living in the past

[mmi]

This is my first visit to The Loft. I had an experience the other day that had a somewhat profound effect on me and I wanted to share it.

For two evenings recently, I lost all my communications services (Verizon — weather-related). No phone (I don't have a cell phone), no Internet, and (gulp) … no TV.

The first night, I did some reading. I have some sort of PTSD as the result of four years as an impassioned social sciences grad student who reads very slowly (I internally vocalize). Ever since then, I typically can't read for more than about ten or fifteen minutes without getting seriously distracted, so I don't read much.

The second evening, I listened to NPR from 5-7 and then the Boston Bruins hockey game. As a youth in the Sixties, I listened to Bruins and Red Sox games with some frequency cuz they often weren't televised. The experience brought back fond memories and was more enjoyable than I expected.

Between periods in the game, I sat and … thought. I was surprised to feel that I don't do this as much as I would have expected. There was nothing to distract me. I started feeling like I was sort of returning to a time when there were no sophisticated electronic communications devices. It was peaceful. Quiet. Relaxing. Invigorating.

Sadly, I must admit that I am apparently simply unwilling to replicate the experience. When I finish forumming, I'm of course gonna turn on the TeeVee. Now I can tell myself that it's OK, cuz I'm gonna watch the PBS NewsHour and BBC World News and see who's on Charlie Rose. (Caught half-an-hour of Donnie Dumsfeld on a replay earlier today.) But I have to wonder if I'm making the right decision.

Should we try to turn everything off, say, one night a week or so? Do you do that already? I feel driven to have the experience I had when I had no choice, but I just know I won't do it.

 

[Lutherf]

I hear you!!

I still listen to baseball on the radio but at home there always seems to be the droning of the TV in the background and I do a lot less reading than I used to...kind of. I read books less frequently but read tons of stuff online. The one thing I have noticed is that my attention span has gone to hell in a handbasket. I used to be able to sit for hours reading or doing crosswords but now I'm up and changing gears at least once an hour.

 

[X Factor]

I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan so I'm well familiar with what it means to live in the past.

 

[Removable Mind]

This is my first visit to The Loft. I had an experience the other day that had a somewhat profound effect on me and I wanted to share it.

For two evenings recently, I lost all my communications services (Verizon — weather-related). No phone (I don't have a cell phone), no Internet, and (gulp) … no TV.

The first night, I did some reading. I have some sort of PTSD as the result of four years as an impassioned social sciences grad student who reads very slowly (I internally vocalize). Ever since then, I typically can't read for more than about ten or fifteen minutes without getting seriously distracted, so I don't read much.

The second evening, I listened to NPR from 5-7 and then the Boston Bruins hockey game. As a youth in the Sixties, I listened to Bruins and Red Sox games with some frequency cuz they often weren't televised. The experience brought back fond memories and was more enjoyable than I expected.

Between periods in the game, I sat and … thought. I was surprised to feel that I don't do this as much as I would have expected. There was nothing to distract me. I started feeling like I was sort of returning to a time when there were no sophisticated electronic communications devices. It was peaceful. Quiet. Relaxing. Invigorating.

Sadly, I must admit that I am apparently simply unwilling to replicate the experience. When I finish forumming, I'm of course gonna turn on the TeeVee. Now I can tell myself that it's OK, cuz I'm gonna watch the PBS NewsHour and BBC World News and see who's on Charlie Rose. (Caught half-an-hour of Donnie Dumsfeld on a replay earlier today.) But I have to wonder if I'm making the right decision.

Should we try to turn everything off, say, one night a week or so? Do you do that already? I feel driven to have the experience I had when I had no choice, but I just know I won't do it.

Your reading issue is called "Subvocalization". I feel your pain, I struggle with that as well, and college was difficult, but oddly enough I was Vice President of the Honor Society.

