I let the dog out into the back yard this evening and went to do something else.  I heard her barking back there, which was out of character for her.  When I went to investigate I noticed that there was some test equipment attached to the telephone junction box in the corner of the yard.  There was no one around—she was barking at the equipment. 

A little while later the guy returned.  It turns out that they’re going to leave the existing copper wires in place in the back yard and run the new fiber along the street.  No one’s connections will be changed until such time as they order one of the new services that use the fiber optic connection.  He thought that the new internet service will be available in June, although that’s not definite.

One interesting thing that he mentioned is that Keller is the first city in the country where Verizon is rolling out fiber to the home.

Someone just left a hang-tag on my front door.  At first I thought it was one of those annoying marketers who don’t read the “No Solicitors” sign.  I usually throw them away unread, but the Verizon logo at the top caught my eye so I read it.

It turned out to be a notice that they were going to be running fiber optic cable through my yard as part of their new fiber-to-home rollout.  Once complete, it will allow them to offer 100Mbps networking and a host of other new offerings.  They definitely have my attention now.  If they can offer me a 100Mbps network connection at a reasonable price I’d dump Charter’s cable modem in an instant.  They’d get bonus points (and I’d be willing to pay even more, within limits) for a symmetrical service (i.e. no obnoxious upload cap).

My house seems to do a good job in keeping moisture out.  Perhaps too good a job.  I’d been noticing a lot of static electricity lately, to the point where I could hear the crackling as I was petting the dog.  The last straw came this weekend when I went to adjust the thermostat and got a huge shock.  I have a touch-screen programmable thermostat.  The discharge caused the screen to go completely blank.  I thought that I’d killed it, but fortunately it recovered, although it lost all its settings (and the thing is a royal pain to program, since you have to adjust the temperatures for four time periods for each day of the week; i.e. 28 individual settings). 

I immediately sat down with the laptop (after grounding myself to a metal table ) and ordered a great big humidifier.  Hopefully that will put an end to the constant shocks the dog and I have been enduring.

I awoke this morning to discover that we’d gotten a bit more snow than was originally predicted.  Here’s a view down my street to the South around 7:15 this morning.

By 10:45, several people had been outside making snowmen.

Boots also seemed to enjoy the snow quite a bit.

My new camera also does MPEG video, so I was able to get a short movie of her frolicking (approximately 1 minute, DivX encoded, 4.8MB download).  I had to compress the video with DivX to make it manageable, since the original was 36MB.  Windows Media should have no trouble playing the DivX video, although you’ll have to download the free DivX codec (the free download link is just below the chart comparing the pay versions).  If you have iTunes or the QuickTime brower plugin, though, it can interfere by taking over the file association.

Update:  I just realized that it might be a bit absurd to download a 5MB codec for a 4.8MB video.  I was able to get the size down to 2.8MB by creating a version of the video using Windows Movie Maker.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the new Aquatic and Recreation Center that the City of Keller has been building.  It’s visible from the path where I take the dog each afternoon.  It was funded through a half-cent sales tax, but will also have user fees for “guest passes” as they call them.  They’re selling yearly passes at a discounted rate right now, but I’m not sure if it’s worth it for me.  The regular price for an adult resident of Keller will be $305/year and they’re offering it for $275 right now.

I called the Parks and Recreation department to try to find out some additional information.  They still haven’t decided on everything, but they think the hours will be approximately 5:30am-10:00pm on weekdays with day passes ranging from $6.00 to $8.00.  Right now, I don’t see myself using it enough to justify the yearly package (it’d be $25.42/month at the regular price), given that I’ve been walking two miles a day with the dog.  I guess they’re aiming the yearly passes at people who would otherwise have joined a health club and are looking for one close to home.

I’ve been planning to replace my mailbox ever since I moved in, since the one that came with house is a bit run-down looking.  However, I don’t think I’ll be getting one like the one my neighbors up the street just put up.

I suspect that someone gave them this for Christmas, since it appeared shortly after.

I had a consultant from a security company come by today to talk about activating my alarm system with them (so it would be monitored).  She seemed to think that my current system would do fine and they would just need to do some maintenance and reset the codes.  She quoted a pretty good monthly rate and I asked about the length of the term.  I was told that they only did three year contracts. 

Lately I’ve decided that I don’t want to enter into long term contracts if I can avoid it.  My new rule-of-thumb is that a company will have to have a very good reason to get me to sign anything with more than a one year term.  I understand that this will often mean that I may pay more per month, but I’m willing to do that to avoid being tied down.  I think my main concern is that if I don’t like their service there is no way to get out of the contract.

It appears that three year contracts are standard in the industry.  That’s too bad, because I don’t trust any of the companies to sign that kind of contract unless there are performance guarantees (which none of them have).

My sister and her girls will be coming to visit on the 21st and we’ll be going to my mother’s house for Christmas.  But the day after we’ll all come back here to my house along with one of my aunts who wants to see the house.  This means that there will be seven people and one dog in this house for a few days starting on the 26th.  This leaves me 17 days to get everything ready.  I’ve ordered china and silverware from Ace Mart in preparation for being able to feed everyone (I have barely enough stuff to handle four people for one meal, provided we don’t have a lot of items on the menu ).

I’m also trying to decide whether to do any Christmas decorations.  The 32-inch miniature fiber-optic tree that looked OK in my old place looks pretty puny in here.  I just don’t think I want a full sized tree, though.  As for lights on the outside of the house and stuff in the yard, I’m not sure I have the energy to mess with it.  If I get a burst of energy this weekend I might consider it (although replacing the gate on the fence may take precedence).

Is it wrong to lust after a gas grill?

I really do need one, since I realized that if there was a power failure I’d have no way to cook (my water heater and furnace are gas, but the range is electric).  I suppose, though, that I don’t really need one that fancy.  But it’d sure be nice to have it.  Or maybe this one…

After yesteday I’m left with just three boxes to deal with.  Unfortunately these three are likely to be the hardest of them all.  They’re filled with all those little annoying items that I’m not quite sure what to do with.  It’s tough being a pack-rat…