60+ year old thread.

Regarding over the air service, I did not have a great experience with the wireless internet. Ours was T-mobile and we never had more than 2 bars of service. It was $100 a month and we were limited in data. We didnt have any options as the cable infratsructure was overloaded and old, the cable company actually told me that. We had to use the T mobile at the farm until a couple weeks ago. Our electric co-op just installed a fiber network in that area and it is blazing fast! I uploaded a 6 minute video to my YouTube channel in less than 30 seconds. Ours is now $85/month for 1Gbps...and they offer faster at 2Gbps for $105.

 

I work with clients in both the Health Care and Financial Service industries and my company requires me to be hardwired while working from home, so when we bought our condo last May I was needing to figure out how to hardwire this place. I noticed each of the dozen or so locations for phone jacks had double RJ11 jacks and I thought, "Hmmm, I wonder..."

I opened up a plate in one of the walls and found this:


I then opened up the COAX plate and found this:


Upon closer inspection my "Hmmm, I wonder..." thought from earlier revealed this:


I called that a win; I spliced in wallboard to cover up where the phone punch down access was and cut a new opening above where the COAX plate was and then spliced all of the CAT-5e strands into a patch panel and used short Ethernet cables into a Gigabit switch (I also reterminated the COAX and wired them all into a splitter for the entire condo and put that mess behind a removeable plate). This is what it looked like with just a few patch cables from the wall to the switch (I didn't bother rewiring the old phone jacks seen in this picture to RJ45 as I don't plan on ever working from the closet):

 

Welcome Geoff! Edit to add. I am also a TERRIBLE guitar player. I gave up on my six strings and now noodling with a 3 string cigar box version.
I also enjoy caliber related therapy. Planning to build a range on our country property. Nice looking family there! Also the dogs look well loved. Again, welcome!

 

Welcome always room on the porch

 

Good Morning Porch Pals & Sue! Welcome @Geoff.in.nc - did someone ask you to fill the cooler yet? Sunny and 85 today? Yep. 60's tomorrow. No freezes. Of course it's December in Texas! One quick errand and more football. Couldn't get any NFL favors for my team yesterday, so
GO LIONS!

 

Hi Geoff,
What a terrific introduction! I am not a frequent poster in this forum but have been a member of Tacoma World since 2009 (I think). I live in San Diego County, 20 minutes from the ocean and 90 minutes from the desert. I too am on my third Tacoma (all were 4x4 Off Road TRDs) and on my third wife! In both cases the third was the best! At 67, I wonder why the years go by faster as I get older! Retired at 62, my profession changed from installing and fixing irrigation systems to writing travel and history articles plus maintaining two Facebook groups about Baja California (what I write about).
Anyway, welcome aboard!
David (photo with my granddaughter, 2 years ago):

 

Afternoon all:

Welcome Geoff, good group on here!

Congrats to the wife on her retiring Jim, may she enjoy many years of retirement.

 

Welcome and enjoy!

 

Yikes! Is this what happens when nerds meet? Welcome! The cooler is over there, fill it with whatever floats yer boat. Welcome to the porch but don't sit on the recliner if you value your life.

A man after my own heart. Cat5E is what I wired our place with back when we had the walls open, and it is still rockin' the casbah. People ranted at me for not running fiber, let's see, 24 years ago? I still don't need or want it inside the house.

 

Good morning fellow Porchatonians!!!

 

Good Morning everyone

 

Happy New Years Eve Morning

Laid back Monday yesterday . Still getting rid of the flu/pneumonia bug, but feeling good.
Going to friends for a house party so it will be a quiet night. Prefer the quiet over the loud, noisy, crowded party.

Wishing everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR ...Be safe and Enjoy the night

 

Congratulations to your your wife Jim. After 39 years she deserves to be chauffered to and from work .

Welcome to the Porch Geoff . After reading about you, you will fit right in with this crew. Great group with many interests which makes this thread unique in it's own. Hang around and enjoy.

 

Morning kids had a little surprise get together for my wife last night with some friends. At 68 she still can’t handle her liquor 2 and done, glad she had a DD Be safe out there and have a great last day of the year

 

Good morning! No big plans for tonight. Something home cooked for dinner, watch a movie.

