Nightmare on Elm Street Rebooted

We went to see the new Nightmare on Elm Street reboot after Treese got home from work, and I have to say I enjoyed it a lot more than the original film. I think this one was a better reboot than the Friday the 13th, though that could just be because I liked the original Friday the 13th a lot more than the original Nightmare on Elm Street. Treese is a big Elm Street fan, while I've always been partial to Friday the 13th.

Bye Bye Satellite Dish

Today I finally got around to climbing up on the roof and removing our DirecTV satellite dish. We ditched DirecTV for cable over a year and a half ago, so I'd say it was about time. While up there I noticed one of our concrete shingles had slid down a bit exposing some wood, so I fixed that up. Also fixed a couple of outdoor faucets (which are called hose bibs, by the way... who came up with that one?), one that had a broken knob and one that was leaking. Oh, and built a box-like contraption to put over the water pipe with faucet that leads into the house, just so it could be a bit more protected from the elements (specifically that blazing Redding sun). I put it together using spare wood and old nails I had lying around, so it didn't cost me anything but time.

Pictures of my trip to Bisbee, Arizona

Posted pictures from my trip to Bisbee, Arizona at Facebook.

Saving Cash with Cable Phones

A couple weeks ago we finally made the decision to give Charter Cable a try for our phone line, as it would save upwards of $20/month plus no extra charges for long distances calls. So today was our installation appointment, and the guy arrived about 10 minutes before his expected window. Installation of the phone box went smoothly, then he installed a signal enhancer to boost our signal strength. This involved replacing a couple three way splitters at the main junction box with what looks like one giant splitter, and then going inside the house and plugging in some kind of power brick looking thing into the wall, and taking the coaxial cable coming out of it and tying that into the data line with some thing that looks like a 2-way splitter (but is not).

Afterwards, we tried the TV and phones and they seemed to be working good, so I signed the paperwork and he took off. Minutes later, I noticed that our internet was down, but luckily I was able to run out and catch him before he actually drove away. After a bit of troubleshooting, he found the problem was with that 2-way splitter looking thing that the signal booster plugged into, so after swapping that out for a working one, we were back in business. Now we just have to call some people to see what the quality is like.

Spring Cleaning

I planned to prime and paint the side door to the garage today, but the weather was kinda gloomy with rain predicted, so instead I cleaned and organized the garage, and finally put up hooks to hang some tools which were previously just leaning against the wall. I had been meaning to that for a LONG time. Got out the leaf blower to help get all the dust and leaves and crap out of the nooks and crannies, but then it broke so had to take it apart and fix it. Seems like nothing ever goes easy. Somewhere in there I also wound up cleaning out the shed, which was completely filthy, and found an air mattress that I didn't know we had plus a couple of those Off candles to keep bugs away, which will by nice when we have a BBQ.