These BBUs are installed in case your power goes out/is cut during an emergency/robbery — in such a case, you will still have the means to use your Verizon land-line to call emergency services. I however do not have a land-line, and expected this BBU to provide backup to my internet connection for an extended period of time. Boy was I wrong! On the 7th power outage, it remained out for more than 45 minutes. After 10 minutes, my internet connection was terminated. Fortunately, I wasn’t taking timed practice test at the time, but it did make me seek a contingency. After calling Verizon (no success) I searched online to find a way to allow my internet connection to use the BBU that a phone line would use in case of a power outage. I found several topics about this, but a detailed blog post (http://bit.ly/IcjwOi) really sealed the deal to performing the self-modification.  I suggest you check out these instructions as well, in case you have a different model ONT/BBU.

Warning: Although this modification is extremely easy and easily reversible, you claim all responsibility in making these modifications to your Verizon hardware.

The first step is unplugging the AC power to the ONT. You will probably hear a loud beep which indicates it is now running solely on its battery power supply. Open the front cover to the ONT from the left side. In the lower left corner inside the cover, you will see a green connector with many wires running into it. Before removing everything, take a picture or note which wires are connected to the “On Battery” and “Missing Battery” terminals. In my case a grey wire was leading into the grey hub and a blue wire was leading into the blue hub (the other tutorial had an identical color scheme). After, unplug the green adapter by gripping it firmly and pulling downward (obviously don’t grab by the wires).

After you remove the green wire connector you can use a flat-head screwdriver to leverage the hubs up securing the wire to the green connector. The following picture shows the two hubs in the up position.

At this point you can remove the wires from the green connector. Both wires will be crimped at the end, as the green connector hubs actually splice through the insulation around the wire to complete the circuit. Switching the wires (in my case, grey wire into blue hub and blue wire into grey hub) was as easy as it sounds, with one caveat: lining up the spliced notch in the new hubs proved rather difficult. In the end, I used my fingernails to pull off the 1/4 inch of insulation and then inserted them back into the hubs with no problem.

Once the hubs are closed, insert the green wire connector back into the ONT, close the door, plug back in the AC adapter to the ONT, and there you go — you should maintain an internet connection while your power is out (providing you have a backup power supply for your router and computer)!

One last note: I have read that this battery can keep your internet connection streaming for upwards of 7 hours. Although, I can not confirm those figures, I personally tested it for 75 minutes with two servers constantly serving, a computer browsing the internet, and two HD televisions on throughout the house, and the internet connection lasted without issue.

The following day in Seattle, we stopped by REI to get some last minute outdoor goods and then drove into the mountains.

The Roaring River bed and breakfast was a tranquil (despite it’s name) little place atop a cliff touching the Snoqualmie River.

Upon arriving the sun was setting over the mountains, so we rushed down a steep trail to see the river below.

The next morning we traveled to a Ranger’s station to inquire about the avalanche conditions of nearby trails. I was still coping with the residual symptoms of food poisoning, and also acquired Cait’s cold, so I knew a summit push was out of the question. We instead opted to hike Twin Falls in Olallie State Park.

The next day, we wanted to get some use out of the snowshoes we rented from REI, so we drove higher into the mountains (a short drive) and embarked upon the Gold Creek Pond Trail. Signs around the trailhead state that a “Wilderness Pass” is required to park, but after calling 8 numbers on the sign, talking to the 5 other hikers that were in the area, no one really knew where to acquire these passes. We parked anyway, and thankfully avoided the $120 fine. If you plan on hiking this trail, find more out about the pass by visiting the nearest ranger stations first:

North Bend Office 42404 SE North Bend Way North Bend, WA 98045 Open Monday – Friday 8 am – 4:30 pm (425) 888-1421

Snoqualmie Pass Visitor Center Open Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend Friday – Monday8:30 am – 4:00 pm (425) 434-6111

We went snowboarding the following day, and then explored the city of Seattle the day after. I didn’t have my Canon 7D on me when I was informed we’d be going down to Seattle’s “Fish Market”, but I wish I did — walking through the merchant shops was a pretty cool experience. After leaving the market, we walked about 3 miles to the Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park and Art Museum. Ironically, I realized that the sculptures and man-made objects were not that interesting, but rather I enjoyed what nature could provide to the city.

Neukom Vivarium is a art-piece by Mark Dion. He took a fallen tree from a forest and brought it into the city. Housed in a greenhouse, with irrigation and ventilation systems, his goal was to show the ever-changing ecosystem with time and symbiotic relationships among organisms, even after the tree’s death.

Alas, for those that love the city, and that which is man-made: the iconic Space Needle.

If you would like copies of any images on this site, please send me an email. Additionally, check out the gallary with the link below.

When I was a Boy Scout, my dad always said “always leave a campground better than you found it.”  I will admit, it was hard to improve that student-living apartment. However the American Flag can make even the darkest and dustiest places seemingly hospitable (think the moon). So before I left, I staked a small flag into the astroid-looking rock outside of our old home.