The reason I made the grade was simple, but not easy. I almost quit college weeks after starting. I spoke with a professor about my "reading deficit". He asked, "do you want to be a college student?" I said, "absolutely, but..." He said, "your classmates might be able to do the daily material in a couple of hours a day. You might require five hours a day. So if you really want to be college student, you have to be willing to be patient, acknowledge your problem, but don't dwell on it, spend those extra hours, don't think about the years of school ahead, think only about your tasks for today and one day you'll wake up and it will all be over with."

He was right.

I live in a rural area about 40 miles outside of Austin. We've had some devastating problems with flooding two times last year. My nearby community had 100s of homes lost and a lot of damage. I have wireless Internet, which went down for 5 days. Now, I do have a cell, but we can't get a signal without the Internet. We have a special modem, which is a signal booster of some kind. And our landline was intermittently on and off. We do have satellite TV, and it was on and off because of the power outages that would last hours at a time over several days. So we did get some down time.

Oh, and when flash floods happens. We live on a river in a valley. The road we live on is one way in and one way out. We have two low water crossing that get bogged down with brush, small trees, etc and the county has to come and clear the debris - which takes them a couple of days to get them. So we can't get out. So we always have to keep a stock of water. Speak of water, we have a well, which of course runs on electricity. No electricity - no water.

Gosh, didn't mean for this post to this long, hope you were able to get through it. :lol:

 

[mmi]

I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan so I'm well familiar with what it means to live in the past.

At least you have a past to live in. You could be a Falcons fan.

college was difficult, but oddly enough I was Vice President of the Honor Society.

Hey, we try harder.

>>your classmates might be able to do the daily material in a couple of hours a day. You might require five hours a day.

They used to chase me out of the library when they closed at midnight, four or five nights just about every week. I'd typically then go work a graveyard shift that allowed me to keep reading. I'd sleep for a few hours if I had the time before I started classes the next day. Back then I was ambitious, gonna make the world safe for democracy. The illusions of youth.



>>Speak of water

It was water that got me. Very high winds and very high humidity got it into the equipment on the side of my house. Excellent technician replaced it and helped me with some other techy things indoors.

>>didn't mean for this post to this long, hope you were able to get through it.

No problem. Ya gotta be polite in The Loft, right? Maybe I should just move up here.

 

[Removable Mind]

I haven't heard of "subvocalization" before, but I have a close friend, who reads incredibly slowly. She has never mentioned anything about vocalizing words in her mind as she reads so I'm wondering if it's possible to have this condition, but not know it? Would there be any other signs to an outsider besides reading slowly? Thank you.

Well, most people haven't heard of the term "subvocalization", but it isn't something just biological. While it can be biological, or a brain glitch, if you will, it can be taught. By that I mean, when I started elementary I had a teacher whose teaching methods probably had more to do with my reading issues than anything else.

It's like a curse of sort. When I read, I have to mentally listen to myself while I read. And then I get distracted by pondering about what it is that I was saying in my head. Sometimes I make it for a whole sentence before I pause to question myself about what I heard myself say about what I'm reading. It's distracting and at the same time causes comprehension to be garbled or even lost. And I have to start over.

But like people with dyslexia, people who are lucky enough to figure out what the hell is going on - seek out solutions that minimize the problem.

Make sense?

My wife is sort of the opposite. She can read several novels a week. She explains that when she reads she sees entire images of what she's reading rather than words. She might see an image of events or matter of a quarter of the page, a half page, or a whole page. I can't begin to grasp that means. :shrug:

 

[Ray410]

Well, most people haven't heard of the term "subvocalization", but it isn't something just biological. While it can be biological, or a brain glitch, if you will, it can be taught. By that I mean, when I started elementary I had a teacher whose teaching methods probably had more to do with my reading issues than anything else.

It's like a curse of sort. When I read, I have to mentally listen to myself while I read. And then I get distracted by pondering about what it is that I was saying in my head. Sometimes I make it for a whole sentence before I pause to question myself about what I heard myself say about what I'm reading. It's distracting and at the same time causes comprehension to be garbled or even lost. And I have to start over.

But like people with dyslexia, people who are lucky enough to figure out what the hell is going on - seek out solutions that minimize the problem.

Make sense?

