Dead Trees, Verizon JetPack MiFi, and Entertainment Systems

Dead Trees - If you read Saturday's blog post, you will be familiar with the two trees that adorned a section of Solano Street 50 yards from my office until an inebriated woman crashed into them and uprooted them last Thursday at 4 PM. In my post, I said that I felt secure in the notion that the trees would be replanted and survive nicely.

Unfortunately, while Laura and I returned to our nest following Sunday service at Harvest Christian Center, we saw that the trees had not been replanted. This saddened us greatly. Hopefully, the trees will be replaced soon with healthy trees.

Verizon JetPack MiFi - The Verizon Jetpack™ 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot - MiFi® 4620L is an awesome device. I have seen download speeds in excess of 20,000kbps.



Here are some examples of the unit in use:
1 = DigitalPath wireless Internet connection at home
2 = MiFi Wi-Fi Hot Spot inside church
3 = MiFi Wi-Fi Hot Spot in Nitro in front of our house
4 = MiFi Wi-Fi Hot Spot in Nitro in wilderness 35 miles from Corning
5 = MiFi Wi-Fi Hot Spot in Cocodine restaurant in Chico
6 = MiFi Wi-Fi Hot Spot in Nitro in Raley’s parking lot in Chico

Entertainment Systems - Lately, several have inquired regarding our entertainment systems. Here is what we use to access movies and television programming:

LIVING ROOM:

Vizio® 49” LCD HDTV

Kenwood® 200W Dolby Digital Plus HT Receiver

JBL® Speakers – Front Channels, Rear Channels, Center Channel, Powered Subwoofer

Roku® unit connected via HDMI providing access to 7,000+ channels via 6,000kbps wireless Internet connection

18.3” Hewlett-Packard® Intel® i7 Entertainment Laptop connected via HDMI

Sony® Blu-ray DVD player connected via HDMI
BEDROOM:

Vizio® 39” LCD HDTV

Roku® unit connected via HDMI providing access to 7,000+ channels via 6,000kbps wireless Internet connection
DINING ROOM:

Sanyo® 19” LCD HDTV

Roku® unit connected via HDMI providing access to 7,000+ channels via 6,000kbps wireless Internet connection
OFFICE:

Vizio® 39” LCD HDTV

Onkyo® 250W Dolby Digital Plus HT Receiver

Onkyo® Speakers – Front Channels, Rear Channels, Center Channel, Powered Subwoofer

Roku® unit connected via HDMI providing access to 7,000+ channels via 6,000kbps wireless Internet connection

Hewlett-Packard® Intel® i7 Graphic Workstation connected via HDMI

Pioneer® Blu-ray burner/player
MOBILE:

2 Motorola® Droid X smartphones

2 ASUS® Transformer Prime 10.1” tablets

1 ASUS® Google Nexus 7 7” tablet

1 Verizon® JetPack 4G/ LTE MiFi wireless Hot Spot

Call Me!

Call me! - Several years ago, Laura and I discontinued home telephone service. We determined that we rarely used the landline—choosing to use instead our Droid X Android cell phones and service from Verizon. Since we rarely used the landline, it seemed sensible to discontinue the service. We have never regretted this decision.

It was, then, with great interest that I read a report that stated that over half of the population of the U.S. had similarly chosen to discontinue landline phone service.

I have since discontinued cellular service on my Droid X and, instead, use it—along with my ASUS Transformer Prime and Google Nexus 7 tablets—to make and receive telephone calls using Wi-Fi and Google Voice. If you are unfamiliar with Google Voice, I highly recommend you try it!

Google Voice is a free telephone service that provides a free phone number, free calling to the U.S. and Canada, call forwarding, voice mail, etc. It is wonderful and FREE!

We keep our cats—Zeus and Thor—indoors and feed them only dry cat food. They are very healthy, robust, and playful.

At times, human food appears to look inviting. This morning, Laura noticed her cat, Thor, intrigued by her scrambled eggs. She took this photograph:



I doubt I would feel comfortable contracting someone to do work that he cannot spell!



Speaking of cats...

The wonderful (80+) warm weather we have been enjoying has departed us—likely until next spring. It was wonderful while it lasted. Today, the high is forecast to be a mere 54 degrees! Rather than complain, however, I shall simply treasure my memories of warmer days and anticipate with great enthusiasm the return of the warmth!

Laura produced another stellar breakfast this morning. I so hungered for it that when she brought it to the table, she found me immobile—great quantities of drool seeping from my mouth, my eyes glazed and fixed, my pulse rapid and irregular—producing odd animal-like sounds. She placed THIS before me:

Click image to enlarge

and I was quickly restored fully! Thank you, Laura!