Jan 11 - Cold, Kindle, Ubuntu, and Cookies

It's Friday morning and we've already received all 4 packages we've been waiting for: a mail package from our super-efficient mail service in Wisconsin, a surprise gift package from a very special person, a big box of fresh home-made cookies from a best friend, and an Amazon order... a new Kindle for Dar.  As screwed up as we sometimes think our country is, and all the problems that seem to be in our way to the future, the system that's developed to move small packages around the country, deliver them to the right people 99.9% of the time, and do it all within just a few days is nothing short of astonishing.

I'm in the process of loading Ubuntu Linux on an old Dell laptop of mine. Why? Well, why not? How does one learn about these things unless one tries? My biggest problem has been the slow download speeds of the Parks wifi system. The installation file is almost 600 MB which I believe could be downloaded in less than an hour with almost any reasonable broadband speed. I realize other park denizens are using the same wifi system, which is why I'm doing it after 10pm at night. But even then it starts fast and quickly slows to a crawl. Wonder if I'm being "throttled" by the park's system?

I did eventually get an installation on the old laptop, but it didn't run right... may have been corrupted during the download perhaps.  At this point I'm just going to wait until I get to a Verizon 4G area and try again.

Dar loves her new Kindle Paperwhite. It's assigned to my Kindle account so she has access to the 60 or 70 books I've purchased or acquired over the past two years.  I've found the black on white Kindle device to be far better than reading on my PC or my Samsung Tablet.  Bright sun and glare is simply no problem for the e-ink display on the Kindle. It's a device optimized for one purpose -- reading black and white text. It doesn't try to be or do anything more.

When she's not reading she's been back at her on-again off-again never-ending family tree project. Because all this online research is so bandwidth intensive, she's been taking full advantage of RV park wifi systems and saving our Verizon data for later. There's just no end to the reasons I love this girl.

I'm starting to look west to see what the weather is looking like out in the high country.  Normal temps out there in January are mid-20s for lows and mid-50s for highs. The next few days are going to drop into the teens at night and only reach the mid 30s during the day. I think we'll be here a while longer.