My wife is sort of the opposite. She can read several novels a week. She explains that when she reads she sees entire images of what she's reading rather than words. She might see an image of events or matter of a quarter of the page, a half page, or a whole page. I can't begin to grasp that means. :shrug:

Thank you for the information. I think I'll bring this up with my friend.

 

[Goshin]

 

[Removable Mind]

Thank you for the information. I think I'll bring this up with my friend.

You're welcome, I hope it helps her.

She might see a Neuropsychologist who specializes in testing people to diagnose reading problems.

I recommend this because...

One other real possibility is that she has an physical eye control problem. In other words, her eyes won't allow her to track words in the correct order, or systematically, or in a time sequence, if that make sense. Her eyeballs could literally be chattering and/or stalling intermittently, which prevents her from reading in some order and with comprehension.

 

[Ray410]

You're welcome, I hope it helps her.

She might see a Neuropsychologist who specializes in testing people to diagnose reading problems.

I recommend this because...

One other real possibility is that she has an physical eye control problem. In other words, her eyes won't allow her to track words in the correct order, or systematically, or in a time sequence, if that make sense. Her eyeballs could literally be chattering and/or stalling intermittently, which prevents her from reading in some order and with comprehension.

Great advice, thanks again.

 

[Andalublue]

Well, most people haven't heard of the term "subvocalization", but it isn't something just biological. While it can be biological, or a brain glitch, if you will, it can be taught. By that I mean, when I started elementary I had a teacher whose teaching methods probably had more to do with my reading issues than anything else.

It's like a curse of sort. When I read, I have to mentally listen to myself while I read. And then I get distracted by pondering about what it is that I was saying in my head. Sometimes I make it for a whole sentence before I pause to question myself about what I heard myself say about what I'm reading. It's distracting and at the same time causes comprehension to be garbled or even lost. And I have to start over.

But like people with dyslexia, people who are lucky enough to figure out what the hell is going on - seek out solutions that minimize the problem.

Make sense?

My wife is sort of the opposite. She can read several novels a week. She explains that when she reads she sees entire images of what she's reading rather than words. She might see an image of events or matter of a quarter of the page, a half page, or a whole page. I can't begin to grasp that means. :shrug:

I've no idea whether the 'condition' (for want of a better word) has a neurological basis or is the result of a glitch in the education process, as you described. What I can say is that I remember passing through that stage around the age of 11 and became, rather late, a ravenous reader. When I got to college I learned how to speed read, as your wife does, by scanning a whole line rather than reading each word sequentially. It's incredibly useful if you can get through a lot of heavy material quickly and pull out the relevant from the padding.

It does have a down side though. You do not retain the information you speed read to the same extent you do by reading normally and it's more tiring and requires more concentration. I still speed read if I need to, but mostly nowadays I read for pleasure so I take my time and enjoy not just the information, but the rhythm and juxtaposition of words. I'm reading a wonderful book at the moment called 'Salvage the Bones' by a Mississippi writer called Jesmyn Ward. Her use of language is stunning and I'm reading it very slowly, sipping it like a fine glass of sherry.

Going back to the subvocalisation, I tend to think education, or a glitch in it, must be the more likely explanation. I say this because since moving here to Spain ten years ago I have been taking weekly Spanish lessons. To begin with I noticed that I was best able to understand what I was reading in Spanish if I spoke it out loud. As time went on I began subvocalising, which was much better when reading the newspaper over breakfast in a cafe. I seem to have passed through that and now I read Spanish in the same way I read English. I haven't yet managed, or even tried, to speed read Spanish. I don't think I'm likely to really need to tbh.

Nowadays I enjoy my reading as much as I ever did. I read politics, history, biography and all kinds of fiction. I try to read a book in Spanish for about every 5 books I read in English. It was an interesting realisation that my reading skills in my second language developed along fairly similar lines as my development of reading skills in my mother tongue, just 40 years later.

 

[Sweden]

This is my first visit to The Loft. I had an experience the other day that had a somewhat profound effect on me and I wanted to share it.

