In which we take a bow.

 We use our phones as hotspots for our internet and for streaming our television through Roku. We had to. The only way to get internet here is Starlink, and you can bet the ranch that this is not happening. 

(Side note: my weeklong adventure at the fair was interesting. They had just got the fairgrounds set up with Starlink. Everyone had access to the internet. Despite those assurances, we did not have internet. No one did. It never worked at all during the entire week.)

Anyhow, our system out here in the woods worked okay. We could stream TV, but sometimes there was a lot of buffering and error messages. Our phones worked, but when my daughter called from overseas using What's App, sometimes the calls dropped. The internet could also be pretty slow.

I began doing some research on cell phone boosters. We finally selected a $400 one with a roof mounted antenna. An Amish friend fabricated the mount for the roof.

The instructions called for downloading an app to find what band you were on, and where the cellphone tower was. This app made me very nervous because it wanted permission to 'control my phone', whatever that meant. It also deleted my email app without asking for permission to make room for the itself. 

At that point, I stopped the installation.

We mulled it over and decided that our phones used whatever signal they could get when we traveled. Why did we need to down load something to figure it out? We figured the phone was already picking up the signal here at home with just 1-2 bars. It would be picking up the same signal. It would just be (theoretically) stronger.

We also had no idea where the nearest cellphone tower was either, but Tim pointed out that the antenna was being mounted on a metal roof. We simply aimed it down the road which leads to the nearest big town. (It is also just about the only tree free area to point it.) We brought the wire in through the attic, drilled a hole in the ceiling and brought the wire down to the living room, hooked it up to the booster and plugged it in. 

We held our breath, afraid to hope. We literally had ignored the instructions completely. But day-um, people! We might be old and we might have no technological skills to speak of, but who has four thumbs and can now consistently pull 4-5 bars of connectivity? 

(Answer: Tim and I. We are pretty impressed with ourselves.)

They had another amplifier to wire in, but the house is so small we didn't even need it, so we ignored those instructions too. 

There is a huge fire reported in London tonight. I know they are in a drought.  Fingers crossed for Steve and Dave, even though they do not live in SE London.

These fires seem to be popping up everywhere.