About a year ago we got fed up with the monthly bleeding that Verizon had been inflicting of us for years. Between the cell phones and internet and cable, along with the bundled house phone we never used, it seemed we were paying about $500 a month, and we had enough. So we went to AT&T to show Verizon, but in the end we still needed Verizon for home internet service.
With that we went with Roku and with that and 1,000 options of shows to watch, mostly from the 80's, 90's and 2000's. Local news was there, but it was old news, or so we found. even with Roku we would still need streaming subscriptions to watch anything current, and forget the NFL during the season, which I enjoy watching. Each week, and game to game, each streaming
service covered a different game, and the only thing that was free, or so it seemed, was the NFL reply, which wasn't in real time. Frustrating it was to say the least. Many suggested You Tube TV, which runs $89 a month, but I wasn't paying that, even if I missed my favorite stuff.
Down in Cape May Infinity has a hold, or a monopoly, on internet and cable service here, and that was running about $70 a month. Forget that, so we went without it for the last few years. But now that we're going to be here we need, and would like, to have some serviced watch some TV. So I looked into Starling, a satellite based service run by Space X, one of Elon Musks companies. If he can send people up in space I think he'll be able to get us more reruns of Law and Order.
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So I ordered Starling and set it up yesterday. I'm horrible with technology but found it user friendly, after it took me an hour to figure out how to download the App. It cost me $55 with no hardware costs that has speed of 100 Mbps which mean nothing to me but from what I've read is fast enough. They also offer a Starling ROAM, which you can take on the road. So my thought is the fixed one will be stay and play at our new home in Sun City and the mobile unit for The Boat House and Cape May.
With the Roam option I'll need to buy the mini-kit starter set for $199 and then pay $55 a month. There's an option to put it on hold but I'm not all up on what that service offers or requires. But to sit in The Boat House and watch a game or be able to surf the internet, watch TV, and write this blog while in Cape May seems like a good option. We'll see. For some reason I just like the idea of not having to pay the big internet and cable providers another dollar of my money, but in the end we're just giving to Elon, who has plenty of his own.
And then just for fun I went and ordered a starter drone set up from Amazon. These can get pricey so I saw one, did a little research, and pulled the trigger. This one seems to provide what I
need which is the ability to control it from my iPhone, take some pictures, have it follow me, and then return to my location. I'm sure it's not all that durable, and definitely doesn't swim, so I'll try and take it easy. No doubt it'll find it's way it to some drink somewhere but it's a good drone to wet (no pun intended) my feet with.
The imagery and videos from the drones over schooling redfish in the Lowcountry is impressive. By the time I get back south and into any kind of fishing mode the waters will start to cool and it will go from a flood to low tide fishery. They say in the cooler months the reds school up in the estuaries seeking warmer water temps and can be found at the creek mouths. Even if I'm not on the water any time soon it'll be a great tool to learn the water and scout locations.
Hunting for fish and especially sight fishing for them is my favorite way to fly fish. I'm not a fan of blind casting, as you know, and a days fishing, well hunting, for many hours with few casts is still a good day to me.