Things continue to be pretty good.

I could feel people wondering when I would get around to an update, so…

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

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