TV woes

During the night shift here I am able to catch a nap occasionally. I usually pull the the sofa sleeper out and snooze for however long I can between "dings" of our driveway bell. Friday night I had a few semi trucks in and out but for the most part it was quiet and I got a nice 2 hour nap in. When I got up around 5am there was no signal from our satellite dish. This is not uncommon when the nights are cool and the case of our tailgater automatic dish gets covered in heavy dew or frost. Usually all it takes is a quick wipe down of the case and it starts working again. I have the unit sitting on the roof of the 5th wheel at the top of our ladder attached to the back end. I climbed the ladder, with towel in hand, and cleaned the case off really good but I still could not get a picture on the TV. I tried all the suggested reset procedures and nothing worked so I gave in and called Dish Network for some help. They had me check a couple of things that showed I was getting a signal so the only thing they could suggest is to contact the manufacturer of the dish unit itself and gave me their number. Then they dropped the bomb the the manufacturer was only available Monday - Friday 9-5 and I would have to wait until Monday to call :-(.

I decided to check a few more things on my own since Sunday was a holiday and there was no guarantee they would even be open Monday. I climbed the ladder and brought the dish down to ground level. I then changed out the coax with a different one in case that was the problem. When I removed the coax I noticed the ends were not completely tight .... hmmmm. I then reset the system again and BINGO, we had TV again! Another disaster averted and it only took me two hours :-).

The drilling has now reached "TD" according to the crew. Took me awhile to figure out that TD means total depth :-). They are now ready to start cementing the well pipe in place and several semi trucks arrived last night hauling the cement. This usually takes a couple of days and then they will tear the rig down and haul it away later this week. We have not heard if the fracking process will start right away or at all. There are just too many rumors flying around right now to get a straight answer from anyone. Guess we'll just take it a day at a time.

No big New Years Eve party here at the gate. Rudee did stay up to watch the New Year come in and of course I kissed my bride at the stroke of midnight. You have to end the old year and start the new year on the right foot :-).

We have not made any New Year resolutions, guess we are trying to learn to "go with flow". We are looking forward to the New Year and new experiences. Should be a fun ride! I'll keep you posted.