A common email or phone question is
> Hope everything is progressing well for you Janet.
We are both doing very well thanks. It is Wednesday, so Janet is
getting chemo as I write this. There are typically several ladies as
patients and often some friends of theirs in the chemo room. Just 3
patients and one friend today. I am down the hall in an empty
examining room with a small desk, chair, electricity and reasonable
WiFi for free, writing this.
When Janet started this last Fall, the ladies were typically quiet and
perhaps sometimes not very happy as some types of chemo make some feel
bad or sleepy, or even vomiting, etc like a bad sea sickness. Janet
likes to chat them up and she can usually get them laughing and
carrying on. Having a great time, much like 'Ladies' coffee morning'
at some marinas we have visited.
Today is no exception and periodically great bursts of laughter come
rolling down the hall to my tiny 'office'.
Some website coined the phrase, 'the Chemo Chicks'.
Janet is very glad that so far the side effects for her have been very
mild and manageable. This can change, so it pays to not get cocky, but
she only has 7 more (out of 18 total) after today. So, our fingers are
crossed that her (our) luck will continue.
Our stolen phone was replaced later that week for just the activation
fee. For people that seldom need a phone (I may already know the only
three on the planet) we have really enjoyed
http://www.consumercellular.com/
My mom wanted a phone only to be able to call AAA (for the
non-Americans that is a company that provides aid to stranded
motorists for a reasonable fee). ConsumerCellular's basic plan for
members of AAA or AARP (for retired people) was $10.00/month and they
give you a basic flip phone for free. The use AT&T's network and have
many fancier phones for the rest of you. Minutes are $0.25/min, which
if there are few or none, is quite nice.
I think the $35, one time, activation is the only other fee, but it
was over a year ago.
AND if you are getting close to 40 minutes for the month on the pay
for minutes plan, which will add $10.00 to the bill, they notify you
that you might want to change to a higher plan. $20/mo gives you 250
minutes free and $30 gives you 500, etc. (With the usual hidden fees,
this works out to $24.44 or $35.53 for me depending on which plan.)
If you are on the $20 or whatever plan and you can see that a cheaper
plan is better for you this month, you can change to the best plan for
you right up to last days. This is new to me. My prior cell phone
plans loved to LOCK YOU IN to the most expensive plan that they could,
and sock it to you if ran over.
If there is anyone considering getting a ConsumerCellular plan, if you
say that I recommended you, we BOTH get $10 off, so ask me before you
do it. Or at least get approval from the sales person. They have been
very helpful to us. The support people have all been on the same
continent and English is their native language AND they know what they
are talking about! Also, rare nowadays.
Security dangers
I will probably write more about Internet and WiFi security in another
post but here is a start. The final straw was seeing several articles
on both nerdy and boating websites about these dangers. There is new
free software that makes it easier for even idiots to steal you
passwords, bank info and emails and I am trying to learn to be safer
as we use Internet and WiFi a LOT. If you are way ahead of me, please
get in touch.
So far I have switched to Mozilla Firefox with the 'HTTPS Everywhere'
Add-on and Astrill VPN with 40% discount from ActiveCaptain. See
below.
As I said, we use WiFi a lot and for banks and things that could be
disastrous if hacked. And I seem to be getting similar warnings from
many sources, so we are trying the offer mentioned in a link below for
a discounted version of Astrill. Many other sites seem to like
Astrill. But so far I have had a lot of trouble with it. I will try to
remember later to mention if I love Astrill or hate it after I have
some time with it.
ActiveCaptain has negotiated a special rate with two preferred Virtual
Private Network (VPN) suppliers. These VPN services allow you to surf
safer by encrypting everything from inside your computer through the
WiFi, the Cyber Cafe, all the way to a distant server in another city
that can be far far away. This makes WiFi much safer and if you are in
Turkey or on a blocked WiFi network that blocks certain sites, this
circumvents that blocking.
And, when we were in Spain, but I wanted to buy a US anti-virus
software they would only let me buy it through the Spanish branch of
their company, in Spanish and at a higher price. This VPN would have
let me buy from the US, since it would appear that I was in the US.
I also want to look at weather forecasts, but some pages were not open
to me because I was not inside the USA.
Confused? Read the links below and Google around to learn more. But,
beware fly by night companies!
You need to sign on to Active Captain to obtain the discounted rates
negotiated by them.
https://www.activecaptain.com/newsletters/2010-11-17.php
https://www.activecaptain.com/newsletters/2010-12-15.php
https://www.activecaptain.com/newsletters/2011-01-05.php
http://www.vpnsp.com/astrill.html
Janet's done, so I will close.
Dave & Janet
