Starlink

Packing and moving! Too much stuff! Organizing! Selling houses! Still remodeling! John’s new job starts! And…we’re going on more trips!?

After John got his job offer from Raytheon, everything happened fast. He had 29 years worth of work at Sandia to somehow wrap up and pass off to colleagues. And he has been mostly living in Albuquerque every since the pandemic restrictions were lifted and he couldn’t work remotely from Tucson anymore. So half our stuff was still out in Albuquerque.

John wanted to get fully moved to Tucson before starting his new Tucson job. Raytheon was eager for him to start, but he pushed back on his start date as far as he felt he could, and we scheduled movers as fast as we could. We shipped his 4Runner to Tucson – I don’t know if I mentioned, but awhile ago somebody turned down the wrong way on a one-way street and ran into him. Everyone was ok, but his 4Runner is all bashed up. There was a long wait to get it fixed in Albuquerque so he had it shipped on a truck to Tucson, and we plan to get it fixed here.

While this was going on, one day, in mid-April, I decided that John really, really needed some sort of break! Everyone advises taking a long vacation between jobs, but when you’re in middle of moving, that’s not often realistic. There’s no time! But surely we could do something to help ease the stress of everything? We considered a brief trip to Hawaii, but even that seemed difficult.

John’s happy place is southern Utah. Only problem – huge swaths of southern Utah have no cell reception. And we were putting our house on the market and we had a tenant leaving one of the rentals, and John was in middle of all the logistics of retiring from Sandia and starting a new job. We couldn’t be unreachable, with completely no internet or cell tower. Not with a house on the market. Not with so much going on.

I had an idea. Earlier this winter, when I met Laura in Atascadero, I spent the night halfway at a campground in Joshua Tree. I had no cell reception there at all. But a young man I ended up talking to (because his off-leash dog came over and made friends with Biska), said he had been at the campground all week, working remotely using a Starlink. It uses satellites to provide a wifi link. He was able to keep up with his email and even join his zoom meetings from his campsite. I could see his Starlink on his picnic table, gleaming in the sun.

I was very impressed and determined to buy one. But then John told me that his brother has one and was unhappy with it. They’re expensive, and I wasn’t sure how often we’d use it, so I shelved the idea.

Now suddenly, we needed one! So I bit the bullet and ordered it. But I didn’t think it would arrive in time. The website said it could be several weeks before it even shipped. Oh, well, we’ll have it for next time.

It arrived unexpectedly quickly – one day before we had wanted to leave on the trip. We could do our trip after all. We could have internet, from anywhere! Even Utah!

I took photos as I unpacked it. I needed to remember how to repack it, if we had to send it back.

Setting it up was surprisingly easy. There was no instruction manual. I downloaded the app on my phone and the app walked me through it.

Here I have it set up in the backyard to test it. It automatically tilts to face the correct part of the sky.

Wow, that’s a good read-out!

Utah, here we come!

My next set of posts are going to be a series about our trip to Utah. Some of you know I have also been to Ann Arbor and back since then. I’ll write about that later. Utah, then Ann Arbor. Lots to post!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Kristina’s Website: Life Coaching for Adults with Autism