Monday 2/7/10

Frustration! Frustration! frustration! All of us have really had it with the network that this wifi is hooked up to in Steineke Hall. It is constantly dropping connections and you then have to reboot. I have not been able to get a Skype call home to Carolyn, or anyone, for that matter. I am hoping that the connection lasts long enough for me to write this post before it crashes again. To give you an idea of the frustration: today I came home form the office to Skype Carolyn at 5:00 pm - no connection, so I change clothes and catch the last Aramco bus to a mall 3 miles away to try calling here from a coffee house wifi. I get there just in time to buy a cup of tea so I can use their wifi, but have to sit outside in the cold wind to try my call (the shops close during prayer time) - no luck. The first bus back to the compound is at 6:30 so I wait for the stores to open after prayer time to get some ink for my pen and run over to Ikea to get a dinner and as I leave the cashier to go sit medown he says,"No not there. That's the family section" so I head the other direction to the male section (more on this in another post). I am able to horse my meal down and run to the bus before it pulls away. Otherwise, I would have to wait until 7:00 pm for the next one. I make it back to Steineke Hall, but they don't drop me off there because the street is all torn up for utility work for the next couple of weeks. I have to walk a couple of blocks. I go immediately to the Aramco computer that is inside the firewall and finally get some emails off to Carolyn. It tried several times to Skype her - it would ring a couple of times then just hang up for lack of connection. Tomorrow I will ask to use someone's Vonnage phone at their house to call my dear wife. That's why I am frustrated.

Otherwise, it has been a good day. So far the two projects that I am working are going along better than expected. The weather has been cold and breezy, but clear. Hope all is going well with each of you. Cheers!