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Verizon Woes, Naps & Foggy Morning

Tuesday April 3, 2012
Lithia Springs Site #38

  

It’s been a few days since I’ve posted because we are having nothing but trouble with our Verizon Samsung hotspot.  David decided in his wisdom after a fancy sales pitch at the Tampa RV Show Verizon Booth that we needed to upgrade from our air card to 4G.  Not that we had pretty much ever stayed anywhere there is 4g mind you.  We have had nothing but trouble with this device ever since.  We are about 25 miles from Tampa  but somehow this thing cannot keep a connection.  So we spent even more money on an amplifier and an antenna but now the sim card installed in the pantech uml290 will only receive, it will not send.  Yes I know it will only do 3G, I don’t care.  I just want a reliable signal when I am this close to a major metropolitan area.  What good is 4G if you have to amplify it and you can’t??  If Verizon can’t provide decent service in a metropolitan area, why are they constantly advertising 4G and attempting to get even more customers I ask myself.   Calling them every day for 4 days has not resulted in anything but too much time on the phone and the run around.  So…….while we still fight with them over this issue, the blog is being brought to you by the local Brandon office of The Florida Cancer Center.   <rant ended>

 

With the week-end warriors here on Saturday and Sunday, we didn’t do much around the park.   They had taken over the spring and the picnic grounds so we stayed around the coach and by the river. 

 

I spent some time sitting on the bank just beyond Winnona.  There were a number of canoes going up the river but pretty soon they’d be coming back down as the water level gets so low you have to get out and walk.   I even had a beagle spotting.  He too could have walked down the river.

 

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David was practicing his “nap in any position anywhere you are” technique.  He’s preparing for the  instant napping Olympic event.   He’s sure to place at least at the Bronze level.   If he keeps it up he may make gold in  “pretend you are not napping” or “statue mode” categories.

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When not enjoying the river, napping or explaining the problem to yet another Verizon tech, we were having fun with Turbo Taxing.  Not sure I think this program is worth the money any more.  We seem to have no deductions that amount to anything and owe more with a fixed and smaller income.  How can that be?

 

On Monday I had a lovely early morning walk in the fog.

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Foggy mornings always look so other worldly.  I feel  like I’m in Camelot or some other fairy land.

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With the Warriors gone, no one else was out but us early birds.

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I did run across one rather scary looking creature.
Looks like whoever he chewed up ate nuts.

 

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The fog lifted and I took the very narrow and rugged non official path from the spring along the river bank to Winnona.

 

I felt like I was passing through the gates to get on the path.

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I’ve never been in Florida for the spring before and its flowers are very different from the wildflowers which appear in Virginia.  At least here where I have found no spring ephemerals.  I did see these along my river walk.

 

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I also found these interesting.  Wish I could tell you what the names of the flowers are and what these are but my knowledge of natural history and of this area isn’t good enough.  Still I thought they were lovely and worthy of note.  All identifications from readers are very welcome.

 

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Back to Home Sweet Home.

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Hope to post next time from my own internet device.  Wish me luck!

18 comments:

  1. Hey, Sherry, I got roped into a stupid Verizon deal when I was out west. It didn't work and they wouldn't give me my money back. If they didn't have such good phone coverage, I'd dump the in a heartbeat--they lie like thieves.

    I could see what kind of critter was in the tree stump. What was that?

    I love the northwest because of the fog. I love that it's cool. We're having a cool day here, today, for the first time in a while. We had no winter so bugs are supposed to be awful this year. Storms predicted for tonight.

    Enjoy your pictures so much. David has mastered the art of sitting straight up while asleep. I've been know to do it, but usually wind up making a fool of myself waking up suddenly and snorting! LOL

    You'll have your spring back when all the spring breakers go home on Sunday. :-)

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  2. Good luck in getting on the internet with your own device. Hope David's cup was empty while he was snoozing :)

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  3. I keep reading about all the people who are very upset with the horrible service they are getting from Verizon after "upgrading" to a 4G device! I've learned from all of you and am keeping my measly 3G card and Cradlepoint Router! It doesn't work half bad :)
    On the other hand, I DO have a 4G phone and it looses signal often, especially switching between 3G and 4G.
    Technology. Can't live with it and can't live without it :)
    Wishing you good luck!

