Action stations!

[stephbg]

It's all action stations here at Sector 7 this morning, wow.

First cab off the rank this morning was Ben from EziWireless who also happens to be an old schoolmate. He came around to see what could be done to optimise our mobile broadband signal and it was a huge relief to have someone here who could look at the place and poke in corners to find the best location for bits. We're going to start with a new router up near the ceiling, with the existing modem and stickytape-enabled aerial and see how that improves things. Also toss in a wireless repeater so we'll be able to surf the net *and* print all at the same time! Luxury! Will look at a roof-mounted aerial if required. Oh, and we'll wire in the connection to the tivo.

During the rubbish collection yesterday one of the lid hinges on my wheelie bin broke, so I called to request a repair or replacement. Although the body of the bin was pretty battered and had a chunk missing from the rim it still worked so I was happy to just get the lid replaced, but I got a whole new one free of charge. As a bonus the new one was also free of spiders. Very cheerful heavily tattooed bloke did the job and regaled me with tales of other people who insisted on full replacements for the tiniest of flaws, including a paint stain on the inside of the bin. He then smashed the wheels off the old bin with startlingly efficient and brutal violence. "Looks like fun," I said. "Oh yes," he said.

While The Bin Guy was here I was surprised by the arrival of Mr Insulation. I hadn't expected to see them today because of the weather, but got a call this morning saying that they'd try to make it if there was a break in the rain. They're up in the roof right now making the most terrifyingly awful noises. We're getting upgrades to most of the house and filling in some bare patches that shouldn't be there (grrrrr at previous builders).  The original 3x2 house had only R2.0 (if that) but fortunately it was in good enough nick that it didn't need to be removed and we're adding another 3.0 on top. So looking forward to that!

Gah, it sounds awful, and even Brave Buffy is jumpy. Boris Giles fled in terror (fingers crossed he won't do anything else in terror). Princess seems curiously unmoved. Cally is hunching a bit but otherwise moving about.