This Damn Internet Thing

It seems like the entirety of my brain power has been allocated to thinking about this damn internet thing.  We're having a speedy morning with Brightspeed pulling a .33 rather than its usual .1 to .18 (it's supposed to be like at 10 and yes, those are decimal points in our actual speed).  

This makes Starlink extremely necessary.  Hubs works online and if he can't pull his materials, he can't make any monies.  I work online, too, but people buy my books whether I'm around to see it or not.  The only time this slow stuff would harsh my day is when I'm trying to upload manuscripts and covers, so not right now.  

So, we have Starlink... Well, we have the equipment anyway.  In order to install the equipment, you have to use an app on a smartphone.  So, I went out and bought a smartphone from Tracfone as well as a 1G/30 day card for data.  We tried the app.  It isn't getting us past 2% completion.  Either the app is crap or the phone is.  And since everyone else is getting their apps to work, I suspect it's the phone.  It could also be the fact that, like the internet, cell phone signal sucks here and it's not actually connecting to anything long enough to be successful.

Hubs has been climbing all over the roof.  He's also been watching every video our current internet allows him to watch (with frequent pauses and clocking and stuttering... I'm surprised he hasn't gone insane).  We even reached out to someone in the hopes that they could help us, but in the end, we opted to keep forging ahead on our own.  It's out problem and we will solve it.  Or we won't and we'll ship all the Starlink stuff back.

Part of me is afraid the only way any of this will work is if we cut the tops off all our trees, but everything we've read and watched and heard says we have enough clear sky to make this work at least a little bit.  Perhaps not as great as someone with no trees, but still better than Brightspeed.

If this doesn't work, I'm not sure what we'll do.  I guess it's all part of living in the sticks, this not having good or reliable internet.  I thought about HughesNet.  Then I spoke to a gal not far from me who has it and she says it sucks.  I thought about getting a mobile hotspot, but the ones I've looked at are problematic for what we require.  It's all a huge pain in the ass.  I guess what I'm saying is that if this doesn't work, we'll muddle through as best we can with what we already have.  =o\

Don't mind me.  I'm just venting.  I'm looking forward to being done with this so I can focus on writing and editing again.  At least that's the hope.  For all I know, this is just the latest distraction my brain has latched onto to rationalize not working.  Or maybe it more like... "Why am I depressed?  Because the internet sucks... definitely not because I'm wondering if I suck."