And it's down, and up and down again

All of a sudden my connection has decided to play roller coaster. DSL looses sync and the modem has to go through the sync and authentication cycle ... over and over and over again.

Isn't it time to spend some of that money you take in on INFRASTRUCTURE for a change, Fairpoint?

Fixed ... for a while.

Fairpoint repair tech arrived ...

The modem (actually a dsl router, but who cares) is bad - replace modem.

Oops, the new modem won't authenticate, either.

Call and confirm that the username and password I gave him are correct - still no authentication.

Call infrastructure repair - they had a trouble call into the CO late Saturday/early Sunday morning and transferred "everyone" over to new hardware to fix a problem.

Whoops - we didn't finish Mr. Russell's circuit apparently.

I now have Fairpoint Internet ... again. 4.5 mbps (part of that UP TO 7 mbps package) down and 0.9 mbps up. Sucks to live in the boondocks with piss poor infrastructure and service.

Fairpoint - Part Douche

Here we are SIXTY hours later ... and STILL no internet!

I contacted a 'Supervisor' yesterday - she had my case "escalated". I have YET to be contacted by Tier 2 Tech Support or to have a local repair tech out to troubleshoot.

I just got off the phone with another Supervisor (one I have dealt with before that actually can get results). Several higher level people have been contacted ... and I am supposed to be contacted shortly - we shall see.

Fairpoint.NOT

Time to rant about the piss poor service Fairpoint provides in my area. Their website claims that 30 mbps is available in my area - you can also choose 15 mbps or 4 mpbs service.

 Don't be fooled - the FASTEST service SUPPOSEDLY available in my area is 7 mbps.

Good luck with that ... only upon RARE occasions have we had anywhere close to that speed! After several calls (and one open trouble ticket that was ignored for almost 2 weeks), they "fixed" the problem and gave us ONE month credit.

Here we are a week later and ... Saturday our download speed dropped from the usual low speed down to a whopping 0.03 mbps - our upload speed was essentially ZERO. Almost an hour of frustrating time on the phone with "tech support" resulted in ANOTHER escalation and trouble ticket.

ONE hour later ... NO internet! Our DSL syncs ... just no internet. That was added to the trouble ticket on Sunday.

Here we are 36 hours later with NO calls from Tier 2 and still NO internet!

Vampires, Thunderboomers and hellacious heat ...

I've had the blood drawn for the lab work the Neurologist wanted - NINE tubes worth! CT Scans are scheduled - and you know it's not a good sign when the instructions say nothing to eat or drink hours before the tests ... AND you have to be there early to be "prepped". All that for CT of my spine - really?

Thunderstorms EVERY afternoon along with heat indices in the triple digits is making it difficult to get in my "runs".  I could try going early in the morning - but I REALLY don't trust drivers even if I do use lights. I may have to start doing so, anyway, but I'd rather find another solution.

St. George Island 5K Scorcher in August - was I crazy when I signed up for that? At least the weather now will get me ready for it - IF I can actually survive the training!

A definite improvement

At 7:30 this morning, I took my improved ride out for a 5K test run - in spite of the already hot temperature. Without really pushing things (or even getting into the 52 tooth chainring), I hit over 20 MPH on an essentially flat course and finished in 16:12 - which is over SEVEN Minutes better then my previous PR for a 5K. The SRAM DD3 hub was major factor!

Average speed 11.4 MPH - which is getting into the area I need to Boston Qualify (13.1 MPH average).

It will take a little time to get ideal shifting, etc down pat, but for a first time try in less than ideal weather, this was a BIG improvement. Once I get onto a course where I can really use the big chainring, my top speed should take a big jump upward.

July 4th, there is the 'Walk to Liberty', which goes across the bridge between Calhoun and Liberty (wonder where they got the name) Counties. There is a nice hump in the bridge - and I should be able to max out my speed going down into Liberty County. The Speed Limit is 55 MPH - and I intend to see if I can break that limit. If I can spin up to 120 cadence, I should be doing 56 MPH - we shall see!

Getting my "Baby" back ...

I'm back from The Great Bicycle Shop -

SRAM DD3 Hub installed - check (36 spoke 3 - cross using DT Swiss Stainless Steel spokes and brass nipples!);

52T and 24T chainrings installed - check;

Move parking brake to left crank grip - check (makes it a LOT easier to double up on braking);

Mount the DD3 trigger shifter on the left crank grip - check;

Tune all the brakes, shifters, and do an "oil change and grease job" - check;

Do all that at a GREAT price - check!

Right now the 'feels like' is in triple digits, so I am NOT going out for a test ride ... yet.