22 January, 2019

Of Towers and Dishes, Locks and Boats, and Lunar Eclipses

There is still so much more we did on our trip to England that I want to show you, but first up is our our new internet system that will make it all possible without me pulling my hair out.
New receiver dish on our roof.
We got what is called "dedicated internet" from our mobile phone provider.  We have a receiver dish (I guess it must transmit as well as receive for uploading).
The dish is more than 40 feet above the ground.
The dish is aimed toward the nearest tower 12 miles away where its partner dish, which is aimed right at us, is mounted.  The service is called "dedicated" because we are the only ones who can use the paired dishes and their reserved bandwidth.  It is not cheap, but that is another cost of staying connected while living so remotely.  I was very impressed with how quickly the 2-man installation team got it all set up and aimed correctly.  We opted to go with the slowest speed which seems OK and is considerably less expensive that the next step up.  We have used it for a month now and are very pleased.

Back to Bath Spa now, for a trip through a canal lock.  I think it was our first evening there that we watched a narrow boat navigating through a lock.  It was fascinating to me, so I took lots of photos.  You will be pleased to know that I narrowed down the selection in consideration of you, my readers.  The gorgeous light of a mid-summer evening was beautiful.
Waiting for the lock to fill.
The top of the narrow boat is still lower than water of the next level.
At last the water is the same level and the gates of the lock can swing open.  All those people standing and watching the folks pushing the gates are my family.


Almost open enough to clear.
And she's through!

The gates were closed behind her.
I'll mix in more of our holiday in upcoming blogs.

Were you able to watch the lunar eclipse night before last?  I thought cloud cover was going to keep us from watching it, but the clouds thinned out for part of it.  I got a few shots worth sharing.  I used my new camera, which I am still trying to master.  I'll have to write a post about it some time soon, too.  It doesn't have telephoto lens per se, so these are highly cropped.




Oh - Happy New Year!