Always something

We rode our bikes for about an hour yesterday.  We toured the Venetian Shores neighborhood on Snake Creek.  Most homes in there are for sale--same as last year.  The "cheap" houses are about $750,000, with a lot of multi-million dollar homes. After so much exercise, we stopped for ice cream on the way back just to make sure our systems didn't get out of balance. 


We've been watching a lot of IU basketball games. (I'm not sure why)   I found some sites where we can watch them streaming on the laptop.  (ESPN3 and some other pirate sites--thanks Richman.)   I have a Virgin Mobile MiFi. When I got it, it was $40 per month with unlimited usage, with no annual contract.  Well, that no contract sword cuts both ways.  They changed their side of the contract and said I still had unlimited usage, but anything over 5 GB per month would be at a slower speed.  Streaming basketball must use a lot of data.  I reached the 5 GB in less than 2 weeks.
I thought I could pay Virgin for another month (2 weeks) or maybe check with Comcast--since we already have cable TV.  Internet service from them is $29 per month on an introductory offer.  So I drove up to their office in Key Largo to get a self install kit.  The line at Comcast was out the door full of angry customers.  Seems they had cut off TV service to everyone on the Keys who has more than the standard TV package.  I finally got my kit, and went back to the boat to install it.  It's about ten times faster than my DSL at home, but it's not wifi.  It connects to the laptop with a cable, which is fine, but I had just set up a Google Voice phone number to make calls over wifi on my limited minutes cell phone.  Now I no longer have wifi, so if I sent you that number--ignore it for now.
But the bad news is IU looks just as slow on high speed internet service.

And plumbing is a never ending challenge.  Now I see why my pal Wayne makes so much money in the plumbing supply business.  Every 2 or 3 days, Pam lets me know that the carpet is wet.  Which means we have another leak.  Wednesday, it was the accumulator tank leaking from the top.  Don't know why I need it, so I bi-passed it and took it out.  She just told me that she stepped in water on the floor again today.  I think I might buy her a pair of boots.

But the worst news is that today, our wonderful, made in Kentucky, Ford diesel truck started blowing clouds of black smoke again, and lost power while hauling groceries back from Winn-Dixie.  It towed our boat down here, but I guess the groceries were just too much for it.  Not sure how we might get it repaired.  The closest Ford dealer is in Miami.  Of course we've had it towed to Ford dealers in Georgia, West Virginia, and had a new turbo installed in Noblesville, Indiana.  All in all, we've spent over $4000 in repairs on that truck in the past year.  If you're looking for a diesel truck, I suggest you DO NOT BUY A FORD !