For two evenings recently, I lost all my communications services (Verizon — weather-related). No phone (I don't have a cell phone), no Internet, and (gulp) … no TV.

The first night, I did some reading. I have some sort of PTSD as the result of four years as an impassioned social sciences grad student who reads very slowly (I internally vocalize). Ever since then, I typically can't read for more than about ten or fifteen minutes without getting seriously distracted, so I don't read much.

The second evening, I listened to NPR from 5-7 and then the Boston Bruins hockey game. As a youth in the Sixties, I listened to Bruins and Red Sox games with some frequency cuz they often weren't televised. The experience brought back fond memories and was more enjoyable than I expected.

Between periods in the game, I sat and … thought. I was surprised to feel that I don't do this as much as I would have expected. There was nothing to distract me. I started feeling like I was sort of returning to a time when there were no sophisticated electronic communications devices. It was peaceful. Quiet. Relaxing. Invigorating.

Sadly, I must admit that I am apparently simply unwilling to replicate the experience. When I finish forumming, I'm of course gonna turn on the TeeVee. Now I can tell myself that it's OK, cuz I'm gonna watch the PBS NewsHour and BBC World News and see who's on Charlie Rose. (Caught half-an-hour of Donnie Dumsfeld on a replay earlier today.) But I have to wonder if I'm making the right decision.

Should we try to turn everything off, say, one night a week or so? Do you do that already? I feel driven to have the experience I had when I had no choice, but I just know I won't do it.

When I lived in Iceland in the late 70s the sole TV station switched off for one day a week, Thursdays. As far as I recall just about everyone thought this a good idea.

 

[Removable Mind]

I've no idea whether the 'condition' (for want of a better word) has a neurological basis or is the result of a glitch in the education process, as you described. What I can say is that I remember passing through that stage around the age of 11 and became, rather late, a ravenous reader. When I got to college I learned how to speed read, as your wife does, by scanning a whole line rather than reading each word sequentially. It's incredibly useful if you can get through a lot of heavy material quickly and pull out the relevant from the padding.

It does have a down side though. You do not retain the information you speed read to the same extent you do by reading normally and it's more tiring and requires more concentration. I still speed read if I need to, but mostly nowadays I read for pleasure so I take my time and enjoy not just the information, but the rhythm and juxtaposition of words. I'm reading a wonderful book at the moment called 'Salvage the Bones' by a Mississippi writer called Jesmyn Ward. Her use of language is stunning and I'm reading it very slowly, sipping it like a fine glass of sherry.

Going back to the subvocalisation, I tend to think education, or a glitch in it, must be the more likely explanation. I say this because since moving here to Spain ten years ago I have been taking weekly Spanish lessons. To begin with I noticed that I was best able to understand what I was reading in Spanish if I spoke it out loud. As time went on I began subvocalising, which was much better when reading the newspaper over breakfast in a cafe. I seem to have passed through that and now I read Spanish in the same way I read English. I haven't yet managed, or even tried, to speed read Spanish. I don't think I'm likely to really need to tbh.

Nowadays I enjoy my reading as much as I ever did. I read politics, history, biography and all kinds of fiction. I try to read a book in Spanish for about every 5 books I read in English. It was an interesting realisation that my reading skills in my second language developed along fairly similar lines as my development of reading skills in my mother tongue, just 40 years later.

I had two years of Spanish in college. I never learned to speak or understand Spanish, but I learned how to read and write Spanish. Well, I didn't use it so I lost it over the years. The classes were really grammar oriented.

My wife is fairly fluent in Spanish. She speaks a little French, Italian and...oddly enough a little Chinese. Asian languages blow my mind. She's self-taught, by the way. She has a natural talent in grasping different languages.

In college - what saved me was that when I studied at home, or I would go to the campus Library where they had enclosed study rooms, I would read out loud and recording what I read.

That accomplished two things. It somehow reduced my compulsion to listen to what I was reading in my mind, which included to frequently stop reading to analysis what I had just read, which broke the continuity (speed) and impacted my comprehension. And it lessened reading fatigue. But I was still burden with reading at a speed not conducive to reasonable study times.

