‘Cause I’m leavin’ on a jet plane
Don’t know when I’ll be back again…

Fifty-three years ago, I was just shy of 20 years old and was leaving for good after spending nearly five years in Houston and its surroundings.

I hadn’t intended to leave permanently; that’s just how life unfolded. I had enlisted in the Navy several weeks earlier. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, my decision to start my service between Christmas and New Year’s was fortuitous for the career track I was pursuing. This timing worked out perfectly for me; while others were stuck with temporary duty assignments waiting for their training to begin, I was able to progress through all four phases of my Navy occupation training in order, with just the right amount of leave and travel time in between.

My journey commenced at the Houston MEPS—Military Entrance Processing Station—in the historic Old U.S. Customs House downtown. There, a small group of us was sworn in as Navy recruits. After that, we were taken to the newly opened Houston Intercontinental Airport—just 2.5 years old—where we would fly standby.

Flying standby meant showing up at the airport without a pre-purchased ticket and hoping to secure a seat on a flight. This was not our choice; MEPS mandated it, and we weren’t responsible for the cost. At that time, flights were often less crowded than today, making standby travel a viable option for federal passengers. Looking back, it seems quite unusual.

Fortunately, we managed to secure seats on the flight, and a few of us even ended up in first class. It was my first-ever flight and the only time I experienced first-class service. Everyone on board received food and drinks, but alcoholic beverages cost extra, except in first class, where the food was likely superior, too. At that time, the drinking age in many parts of the U.S. had been lowered to 18, and it might have applied to flights as well, though I don’t recall being asked for my age. I had enough to drink to feel a bit buzzed by the time we landed in San Diego.

Our flight had a layover in Los Angeles before continuing to San Diego. Along with others—mostly recruits—arriving from various locations, we boarded a bus to the Naval Training Center. I spent New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day in the transient barracks. On January 2, 1972, Boot Camp Company 005 and others were officially formed.

Rewritten from Leaving Houston (December 12, 2021)

Image created using Canva AI.

After a rather lengthy wait today with Brightspeed, I finally spoke with a representative to cancel our service.

The process took far too long, as he frequently put me on hold without much explanation. The only question he asked was why I was canceling. When I mentioned that we were switching to Starlink, he didn’t seem surprised and didn’t offer any incentives to keep us as customers.

Our internet connection has relied on the old copper telephone lines for many years. Initially, we had a modem, but eventually, DSL became available. We’ve been using DSL for at least two decades, during which we’ve experienced the failure of at least three DSL routers, some due to voltage surges or lightning strikes. In recent years, we opted to use our own routers instead of paying a monthly leasing fee for the Brightspeed equipment.

Over the last couple of years, our service from Brightspeed has become increasingly unstable. We would occasionally lose our DSL connection, which would take a few minutes to restore. At times, the buffering issues became quite excessive.

Given Brightspeed’s ongoing DSL problems in recent months, I began exploring Starlink. I placed an order last week and set it up yesterday in a temporary location. For a permanent installation on the roof of our house, I will need a longer cable than what came with the unit.

Starlink is more than 10 times faster than the touted speed that DSL never really delivered.

Our Starlink system is now in operation.

The “dish” is currently set up in a temporary spot in the yard, but it will eventually be mounted on the roof. I plan to wait until it’s dry, and I also need a longer cable, which I have already ordered. The fifty-foot cable cannot connect the Starlink router to the desired roof installation location.

Before attempting the setup, I watched several Starlink videos, including all the resources on the Starlink app.

The setup process itself is quite simple.

The Starlink system consists of four physical components: the router, a power supply brick (an external AC adapter), a fifty-foot cable, and the rectangular “dish.”

Another essential “component” is the Starlink app on your mobile device.

The Starlink app serves as a “control center” for managing your Starlink satellite internet service. It enables you to check for obstructions, identify the optimal installation location, monitor your connection, activate your service, troubleshoot problems, access account details, and receive updates, all from your phone. It is available for both Android and iOS devices.

Starlink satellites form a constellation of small units in low Earth orbit (LEO) that deliver high-speed internet. Unlike earlier generations, which were positioned in a geostationary orbit (GEO) where satellites appear stationary above a fixed point on Earth, the Starlink satellites move relative to Earth’s surface.

The Starlink receiver (dish) communicates with these satellites. It features a phased array antenna that can electronically steer a communication beam without any physical movement, allowing for quick and precise alignment with the satellites.

So far, we are pleased with Starlink, though it’s been in service for less than 24 hours.

It’s well over 10 times faster than the maximum we were promised with Brightspeed.

