This saga has been going on since before November 2010.  The problem is there have been a lot of new homes and two schools built around our area over the last few years.   With all those new homes and schools comes a lot of internet users on cable.  So everyday from about 5:00 pm until midnight this is what we have to deal with. We get download speeds of  between .90 Mbps (which is a little bit faster than dial-up) and 1.25 Mbps (which will let you look at images if you are a patient person.

It is maddening considering what we pay for “high speed internet” and what we are getting for our money.  I take  (well I try to anyway) on-line courses in the evening but I haven’t been able to do that for three months now.

I started complaining in late October about the problem.  Well Mediacom’s first response is we want to send a Tech out to check your wiring.  I responded, “There is nothing wrong with my wiring.”

How do I know? Well  because I am up at 4:30 am every morning and this is what I get for speeds, when everyone else is asleep (Yes, that is 20 Mbps and was taken this morning.)  So if it was my wiring I would not be able to get this kind of speed ever.

So we messed around for a month trying to get aTech out here.  Mediacom’s standard mantra , “We can have someone there from 8 am to Noon or 1 pm to 5 pm.”  “Hello!!” Most people, including us work during those hours.  Finally we got a guy out to look at our wiring (on a Saturday.)  The wiring was perfect of course.

Now I’m told that it will be another two weeks or more as they have to put in more equipment.  Seems like they have discovered it is over utilization in our area.  Duh!

Sorry I didn’t mean to bash Mediacom  tonight but there was a live seminar on-line tonight and of course I couldn’t get on because of the line speed.  So I needed to vent and because this has been going on for such a long time now. Mediacom acts as though they could care less.   Which I guess  if you are about the only game in town is exactly how you can act.

After I posted this article I was checking out the link I put below and wanted to make sure it went to the speed check.   Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse now I’m getting only .67 Mbps.  Maybe I should re-consider dial-up again.

By the way if you’d like to check your connection and find your upload and download speed here is the link.

I’ll shut up now.  Thanks for listening.

Once again I’m sitting in my office doing my normal morning routine of reading, working on photos, and reading other blogs, and then the sound I always hate to hear keeps going up and down our street.  Yep another day with the snow plow as a constant companion.  That means a fun commute this morning.

So that is the reason for these two photos.  A book I just finished called the “Happiness Advantage” reveals study after study of the benefits of putting yourself in a happy state of mind.  It is after all a matter of choice.  The photo above is certainly something to make a Father happy.  Angie and Mark have brought me a great deal of happiness.

This photo is a double source of happiness for me.  The happiness of Angie and Ben finding each other and building a wonderful life together and this was the announcement that I was going to be Grandpa (and yes well they were also going to be parents.)  Truly a wonderful moment in anyone’s life.  So after viewing these images for a little while I am ready to face the challenges of yet another snowy day in Iowa.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great Wednesday yourself.