roll with the paper being about an inch thick. I suspect that will last more Christmases than I will.
Posted by GORDON on Jul. 27 2015,11:01
I remember my first XMas at Cleo... and the big boxes of wrapping paper were being given out to employees with a big MERRY CHRISTMAS! and I was like, "are they serious?" and the other employees were like, "Yeah, this is the awesome bonus of free wrapping paper!!!"
Posted by Malcolm on Jul. 27 2015,11:06
Your "bonus" was free wrapping paper? That's like giving an empty glass to a thirsty dude. It seems more insulting than nothing at all.
Posted by GORDON on Jul. 27 2015,11:07
(Malcolm @ Jul. 27 2015,14:06) QUOTE Your "bonus" was free wrapping paper? That's like giving an empty glass to a thirsty dude. It seems more insulting than nothing at all. I could be forgetting... it was over a decade ago, but yes, I think the xmas bonus was the extra wrapping paper that they produced. It's like they are giving you their trash. Posted by Vince on Jul. 27 2015,12:19
Nope, you're not misremembering. Though to be fair, it's more than a certain Automotive aftermarket parts company hands out at Christmas.
Posted by Vince on Jul. 31 2015,06:44
Last day here at work. Loading up the pick-up and Buick after work and heading to KY. Coming back tomorrow for another truck load and the wife's car. Not sure the two trips will be enough. If not I'll see if my dad can drive up down next week with his pick-up and trailer. Should be able to knock it out with that.We've been making heavy use of the air mattress in the last month or so. In the wee hours this morning we were experiencing a mattress dysfunction with it going limp. I rolled over and there was a tear I'd been laying on that rapidly expelled what was left of the air (or a smaller hole was there that enlarged as I rolled over). I count little things like that as a blessing. Exactly when we didn't need it any more, it gives up the air mattress ghost. And one less thing to load up. Posted by Vince on Aug. 12 2015,07:36
In KY. Staying at my Dad's farm house while he gets moved out of his trailer to move it. Right now have date for closing on house the 31st of this month. Yay! Using McD's Internet right now. Boo!
Posted by GORDON on Aug. 12 2015,08:21
Always feels weird to be in limbo with no home base.
Posted by Vince on Aug. 15 2015,16:07
I'm finding the lack of Internet much less of a problem than I thought it would. Everyone assumes you have it, but I find life a lot less stressful not reading the news.
Posted by GORDON on Aug. 15 2015,17:42
When I am busy I don't think, "Man I wish I was reading tweets instead of chainsawing this tree and stacking the wood."I'd mainly miss the end-of-day porn. Posted by Malcolm on Aug. 15 2015,18:12
(Vince @ Aug. 15 2015,18:07) QUOTE ... I find life a lot less stressful not reading the news. Ignorance is bliss. Posted by TheCatt on Aug. 15 2015,19:45
(GORDON @ Aug. 15 2015,20:42) QUOTE When I am busy I don't think, "Man I wish I was reading tweets instead of chainsawing this tree and stacking the wood." I'd mainly miss the end-of-day porn. Yeah, when I'm busy, it's amazing how little FB and reddit matter. |