Two hours later, we met up with Michael, Melissa, John, Michelle, and the little one at their families’ cabin in Homasassa. Immediately anxious to get out on the water, we decided to go for a night boat-ride.

When we got back to the cabin, we sat around and had a couple drinks. Let’s be honest: the phrase “heavy drinking” is very relative to the person saying it, because these days three beers will leave me with a splitting migraine in the morning.

Ultimately I did wake-up the next morning with that predicted cranial insult, so I took some Ibuprofen before I started to prep the boat. After all was done, we filled Liam’s pool with water, and went scalloping.

Immediately upon arriving to the scalloping site, I put on some fins, mask, and a snorkel and attempted this Navy Seal scuba-backflip off the side of the boat, only to hit my head hard on the hull before I landed in the water.  I wasn’t sure if it was the growing knot on my head, the hangover, or a mixture of both, that resulted in the worst 30-minutes of swimming I had ever done. Fortunately it all subsided, and we went on to catch some amazingly big scallops.

Later in the afternoon we went down the road to grab some drinks at the Bayport Inn.

Cait noticed some Hurricane flood markers on an electric pole and questioned what they were. Remembering that New Orleans recently put these in the neighborhoods inside the newly build levies, I was able to offer an answer.

Inside Bayport Inn, we ordered drinks…and let me tell you — nothing feels like vacation more than a Piña colada.

…and of course, pop tarts.

Afterwards we went fishing, and the girls went shopping. I didn’t take any pictures of the shopping, and no, we didn’t catch any fish.

But the food at the end of the night was soooo fulfilling.

The next day we all woke up with food-babies. Realizing that  we woke up one hour before church starts, and church was more than an hour away, we opted to spend Sunday on the water. Our plan was to make the 50-mile round trip in a boat to eat in Tarpon Springs and relax on the adjacent beach of the Anclote Key State Preserve. Liam and his mom took ground transportation, as the rough water might have been too abrasive for the little one.  The GPS ultimately made it’s way back in the car during the return trip, as you can see from the map below.

Tarpon Springs is a touristy town known for it’s sponge harvesting and docks.  We’ve been there once before (riding by bike via the Pinellas Trail), but it was a lot more welcoming by boat.

While we were there, we stopped by Captain Jack’s to grab a quick bite to eat, and enjoy another Piña colada.

The drinks were considerably better than Bayport Inn’s. Afterward we traveled westward on the Anclote River past Meyers Cove towards Anclote Key State Preserve.
Upon arrival, Michael noticed a group of fiddler crabs fiddling around under the pier.

After John picked one up, it was determined that it was safe for baby Liam to go crabbin’ for the first time in his life — only if he pursued the female fiddlers, because the males have a dominant pincher on one side (read about my last experience with another ferocious crab).

Anclote Key State Preserve is a truly unique place on the Gulf coast of Florida.  White sands, crabs and birds galore, and seemingly untainted by human presence.

For me to recommend it would seem hypocritical to my last sentence, but it’s hard to not recommend such a beautiful and relaxing place.

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This year, it was unfortunate that we didn’t just merely run out of fuel…

We starting the morning by prepping the boat, making sure we actually had a near-full tank of gas, cleaning of the live-well of the crabs caught the night before, rinsing the deck, filling the cooler with water and Gatorade, rigging the fishing poles, etc. Michael sees a crab in the front of the boat that escaped the ice death his buddies were being induced to.  Michael reaches down with a Styrofoam cup to try to get this crab to squirm in a direction that would make it easy to pick him up without a net. After about 5 long minutes of dancing around the boat with this crab, I saw an opening to reach down and grab it from behind.  Unbeknownst to me, this crab had incredible flexibility, which became shockingly apparent when he reached under his own body and grabbed the tip of my index finger with his large claw! YOW! Human “intelligence” once again is inferior to nature’s evolutionary instincts. Seconds later we moved the crab from the boat to the grass using a net. I thought he deserved a different fate than his friends for his valiant effort, but many would (and did) disagree. Laughably, leaving him be was almost reckless, as the crab later almost grabbed the tip of a dog’s nose that was poking around the area.

After my finger was bandaged up, we boarded the plywood flats boat and set off hoping we would bring back some redfish for dinner.

We were fishing for about an hour without any luck, so we moved to a shallower location.  At one point the water was so low, Michael jumped out to push the boat through a small opening of vegetation.  When he got back on the boat, he was surprised to find the trolling motor was not working. By inspecting the cables, it was obvious what the problem was: the wires had become exposed through over-use and tension, created a short circuit and melted together. In any normal circumstance, this is a 1 minute fix, but given that we had to fish some excess wire from inside the hull (or claustrophobic storage compartment) of the boat, this was more troublesome than it looked.  I climbed into the 1.5 square foot hole, pulled the cable through, spliced it with a Gerber I had in my backpack (Boy Scout motto: “Be Prepared”), and fed it back to Michael, where he spliced the other ends and duck-taped the wires to keep them separated.

After changing the fuse, the motor immediately cranked up.  We fished for a little longer, trying a couple more spots for trout, but after having no luck and seeing the incoming storm, Michael increased speed, and we started our way home.

