SUCCESS AT LAST

AT&T was out here at 9:45 am and two Techs worked until 4:15 pm . They did a lot of work which included almost all new components plus re-did the grounding and installed better wiring at the vault on LaGrange road. They also put in new cabling between the outside cable box to the Gateway inside the house (used some shielded heavy duty co-ax} which should eliminate the "ghost voices". also checked the grounding of our AC outlets in the basement. So we are presently up and running. I'll uncross my fingers in a week or so 

A TROUBLED DAY

The U-Verse system went down completely at about 5;30am. I finally messed around and got it back up for a while. Katy arrived about 7:45 am to give me a training session on learning about Blogs but we had to use someone else's internet connection. The system went up and down several times during the day. I tried everything I could think of to no avail. Finally about 4:45 pm I gave up and called U-Verse tech service and he worked with me and we rebooted the "Gateway" unit in the basement and also the TV receiver box on top of the TV. He also reset some options at his end of the line and we got the system up and running by 5:15 pm. I had to work thru my cell phone as everything was DOWN. When the system goes down you lose it all  (Internet, TV, and the phone). You really get a feeling of isolation. I hope that is the end of the difficulties, but I have my fingers crossed. Time will tell.

GREEN VALLEY

FRIDAY 1-23-09 The day started out with a 3 hr X-C ski at Green Valley in Woodridge. While the temp. was moderate there was a strong wind from the NW which had a bite to it.The high for the day was around 29 deg. Again I was quite tired when we got finished. Stopped at the Home Economist for a new supply of Gorp.

STILL UP IN THE AIR

THURSDAY

 This was a real fun day! Jim Seguin and I had the chance to go out to DuPage airport and went thru Fletch Adams Corporate Jet for more than an hour. It is a Hawker 800SP (N523WG). He went over and explained every instrument on the panel. I was just mind boggling! It has everything that a commercial jet would have. Needless to say I was impressed if not confused. That made my day.

The weather was much warmer with the high around 36 deg. It was sunny and pretty. I did not get outdoors for any exercise. I was still feeling the effects of the last couple of days. I see a ski is posted on the internet for 10:00am tomorrow at Green Valley. I may go out and do that. We'll see.     

LOTS OF EXERCISE

TUESDAY 1-20-09 -  I led a hike for the EBC at Waterfall Glen ,'TEDS TOURS #8". We had 13 hikers even though it was Inauguration Day. It was a beautiful day, sunny, no wind, not too cold. The walking was difficult due to the snow cover, particularly in the "Bushwhacking" sections. It took us about 3.5 hours to cover the approx. 6 mi. We were all pretty tired.

WEDNESDAY 1-21-09 -  Several of us went back on to Waterfall Glen and skied the entire perimeter o f the preserve. That pretty much wiped me out for the day. The weather, snow and company could not have been better. 9.5 mi. This was my second time out  skiing so some of my muscles were complaining, especially in the upper body.

Sat. Windy and Cold

I had planned to go out and due some route checking at Waterfall Glen for my hike on Tues. but the wind is blowing up a gale and the the temp. is about 16 deg. I am having some second thoughts about it. I guess Ill have some breakfast and then see if I change my mind.

I decided to go and I'm glad I did. With the deep snow the hiking was difficult and the trails thru the "bushwhacking" segments were some times hard to follow. However by using my GPS I could make my way OK. I think I may shorten the route for Tues. as the walking is quite tiring with deep snow. I was out about 3 hrs. Good workout.

FRIDAY COLDEST YET

Quite cold this morning! At 5:18am it was -18 with a wind chill of -32. We sleep with the bedroom window partially open and the thermostat set at 60 deg. This morning the dining room was 60 deg and the kitchen by the back door was 57 deg. I have the flap on my chair taped up so the heat from the ventilator under the chair comes right out on my legs. it really feels good.
Did quite a bit of reading yesterday as it was too cold to do anything outside. In the afternoon I did some work in the basement. Had one big box full of old letters and some stuff from Mom's house. Came across a small box full of old letters that I had received while I was working on the farm as a result of letters I had written. They dated back to 1942 thru 1947. I spent most of the evening reading them all. FUN. I probably will throw them out but they sure brought back memories.Came across all the letters that Mom had saved during the times I was away from home. Those will provide many hours of entertainment if I read them all. It is supposed to be cold all day again but there should be a warming trend to follow in the next few days'

GETTING COLDER

we are really getting some cold weather! As I write this it is -8deg and feels like -27deg. This is according  to LGPK weather on the computer at 5:05am.

I had to shovel about 3" of new snow and the did Vance's as well. Actually I'm getting to like shovelling. It was a pretty sunny day but the themp. never got above 15deg.

We still have a lot of sorting out and cleaning up in the basement. We try to get in 1 hr. + a day. But we are making some progress.

HOT DOG

HOT DOG I get to shovel snow again.

I am supposed to lead a hike this morning at Teason's Woods F.P. My big concern is if they have the parking lot plowed. I can always adjust the hike to meet the conditions but I sure need to have a place available for 8 or so cars to park. I hope it goes OK. The temp. will be be around 20deg but it is to be windy so that the wind chill is likely to be about 5deg.