As you know R and I are volunteering out here in the hinderlands. It is Saturday evening and we decided to not go into town until Monday this week so we attended a couple of tours in the National Monument today to see if we could learn anything. We did.
I am sending you this blog today from the beautiful stark white laundry room located in the residential area which is located up and behind the visitor center here at the national monument. Currently we have two loads in the very new front loading LG washers waiting for them to be done and into the dryer. The good thing is that there is WiFi (Hughes Net) here so I can do this and so here it comes.
Being in the Outback has it's advantages. Quiet, no traffic, beautiful night skies, terrific scenery, quiet and the animals (including the tufted eared squirrel). But as you can imagine, it also has a few down sides. No cell, no tv,only one redio station and it's Country ( I mean country; my dog died, my girls left me, there ain't no place like
this here farm, stay away froom my truck - country) I can't listen to that! To continue on, no stores, extended time periods to travel to anyplace, no shopping. The nearest restaurant is the Breeze Inn which is located at the junction of Hwys 15 and 35 which is 14 miles and 30 minutes away. we haven't tried it yet. Getting to the subject of TV. It is not a necessity. We got along without TV last year at Petified Forest. But we were closer to civilization. The situation here with us being parked 3 miles from the VC and some of teh other volunteeers, makes us feel more isolated. Also, at PF we had cell coverage so we could call and be called whenever. That's more difficult than TV.
But getting to the subject of this blog; TV. At home we were signed up with Comcast Cable. everything was fine. During our time away from home last year, we had the cable turned off. NO sweat. And upon getting home had it turned on. The trouble came when we wanted to turn it off for our second trip. "You only can turn it off once a year." So we dumped Comncast and signed up for Direct TV. I don't know why we went with them over Dish. Thinking about upcoming trips to these far off places, I added an addtional dish to take with us. Again, no problem. In tlaking with the rep when we signed up, I asked, " Can I get local stations when we are
in another state, say Oklahoma? " " Sure, no problem. You will still get your local stations.' "I will get Eugene stations even in New Mexico?" "Yup" You know what the real answer to that question is don't you?
We get here, I set up the dish and guess what? no local tv. Surprise, surprise. So I call.
First call: "Sir, you are out of your area, so you will have to pay extra for ABC, CBS, etc at $3.50 each." "OK I have to think about it."
Second Call: " OK I have a question about getting local tv stations. How do I do it?" " Sir we can just change your address and you should get the local stations in your area there in NM." " How do I do that?" " We can do that right here. You just need to reset your DVR when you get back to your RV." Great.
Third Call: " I have reset my DVR and still no local stations.""Sir that's because you can't do that. You will not be able to get local stations when you are outside of your local area. The only thing we can do is send you the paperwork to allow you to purchase a package to get national feeds of the major networks. It will be mailed to your home address. Fill them out and mail them to us and 14 days later you should get the national channels."
So a week later I receive an envelope containing several forms that allows Direct TV to sell me the use of the New York and LA feeds of the major channels for $14.00/month. This is all because of FCC regulations. I filled out the forms, got the necessary serials numbers off my equipment, and now I wait. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks, I can watch "Days of Our Lives" again.
I am sending you this blog today from the beautiful stark white laundry room located in the residential area which is located up and behind the visitor center here at the national monument. Currently we have two loads in the very new front loading LG washers waiting for them to be done and into the dryer. The good thing is that there is WiFi (Hughes Net) here so I can do this and so here it comes.
Being in the Outback has it's advantages. Quiet, no traffic, beautiful night skies, terrific scenery, quiet and the animals (including the tufted eared squirrel). But as you can imagine, it also has a few down sides. No cell, no tv,only one redio station and it's Country ( I mean country; my dog died, my girls left me, there ain't no place like
this here farm, stay away froom my truck - country) I can't listen to that! To continue on, no stores, extended time periods to travel to anyplace, no shopping. The nearest restaurant is the Breeze Inn which is located at the junction of Hwys 15 and 35 which is 14 miles and 30 minutes away. we haven't tried it yet. Getting to the subject of TV. It is not a necessity. We got along without TV last year at Petified Forest. But we were closer to civilization. The situation here with us being parked 3 miles from the VC and some of teh other volunteeers, makes us feel more isolated. Also, at PF we had cell coverage so we could call and be called whenever. That's more difficult than TV.But getting to the subject of this blog; TV. At home we were signed up with Comcast Cable. everything was fine. During our time away from home last year, we had the cable turned off. NO sweat. And upon getting home had it turned on. The trouble came when we wanted to turn it off for our second trip. "You only can turn it off once a year." So we dumped Comncast and signed up for Direct TV. I don't know why we went with them over Dish. Thinking about upcoming trips to these far off places, I added an addtional dish to take with us. Again, no problem. In tlaking with the rep when we signed up, I asked, " Can I get local stations when we are
in another state, say Oklahoma? " " Sure, no problem. You will still get your local stations.' "I will get Eugene stations even in New Mexico?" "Yup" You know what the real answer to that question is don't you?We get here, I set up the dish and guess what? no local tv. Surprise, surprise. So I call.
First call: "Sir, you are out of your area, so you will have to pay extra for ABC, CBS, etc at $3.50 each." "OK I have to think about it."
Second Call: " OK I have a question about getting local tv stations. How do I do it?" " Sir we can just change your address and you should get the local stations in your area there in NM." " How do I do that?" " We can do that right here. You just need to reset your DVR when you get back to your RV." Great.
Third Call: " I have reset my DVR and still no local stations.""Sir that's because you can't do that. You will not be able to get local stations when you are outside of your local area. The only thing we can do is send you the paperwork to allow you to purchase a package to get national feeds of the major networks. It will be mailed to your home address. Fill them out and mail them to us and 14 days later you should get the national channels."
So a week later I receive an envelope containing several forms that allows Direct TV to sell me the use of the New York and LA feeds of the major channels for $14.00/month. This is all because of FCC regulations. I filled out the forms, got the necessary serials numbers off my equipment, and now I wait. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks, I can watch "Days of Our Lives" again.
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