Battling some chest/lung congestion. I think it is from some dental work I had recently. When they were prepping a molar for a crown, they were using all kinds of power tools and suction, but I think I inhaled some of that debris while they had my mouth jacked open. Is that possible?

Taking MMS for it now. That should kill it...or me. If you don't know what it is, ummm kinda like drinking bleach.

 

Crowns are fun, aren’t they

 

Yesterday setting up for winter 2025 Pickleball! It's an old DSW store in the mall, we lease for 4-5 months. We work hard for half day and 3 courts in place. I need some after pictures. Play tomorrow AM




Today is pump weight class and yoga class and bloody flu shot.

Yesterday afternoon, I had to tell my mom that my dad had died. I found out her home had showed him to her, but it did not click I guess. THAT was tough. They never told her, one of the helpers had told her he was at the hospital. Man.

 

Designated Drivers are good! I've given up drinking, but I don't like driving unfamiliar roads at night, so I'm out as the DD. Get me off-road with my Garmin Overlander, and I am fine. Oncoming blinding headlights, big nope.

@Jim727386 MMS - Multimedia Messaging Services. Brings a new meaning to Bluetooth dental work. I have lung issues, and after dental work, I was coughing for a day. Take care of yourself.

@Pablo8 My heart goes out to you. It's hard to lose your Dad, but having to tell your mom he had passed makes it that much harder.

House declutter—oh my, living 25 years with a hoarder means lots to clean out. She did have fine taste in clothes, but I started piling up handbags for Goodwill, and my daughter screamed, "That is a vintage coach leather bag worth $500." Every year, she'd snag a new bag, which resells for $100 to $500. I was clueless about the price of some of those, but my wife never gave me a bad time about hand tools, either.

My wife had been doing the taxes since 2001. She is sharp and keeps up with laws, changes, etc. I do remember she used Deduct It to help itemize donations. Thankfully, I took photos and jotted notes to list most things. It's very conservative, as the "leather handbag" defaults to a purse, yet it shows "high quality" (ie. like new) at $17 and medium quality at $12. Hence, I better have my daughter sell those bags and donate to the Micheal J Fox Foundation (about $3000). It turns out old junk is worth money to the right person (I bought a Halda Twin Master for $100 in 1976; sold for $1700 on eBay to someone doing vintage rally. Still keeping my "hand crank pepper mill" Curta Calculator).

EDIT: Standard Deductions for 2024: Married and filing joint/Survivor spouse is $27,700. Property Taxes and Mortgage Interest is just about that. Medical bills, ostomy supplies, and everything insurance didn't cover: I still have about $25,000 out of pocket—roughly a $15,000 deduction. My wife was a sharp cookie—years with little medical, standard deductions. Years of high medical bills, donating stuff, money, and itemizing. Before the $10,000 max property tax, you would pay taxes in January and December on the years you made deductions. It didn't matter if the December payment covered the following year; both were paid in the same calendar year. Sigh, $15,000 property tax bill (Texas has high property taxes, no income tax) hurts with the $10,000 cap. Bill wasn't fair to states with no state income tax (deductible from Federal Income).

 

Good Morning and Happy New Years Eve to you Porch Pals & Sue! No more 85*, maybe 65*, but not a cloud right now. Watered in greenhouse and pots yesterday, will put the big pots back in the garage today. No freezes, just cold. We'll be home with munchies, and Carol will make sure Mac doesn't get scared by idiot fireworks. I'll be the DFW. (Designated Football Watcher).
I had to do a bunch of schedule checking and shuffling yesterday for the upcoming hip. I swear they don't follow their own rules sometimes. Cancelled Fridays visit with the Hip Dr, because he can't see me until after the hospital pre-assessment. Hospital has it scheduled for Jan 7 according to Ortho! But I have never heard from them - how is that? Because THEY USED A DIFFERENT NAME when they booked me. Outfit inside an outfit that's inside the hospital! So, 7'th pre, 10'th pre Ortho, and 14'th hip! I will be GLAD when this is over!
Everyone have a safe and happy New Year, and get yourself better in 2025!