 

[mmi]

On this issue of reading, I just want to add that although I do subvocalize (thanks for reminding me of the term), I also have a high level of comprehension. My understanding is that, all things being equal, subvocalization tends to increase comprehension. Fwiw, my mom was a very fast reader but tended to have poor comprehension.

Hmm. I may be using "comprehension" incorrectly. I'm thinking of a person's ability to remember what's been read. I suppose comprehension refers to understanding.

The human brain sure is fascinating. Hopefully we'll live long enough to be around for all the stuff they're gonna discover about it in the next few decades. That said, as my OP indicates, there's a lot to be said for living a peaceful, quiet life, even without understanding much about brain science.

 

[_Sal]

so this thread kind of blew me away because in high school when they tested me I was in the bottom 40% for speed but in the top 2% for comprehension...no one ever explained why or what it meant

when my partner sits beside me and we both read something together, he seems to zoom along while I poke along, if I zoom I do not understand or retain in the same way

I also had problems learning in class...anything new throws me off completely and I go blank...but once I got home and could slowly analyse what I was reading and make sense of it...then I am fine...it's taken me years to be okay with that

I was also just panicking because my boss wants me to get through five levels of courses by December for my new job...however after reading this, I feel calmer

so thanks...

 

[Removable Mind]

On this issue of reading, I just want to add that although I do subvocalize (thanks for reminding me of the term), I also have a high level of comprehension. My understanding is that, all things being equal, subvocalization tends to increase comprehension. Fwiw, my mom was a very fast reader but tended to have poor comprehension.

Hmm. I may be using "comprehension" incorrectly. I'm thinking of a person's ability to remember what's been read. I suppose comprehension refers to understanding.

The human brain sure is fascinating. Hopefully we'll live long enough to be around for all the stuff they're gonna discover about it in the next few decades. That said, as my OP indicates, there's a lot to be said for living a peaceful, quiet life, even without understanding much about brain science.

Actually subvocalization causes a significant distraction in several ways. I would disagree about it enhancing comprehension that's common with people who don't subvocalize. By comprehension I mean understand the content, context, but most importantly maintaining a retention of what you read.

I'm not saying that it prohibits comprehension. It can alter it. If you're reading and simultaneously stopping to analyze or ponder about what you just read - because you're listen to what you read not absorbing what you read (it segments what you read) . That's a distraction, which can undermine you retaining what you just previously read and analyzed. In other words, it causes you to lose the streaming effect of what you read, which in turn, segments a complete thought or story being relayed to the reader by the author.

I hope I'm making sense.

Thanks

 

[Removable Mind]

so this thread kind of blew me away because in high school when they tested me I was in the bottom 40% for speed but in the top 2% for comprehension...no one ever explained why or what it meant

when my partner sits beside me and we both read something together, he seems to zoom along while I poke along, if I zoom I do not understand or retain in the same way

I also had problems learning in class...anything new throws me off completely and I go blank...but once I got home and could slowly analyse what I was reading and make sense of it...then I am fine...it's taken me years to be okay with that

I was also just panicking because my boss wants me to get through five levels of courses by December for my new job...however after reading this, I feel calmer

so thanks...

Sal, see my post #16. See if that helps clarify this for you. It's complicated and different people have different consequences from subvocalizing.

 

[_Sal]

Actually subvocalization causes a significant distraction in several ways. I would disagree about it enhancing comprehension that's common with people who don't subvocalize. By comprehension I mean understand the content, context, but most importantly maintaining a retention of what you read.

I'm not saying that it prohibits comprehension. It can alter it. If you're reading and simultaneously stopping to analyze or ponder about what you just read - because you're listen to what you read not absorbing what you read (it segments what you read) . That's a distraction, which can undermine you retaining what you just previously read and analyzed. In other words, it causes you to lose the streaming effect of what you read, which in turn, segments a complete thought or story being relayed to the reader by the author.

I hope I'm making sense.