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  4. You know my feelings (all bad) about Verizon, their terrible service and lousy customer service. We dumped our MiFi and went back to Sprint. 4G isn't worth the ink to write it on paper, it's one of the biggest scams out there. Rant done. :c)

    David not only naps upright but holds his cup tightly, eh? Good thing because if he loses his grip, he'll get a very wet wake up call.

    Love your early morning walks and how Mother Nature is showing her special views with you.

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  5. I am so glad you posted your experience with 4G. My MiFi is nearing the end of the contract period and I wondered what to get next. Maybe I'll just keep what I have as long as it works. By the way, I have always found Verizon to have great service, which is why I don't care to go with another company unless I have to.

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  6. I love the walk in the fog photos !! Beautiful !!
    Wish I could nap as well as David does !!

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  7. I cracked up at David's napping pose. I see that every night with George. He insists he's not 'asleep' but just 'dozing'..as he misses everything we might be watching on TV :)

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  8. I cringe any time someone mentions upgrading to the Verizon 4G mi-fi; most - if not all - seem to be having trouble with it. We got an offer to upgrade our Millenicom aircard to 4G, but we said no thanks. We'll stick with what we have until it doesn't work.

    Tell David that he won't have any competition from Mui in the snoozing upright category; he prefers the half-reclined category :-)))

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  9. well thanks for the info on verizon guess we'll stay with the 3G ...love the nap position..Rick usually does it every evening..and snores at same time...while saying I'm just resting the eyes....

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  10. I think David's got those napping categories in the bag. ;-)

    Beautiful pics of the fog!

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  11. For the past many years, I've been low-income enough to use the online Tax Freedom from Turbo Tax, for free. Who says poor is all bad?

    You might be in Brigadoon! Annie says that's the worst movie ever made, but she likes Tremors.

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  12. First -thanks for convincing me to keep my reliable 3g. That falls into the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" category.
    I got to be a pretty good napper while traveling by air a lot. I am out of practice so I don't think I could give David much competition these days.

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  13. We had lots of problems with the mifi, we got dropped a lot in some locations, in other locations it does great. We seem to using a TON more data, yet our internet habits haven't changed a bit. Don't get that at all. We've been over our data plan three out of the five months we've had it. We finally called the tech guy and got through. I insisted we were hacked one month when we were THREE GIG over our plan. He didn't have any answer for that, but they adjusted our payment. for the dropping of signal, he had us take the battery out and put it back in. we haven't been dropped since but it's still problematic. Glad to see David is getting his rest... :-)

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  14. Can't help you out with Verizon. We have frequent problems with our data card and seems like Jim has spent countless hours on the phone with their very unhelpful customer service.
    But as to your tax situation, we've been putting money in an HSA (health savings account) since we retired. You might check into it, will save you lots on your taxes.

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  15. You know the internet connection is over my head and I leave it all up to Gin. It's like magic and she's my "easy button". She refuses to use MiFi and we have no problem switching from 3G to 4G using Pantech USB modem.
    I used to be pretty good at that style of napping too. I think David has me beat though.
    Syl

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  16. When it gets crowded at the beach (like this weekend) our MIFI connection creeps to a crawl. When they all leave it goes back to normal.

    Glad to see that David is getting the rest he need to heal his body!!!

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  17. I learned to sleep with my head up as a boy in church. My father was prety good at it too, though I saw mom rib him quite often if she caught him bobbing. Lots of practice ...

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  18. Enjoyed this post - great pictures, especiall the photo in the fog and 'father napping' :)

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