On the road again

Two buses, that is. For the first time in a while, we were able to run two buses Sunday morning. It's looking more and more like we'll need to simply purchase another used bus, since the one we've had in to have the engine replaced on is looking like a big-time money drain. We're going to have another place look at it, but the prognosis isn't great. That may leave us with only two decent buses for two routes (I'd rather have three working buses for two routes, especially considering that even our best ones will be nearly 20 years old), but that's two more than we've had in a while.

I've spent a ridiculous portion of today trying to get Wildblue internet here at the church working. Literally hours have been spent on the phone with their tech support trying to figure out why it won't work. [Tech whining follows -- if you're not interested, please skip.] On their end, their equipment told them we had great signal and connectivity and everything should be fine. On mine, I had nothing -- the lights were on, but nobody was home. So their first assumption was that the problem is our router -- they don't support routers, though they don't mind if you use one. I tried explaining I didn't think that was it, and why, but they had me plug directly into a computer to work. Of course, it still didn't work. Next assumption was that it was a problem with this computer. I tried explaining that couldn't be it, because the secretary's computer lost connection when I did. If it wasn't the router and wasn't the individual computer, that left their equipment. Along the way, I'd been on the phone so long with them that the battery died, losing the connection. When I called back, of course I couldn't get the fellow I spoke to originally, so I had to go through much of the same rigamorale with the next person. Unfortunately, this one couldn't grasp my process of elimination, so they decided it must be the security software preventing the thing from working (ironic, since I got the security software from them). They sent me to the security software people, who explained why it couldn't be their stuff keeping it from working. Just to make sure, we turned off their software, and sure enough, Wildblue still wasn't working. In order to run a full-system scan, I had to leave the computer for a while. Naturally, the scan turned up nothing. To prove it wasn't a problem with my computer, I hauled the secretary's computer in the office and connected it -- and it worked fine! Double-checking, I plugged in the router and connected the secretary's computer wirelessly -- it worked fine. Then I connected my computer wirelessly -- it worked fine. Then I plugged directly back into the laptop -- and it's working fine. In other words, nothing changed -- the whole thing has just started working again for no more apparent reason than it quit. Since the router is clearly working perfectly (and nothing has changed with it) and both computers are working fine (and nothing has changed with either of them), the only thing that leaves is a problem with Wildblue. *sighs* Since I never found a real solution, I'm not going to be a bit surprised if this pops up again and I'm on the phone again tomorrow trying to explain to someone else who is quite convinced it just can't be their equipment or service that has a problem. [Okay, I'm done with the tech whining. For now.]