Thanks

thanks, RM I might have missed this

 

[Port & Starboard]

When I lived in Iceland in the late 70s the sole TV station switched off for one day a week, Thursdays. As far as I recall just about everyone thought this a good idea.

Where did you live in Iceland. I spent a little time in Keflavik on base working on diesels. Made about 6-7 trips for a week at a time in 78-79.

 

[countryboy]

Your reading issue is called "Subvocalization". I feel your pain, I struggle with that as well, and college was difficult, but oddly enough I was Vice President of the Honor Society.

The reason I made the grade was simple, but not easy. I almost quit college weeks after starting. I spoke with a professor about my "reading deficit". He asked, "do you want to be a college student?" I said, "absolutely, but..." He said, "your classmates might be able to do the daily material in a couple of hours a day. You might require five hours a day. So if you really want to be college student, you have to be willing to be patient, acknowledge your problem, but don't dwell on it, spend those extra hours, don't think about the years of school ahead, think only about your tasks for today and one day you'll wake up and it will all be over with."

He was right.

I live in a rural area about 40 miles outside of Austin. We've had some devastating problems with flooding two times last year. My nearby community had 100s of homes lost and a lot of damage. I have wireless Internet, which went down for 5 days. Now, I do have a cell, but we can't get a signal without the Internet. We have a special modem, which is a signal booster of some kind. And our landline was intermittently on and off. We do have satellite TV, and it was on and off because of the power outages that would last hours at a time over several days. So we did get some down time.

Oh, and when flash floods happens. We live on a river in a valley. The road we live on is one way in and one way out. We have two low water crossing that get bogged down with brush, small trees, etc and the county has to come and clear the debris - which takes them a couple of days to get them. So we can't get out. So we always have to keep a stock of water. Speak of water, we have a well, which of course runs on electricity. No electricity - no water.

Gosh, didn't mean for this post to this long, hope you were able to get through it. :lol:

It was a good post. What is this "signal boosting modem" of which you speak? We live rural as well, and my cell phone doesn't get much of a signal inside the house, but my wife's old smart phone does fine. Go figure.

We have the same well issue during power outages. In the 16+ years we've lived out here, we've had a few multiple day power outages. I do have a small portable generator that will power the fridge, tv, internet and a few lights, but not the 220 V well pump. One little trick we use is to tap buckets of water out of the 50 gal hot water tank for toilet flushes. Just remember to switch off the breaker if your tank is electric, so when the power does comes back on, you don't burn up the elements.

 

[Removable Mind]

It was a good post. What is this "signal boosting modem" of which you speak? We live rural as well, and my cell phone doesn't get much of a signal inside the house, but my wife's old smart phone does fine. Go figure.

We have the same well issue during power outages. In the 16+ years we've lived out here, we've had a few multiple day power outages. I do have a small portable generator that will power the fridge, tv, internet and a few lights, but not the 220 V well pump. One little trick we use is to tap buckets of water out of the 50 gal hot water tank for toilet flushes. Just remember to switch off the breaker if your tank is electric, so when the power does comes back on, you don't burn up the elements.

What cell service do you have?

Good idea on using hot water heater.

Here's some things we recently did. We recently got a 1000 gallon potable water tank. The water might get stale. If we drink it, we might have to boil the water because there's no filter or UV system connected. But we can gravity feed the water to the house, if necessary. We recently got a generator that will handle most everything, including our well. Well, maybe not the heat pumps for heating and AC, having tested that. But I doubt it.

Our problem is with the Internet. It's the provider that goes down because their bandwidth goes to them via an underground TI cable, or something like that and water will always get in somewhere when we have flash floods so they are down, thus we are down. They've been down for days at a time during times when flooding is bad.

And we have one landline that is Verizon and another which is Vonage, and that's via Internet. So it goes down. The other (verizon) works most of the time.

 

[countryboy]

What cell service do you have?

Good idea on using hot water heater.

