Monday, September 18, 2006

Back in SLO, After Not Falling Asleep on 101

Forrest and I drove down yesterday from Santa Cruz. I didn't sleep well the night before, since Forrest was up until 5 packing and the noises woke me up about every half hour. So by the time we'd driven to Soledad (where it's happening, don't you know), I was nearly falling asleep at the wheel. Forrest's dad had driven ahead, helping carry down Forrest's possessions that didn't fit in his Del Sol, and I felt bad that we were going to miss him entirely if I napped. But if I did fall asleep at the wheel, that would obviously be, uh, worse.

So Forrest bought me some pan de agua, we drove to the Soledad Starbucks, Forrest went in to organize his MP3s, and I scrunched up to sleep in my very full car. I must say, I've slept better. I woke up after half an hour because it was so warm in the car, even with a breeze coming through the open windows.

I went into the Starbucks and tried curling up next to Forrest, on the only other comfy chair in the place. It wasn't big enough, though, so I grabbed a wooden chair to support my hips and legs while my upper body got the cushioned chair. Ironically, it got too cold in Starbucks for me. Plus, their music was turned up very loud, which also made it difficult to nap.

I wound up back in my car. I had cooled down enough to fall asleep again. After this last thirty-minute bout, I woke feeling more alert. I was still tired, but now well within the range of "safe to drive." Forrest finished up with his MP3s and we got back on the road.

We took Jolon Road and G14 instead of 101 between King City and Paso Robles. Very pretty drive in the twilight. We saw a family of black pigs -- dunno if they were wild or not. We stopped to look out over the coastal hills and watch the sunset.

So now we're back in SLO, without internet until the end of the week. Friendly neighbor Linksys network is nearby, but it won't give my computer its DNS info. It does work for Forrest, though, who has the same wireless card as I do. Frustrating.

Not that I have a lot of time to putz around on the internet right now. The entire apartment is boxes right now -- should get a picture of it -- and it needs to be unpacked before school starts next Monday. The fridge needs to be replaced. I have an interview in half an hour for a web dev part-time job this quarter. Forrest and I will also need to set up (and, inevitably, troubleshoot) our network once we get the DSL hooked up. So I'm busy this week, despite being off work and school.

Back to the trenches with me!

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2 comments:

staticfoo said...

It all comes down to the antenna, methinks. My old laptop could pick up on the wireless networks nearby, my new one can't as often. Instead, I just use my wireless router in bridge mode, and can pick up even more networks :)

Arthaey Angosii said...

I get full signal strength and an IP from the network. It's only the DNS info that my laptop doesn't get. So that doesn't sound like antenna issues to me...