Thursday, February 21, 2013

On the roof

Not at all similar to 'On the Road'... but I spent a couple hours in the freezing cold up on the roof of the church yesterday. It was really windy Tuesday (50 mph winds) and it blew our internet antenna/receiver over. It was like that when I got to the office in the morning. We have a receiver that picks up a line-of-site signal from Yoder, so it kind of needs to be upright to work right. So my internet was crap on Tuesday. I called our service provider and they said they would send someone out to fix it. Well, when I got to the office on Wednesday it was still bent over. They left a message on the office phone and said they could maybe get to it on Thursday. So... I got the ladder out, and even though it was still pretty windy, and it was 15 degrees f outside, I climbed up and assessed the situation. Two bolts were holding, but the other two had been ripped out of the roof. So I got my socket set out of the car and proceeded to try to re-tighten the bolts. One was completely stripped, but I thought I got the other one tightened down. So I came inside and called and told them I fixed it myself and they didn't need to come. I then went to town and got a couple of bigger bolts and figured that would work. Well... when I got back it was blown over again, and the bigger bolts didn't help much either. So I called them back and asked if they could still come on Thursday. So now I'm waiting for them to show up and fix it right (hopefully).

The problem is, we've only had this antenna on the roof for a month or two. They just upgraded it and replaced it. So that means it didn't last very long before the wind demolished it. I think they need to find a better way to secure it than four 2" bolts drilled into the roof. Or... what I would LIKE to do is... just get one of those Verizon Hot Spot things for internet. It wouldn't cost all that much more, and our internet service isn't very good with what we have. But we'll see. I'm just glad I don't have to go back up on the roof today (hopefully).

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