When I’m don with this, the hardest part will have been routing the cable and the permanent mounting of the dish on the roof.

In addition to the ongoing Brightspeed internet issues, our heat pump ceased functioning on Saturday. I attempted to operate it in all available modes on the thermostat, but it remained unresponsive. Even when I selected “fan on,” the unit’s fan wouldn’t operate.

This situation was more inconvenient than a crisis, as we have a fireplace with an insert and several space heaters for backup. We don’t often use the fireplace, as the insert fan can be pretty noisy, so it primarily serves as an alternative if our primary heating source, the heat pump, fails or if we lose power.

Fortunately, ample, well-seasoned firewood is stored just a few steps from our back door.

Given that the heat pump is just under four years old, we were surprised by its malfunction.

On Sunday afternoon, I called our usual heating and air conditioning company and left a message regarding the heat pump, emphasizing that it was not an emergency. I merely wanted to be placed on their service list, especially with Christmas approaching in the middle of the week.

Since none of the thermostat’s functions were operational, I suspected an issue with it. I’ve replaced our thermostat a couple of times before, but this time, I thought additional factors might be at play.

The HVAC technicians arrived on Monday morning and discovered a blown fuse. They traced one issue to an exposed wire connecting the heat pump and the thermostat. After replacing most of that wiring, they concluded that the thermostat had been damaged and needed replacement.

Although I was correct that the thermostat was a problem, the underlying cause was beyond my capacity to diagnose and fix.

Our internet troubles continue.

Last Monday, after enduring extremely slow upload speeds over the weekend, I contacted Brightspeed customer service via chat. They could not resolve the issue remotely, so they scheduled a technician’s visit. However, the earliest available appointment was a week later, which would have been tomorrow!

Fortunately, they had an opening just two days later. A technician came out Wednesday afternoon and determined that the problem was with our line somewhere in the DSL network. He performed some repairs and told me he had switched our line to a spare, assuring me everything was good.

Our upload speed improved for a couple of days, and we enjoyed acceptable internet service. Unfortunately, the connection began to degrade, and by the end of the week, we were back to very low download speeds. Once again, we found ourselves using the hot spots on our phones.

I don’t plan to contact Brightspeed customer service again; the next time I reach out to them will be to cancel the service. We are switching over to Starlink.

The Starlink hardware was supposed to arrive on the 29th, but it arrived early, and I will install it after Christmas.

Goodbye, Brightspeed!

“Holiday Quotes and AI Sketches”—Each post uses a holiday-related quote to generate AI sketches.

Our internet service has been disrupted for the second time in recent weeks, and they can’t send a technician until next Monday—a whole week after I contacted them.

Though the provider’s name has changed over the years, our service is DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) over copper phone lines connected to the house before we moved in in 1981.

The current provider is Brightspeed. It is usually adequate for our needs but seems increasingly unstable, with the internet being lost momentarily, sometimes several times a day.

A month ago, we lost our DSL completely. After going through all the diagnostics with Brightspeed online support, a technician was scheduled for the following Thursday, five days away!

The technician was able to resolve the issue by having something cycled remotely. I asked him if support could have done this when I reported the problem. He said they could have.

This time, our problem is that the internet is very slow. We’re supposed to have ~10 Mbps download, but we’re only getting 0.02 Mbps.

Over the weekend, I couldn’t get their support chat to work, and Bightspeed support is unavailable by phone on weekends.

Our phones have personal hotspots but are inadequate for streaming shows, news, and other videos we usually watch. We’re about 2 miles from the nearest cell tower, and our download speed when connected to the hotspot is about 20 times as fast as what we currently get with our degraded Brightspeed DSL connection.

Today, I finally got through on the Brightspeed support chat. After I got through to a human, Alner, I followed their diagnostic suggestions even though I had already taken every action they suggested. The chat locked up after unplugging power and DSL and then reconnecting to the router.

After several tries to access chat, I was connected to another human.  I explained to Louise what I had already done. She concluded that we were still not getting a good signal while the modem was correctly configured. When I asked if there was anything they could cycle on the system that might resolve the issue remotely, she said from checking our line’s status that it is very unstable and, “For us to fix this permanently, we need to send out a technician.”

“The date of your dispatch will be 12/23/2024 after 8 am before 5 pm.”

That’s an entire week!

It’s also just a few days before our Starlink hardware should arrive.

“Aren’t we forgetting the true meaning of Christmas. You know, the birth of Santa?”  (Matt Groening – creator of The Simpsons and more)“Hohiday Quotes and AI Sketches”—Each post uses a holiday related quote from a personality to generate AI sketches.