#Strange Service
7 messages in this thread
But, Lynne, the rack rate for CIS is $6hr for 300-1200 baud, I think, $12hr
for 2400 baud, and a whopping $22 an hour for 9600 baud! With no reason or
justification for it except that they can get it. They're coming down a bit
starting next month, but the differential remains.
Jack,
I switched to the new CI$ standard pricing, because I love the satellite
weather maps–they give you an inkling of what the next Pacific Coast weather
may be. (When I lived in the Midwest, I used to follow the newspaper progress
of weather fronts–like you do with the stuff Kevin sends your way.)
Anyway, Prodigy is now something like $14.95 a month, discounted for
multi-month subscriptions. If you want 9600 baud, it's another $2 a month. So
CI$ at $8.95 a month plus $16/hr for 9600 bps is starting to look very, very
good.
Somewhere else, you mentioned why the trip up the CA coast was so much
more enjoyable than the trip down. I'd forgotten that–but it's a fact that I
travel inland whenever I'm driving down . . . my subconscious obviously hasn't
forgotten the time we came back down Highway One from Bodega Bay.<g> Lynne
Actually, DOWN is superior to UP because we drive on the right in this
country. Coming south puts you right on the coast rather than inside.
Standard wasn't a big thing to me before because I don't use the standard
pricing system much and we have fine weather on TV here and even the Weather
Channel, but when they dropped 9600 baud to $16/hr for standard I added up my
bills per month, which were around $50, deducted the $8.95, and found that I
could still save maybe $15 a month at those rates.
Jack,
I hug that landward side like a limpet. You are obviously of the more
adventurous stripe, and probably love the outside of the road in the Devil's
Slide Area near Pacifica, too.<shudder>
I have mild acrophobia, because I nearly walked off a mountain when I was
small, and my parents kept telling me about it. The only thing I don't like
much about California is the number of major highways with no shoulders
abutting a nearly vertical drop.
Lynne
Well, California 1 is certainly a road with a lot of cliffs and drops, but
remember that if you're driving, unless you have a British car, you will be on
the side of the car nearest the center line. However, the views are just
superior overall going south than north, and, I hate to say it, but many of the
turn-offs in the northern areas go DOWN to fascinating and beautiful spots.
Jack,
Every spring, it is interesting to see how much closer the drops have come
to the highway. Sometimes, part of the highway itself is missing, especially
if it is Highway One, the Panoramic Highway (over Mt. Tamalpais), or the road
up Mt. Diablo. And I _always_ come to these spots simultanously with an RV
going the opposite direction.
But you're absolutely right about the beaches that are tucked in below
Highway One. Also, Big Sur is so beautiful that I'd drive down there all the
time, if it weren't just a little too far for a one-day trip. Lucky Big Sur,
to be just out of reach of the Bay Area weekenders. Lynne
It's called beach erosion, Lynne, even if you don't have a beach. Those
storms come ashore, the winds from offshore storms generate powerful waves, and
more of California slides into the sea. Up north of you there are some
spectacular island formations going well offshore. Those were the California
coast about fifty to seventy-five years ago. This isn't very important in the
east because the Atlantic Continental Shelf extends almost 20 miles out from
shore keeping things shallow and lessening really mean stuff; the only time
folks have problems is when they build on barrier islands which constantly
shift and move no matter what anybody does. But on the Pacific side the Shelf
drops off almost at the water line most of the way.
The price of having a California 1 is constantly repairing and replacing it.
But I wouldn't have one of those houses right on the cliffside.