On the way back, we were talking about not catching any fish, dodging the incoming storm, careless boaters, hardcore scallopers (about to get swallowed by the storm), and “Is it normal for the floor of the boat to give this much?” The ride back was rough; the waves got tougher and my back started to hurt, so I moved to the more-forgiving back of the boat with Michael until we returned back at the cabin.

After the storm cleared, we all decided to go out and try our luck at scalloping. We loaded two boats, the plywood boat we were on earlier, and another nicer boat. We told our friends in the nicer boat to lead the way, so we could follow their smooth wake out to the dive spot.

During the trip out, Michael noticed our friends in front slowing down. He said “I think they’re trying to splash us,” so he slowed down as well to avoid the aquatic assault. Soon after they sped up again to our original speed of around 20-25mph. Not even 5 minutes later, I was sitting on the footlocker (see above) facing the port side of the boat when I felt a huge rush of water come from the bow of the boat.  I immediately thought “they got us wet!”  Then I felt the box under me trying to float, but tipping into the water — the same box that has my Canon 7D and lenses in it.  I looked to the front of the boat, and it was totally submerged. Cait and Melissa were originally sitting near the front facing the bow, when the floor of the boat ripped out from underneath our feet as we were going 25 miles per hour. The sudden halt jolted both of them forward in the boat. Somehow, as one of our friends from the other boat observed and later told us, Melissa was flipped upside down and all they saw were her legs sticking out of the water. Fortunately, after we all gathered our composure, everyone made it out physically unharmed, and so did my camera gear!

When we all boarded the nicer boat, we appraised the severity of the damage done to the flats boat, and called Sea-Tow. Even with a membership, they said they do not tow sunken boats, but they would attempt for a nominal fee of $4,000. Melissa said, “WOW, I’ll swim the boat out for $4,000.” Hearing the news, we decided that we were better off trying to the tow the boat back in ourselves.

I jumped back into the boat, dove into the 1.5 square foot hull while it was under water, and recovered life jackets, nets, and chairs that were attempting to float inside.

Using the radio on the other boat, we made several attempts at reporting the boat (for liability and environmental sake). Soon, we realized the attempts were futile, and we were better off returning home so we could remove the kids from the boat and come back out to potentially salvage the remains. At the last minute, I remembered that I forgot that my Garmin Oregon 400t GPS was attached to the captain’s chair (which was underwater).  I dove back in to fetch it, believing that it was ruined by being underwater for 30 minutes at this point, but was surprised when it worked perfectly after I retrieved it.

On our way back, Melissa’s Brother-in-law called his friend Zane who had been fishing in the water near our location.  He met us in the channel, where I hopped on to his boat to show him where the wreckage was, while everyone else went back to the cabin on the other boat. Zane and his Father-in-law tied the sunken boat onto their boat and began towing it back.

This was a feat in itself, and after hours of hard work, expert command and maneuvering of his own boat, Zane and his Father-in-law successfully towed the entire boat (except the piece of floor that washed away at 25mph) until we could winch it out of the water. Because of Zane’s successful effort, I figured I’d give his fishing and hunting charter business a plug here: FLTailFeathers.com.

In the end, I rode back to the cabin with some friends, and we enjoyed a feast of sea food that was caught (by them) the night before!

With another type of bike (steel or aluminum), this would be much easier to fix (with a secure weld), however carbon fiber is another beast in itself. As the name implies, it is made from layers of carbon, all organized in directions calculated to engineer specifications particular to the type of riding one does. First, carbon bikes are really light; mine weighs about 16 pounds. Second, engineers organize the direction and thickness of the fibers on a “carbon” bike to make it more stiff in general, and others are stiff in specific locations. Stiffness is nice when going up a hill, or speeding off a starting line. You want to fill confident that every bit of force you are putting on the peddles is being transferred down the chain to rotate the wheels.  On the other hand, too much stiffness can be harsh on your backside. My bike has a good amount of stiffness, but most importantly, it is forgiving on my backside…And that’s where the frustration comes in. This crack in the seat tub is ever so subtle (I even considered not sending it back for the month-long repair ordeal). But having a crack in the seat tube could result in a catastrophic malfunction in which the seat-tube cracks and the seat post falls while I’m riding, leaving the remaining shard in place to ram up my backside! Ouch! So I sent it in, and found out 2 days ago (a nice 4th of July present) that I will have a new bike at my door this week. It looks a little different, but personally, I like the change:

Before

After

On another subject, we moved down to Tampa this last weekend, and slowly moved in to our new home.

Best of all (for me, not necessarily for Cait) we got Verizon FiOS. It’s extremely fast. Fast enough, that I’m thinking about potentially moving this site from a dedicated online host, to a server that is in the closet next to me:

We went down to Citywalk for the 4th of July. It was not necessarily our first choice of locations, but at the last minute, we thought that fireworks and piña coladas sounded great together. Unfortunately, lines prohibited us from getting the drinks, but we did get some decent pictures:

View the photo album