Rainy days and Tuesdays always get me down...

Today is February 25th. Tuesday. 11:15am-ish. I am sitting at the table in the Colonel, with rain pouring down outside us here in Florida. It's warm, maybe 70, and the rain is nothing like we get this time of year in New England. Our rain up north is a heavy rain, a big, fat drop the chills your soul to it's core in February, assuming it's warm enough to rain in February. Here in Florida, we are getting a tiny, light rain, not a mist, but small enough that if you couldn't hear it, you may not think it was raining at all. Even in flip flops and a tank top, I was not cold outside a few minutes ago. I am penning this post in Microsoft "Word Pad." I didn't even know this program still existed. You see, we are staying about 5 miles inside of Osceola National Forest. When you are looking at a map, a National forest (or maybe any forest, I haven't been paying that much attention) is usually shaded green. When we were driving in on Sunday, just as google maps indicated we had crossed the threshold of the forest, that precise moment is when all cell coverage ceased. We were only slightly surprised that we had no service because we had read reviews of similar areas in advance of arriving.  Right now, we are carrying 3 kinds of cell coverage. Mike and Callie are on AT&T wireless using their Galaxy 9+ and iPhone 10R. My phone, also a Galaxy 9+, is on Verizon's network. Our third fall back is our subscription to OTR, a mobile hot spot service on AT&Ts network that Mike found and thoroughly researched before we left. They mailed us a little unit, smaller than a cell phone, that has a stronger antenna than our phones do. It provides us with a secured wifi network big enough to have the unit in the truck while we are in the camper, or in the camper while we drive and still have wifi. We have had great luck using it everywhere until here. Callie has been able to do her schoolwork while we drive (on school days only of course...), we have been able to stream TV (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime) at the same time that Callie is watching her programs or streaming music up in her bunk. We have been pleased. So, we are essentially paying 4 phone plans right now, and at this very moment, not one of them is connecting. When we arrived, we did find one little spot outside the camper where the wifi would connect, so of course, like the smart campers we are, we placed our little travel cooler to mark "the spot" where the wifi should be placed, to provide us with just one lonely bar of service. Things were going smoothly the past day and a half. One person could be actively using the internet, and for the most part, we were all happy. There was a small blip in our utopia last night, a power struggle, if you will, between father and daughter, over who was most entitled to stream their television program. But aside from that, we are doing well! We have tried to remain present in the moment here, since technology is not on our side. So, once again, returning to my point, right now, no service. It could be the clouds. It could be that the 2 other campsites in use nearby us are using the same wifi provider, and they are eating the one lonely bar of service we have to share... Or maybe it is all the other traveling families in the state using the same provider clogging up the network. Who knows. All I know is, the "cooler marks the spot" is not working. So, what are we doing to occupy ourselves? Well. I am writing this post in Microsoft Word Pad. Callie is coloring using an app on her phone because school has been suspended due to the network outage.... call it a rain day... Mike is scouring his phone to figure out why is storage is maxed out, preventing him from even taking a picture. This is the second time in recent days this has happened. He already purged his unnecessary apps and the bad photos stored. We'll see where he ends up with his project later today. And the dogs... They are all still here, although one pug is really pushing her luck and may be sold off to lighten the load (KIDDING!!! Seriously, just kidding, but she better get with the program). I heard on the news today that you Yankees are getting more rain this week as well. This is the second lowest January-February snow fall recorded at Logan Airport they said (the lowest being in 1937). So, for now, you try to stay dry, and we'll try to stay dry, and we will all keep hoping  Punxsutawney  Phil was right, and the weather will be turning early this year. Stay tuned...because it's 12:09 and we just got out one bar of service back! Yipppeeee!! Nope, false alarm... wifi came back on at 7pm.....and its deathly slow

Missed you a lot today Gram...