Here's some things we recently did. We recently got a 1000 gallon potable water tank. The water might get stale. If we drink it, we might have to boil the water because there's no filter or UV system connected. But we can gravity feed the water to the house, if necessary. We recently got a generator that will handle most everything, including our well. Well, maybe not the heat pumps for heating and AC, having tested that. But I doubt it.

Our problem is with the Internet. It's the provider that goes down because their bandwidth goes to them via an underground TI cable, or something like that and water will always get in somewhere when we have flash floods so they are down, thus we are down. They've been down for days at a time during times when flooding is bad.

And we have one landline that is Verizon and another which is Vonage, and that's via Internet. So it goes down. The other (verizon) works most of the time.

Cell service is Verizon.

Love the idea of a water storage tank. What did that run ya, if you don't mind my asking?

Our internet is provided through our land line company via archaic DSL, but it's the only real option other than satellite. Since it comes in via the phone line, it's easy to run off the generator during power outages. I know the "dirty power" of a generator is supposedly bad for computers, but we've never really had a problem. Our television is satellite, so it too, is easily ran off the generator.

When our land line and internet service was Verizon, the service was terrible, as they severely neglected their copper networks. A few years ago they sold to another company who did a bunch of updating of the old networks, and service is much better. I also love that this new company is based in Connecticut, and does not sub out any of their customer service overseas. When you call their tech help, you speak to an American. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong per se with foreign tech reps, but sometimes it's next to impossible to communicate due to heavy accents.

What was that gizmo you mentioned that boosts your cell signal?

 

[Removable Mind]

Cell service is Verizon.

Love the idea of a water storage tank. What did that run ya, if you don't mind my asking?

Our internet is provided through our land line company via archaic DSL, but it's the only real option other than satellite. Since it comes in via the phone line, it's easy to run off the generator during power outages. I know the "dirty power" of a generator is supposedly bad for computers, but we've never really had a problem. Our television is satellite, so it too, is easily ran off the generator.

When our land line and internet service was Verizon, the service was terrible, as they severely neglected their copper networks. A few years ago they sold to another company who did a bunch of updating of the old networks, and service is much better. I also love that this new company is based in Connecticut, and does not sub out any of their customer service overseas. When you call their tech help, you speak to an American. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong per se with foreign tech reps, but sometimes it's next to impossible to communicate due to heavy accents.

What was that gizmo you mentioned that boosts your cell signal?

We got the storage tank because even though we have a generator, we live on a one way in and one way out road that is about a 1 1/2 miles long. There's two water crossings that get flooded and filled with debris and it can take the county days to get to us. So if we get caught with not enough fuel, we'll still have water.

The tank was about 1500.00 delivery from San Antonio, tax, title and license. We're about 65 miles NW of SA.

The booster we have is called AT&T Microcell G3. It costs us about 75.00. We had zero to one bar on our phones most of the time. Now we have 5 bars and can get about 150 feet out from the transmiter. It connects to our Internet. How it works, don't know.

Check with Verizon and see if they have such a gadget. I don't think the AT&T Microcell works with Verizon, but who knows, it could, so read up and see and search Verizon's site for such a device.

 

[countryboy]

We got the storage tank because even though we have a generator, we live on a one way in and one way out road that is about a 1 1/2 miles long. There's two water crossings that get flooded and filled with debris and it can take the county days to get to us. So if we get caught with not enough fuel, we'll still have water.

The tank was about 1500.00 delivery from San Antonio, tax, title and license. We're about 65 miles NW of SA.

The booster we have is called AT&T Microcell G3. It costs us about 75.00. We had zero to one bar on our phones most of the time. Now we have 5 bars and can get about 150 feet out from the transmiter. It connects to our Internet. How it works, don't know.

Check with Verizon and see if they have such a gadget. I don't think the AT&T Microcell works with Verizon, but who knows, it could, so read up and see and search Verizon's site for such a device.

Cool, thanks man. It's nice to have a pleasant conversation with you for a change.

 

[Removable Mind]

Cool, thanks man. It's nice to have a pleasant conversation with you for a change.

You're welcome...and indeed it is. Back at ya.