Tethering

            On Monday morning I finished working out the chords for “On n’est pas la pour se faire engueuler" (We Didn’t Come Here to Be Shouted At) by Boris Vian. I also finished the chords for “Marilou Reggae” by Serge Gainsbourg and uploaded that to Christian's Translations for editing.

            I worked on my journal.

            Around midday I cleaned up in the kitchen and put some things out of the way that for years have been on display more for sentimental than for aesthetic reasons.

            For lunch I had the fava beans that I got from the food bank, with some olive oil, seasoned salt and garlic.

            Around 16:15 I was doing some writing at the computer when I noticed that the wifi was off. I couldn’t see Shankar's network on the list. I went down the hall and knocked on his door to ask if he'd lost his connection. He said that everything was fine at his end and suggested that I restart my computer. I tried that but it didn’t help. I found his network on my phone and was able to connect right away. I tried my laptop and found his network but the password wouldn’t work. Obviously I had the right password since it worked on my phone. I took the laptop out in the hall near Shankar's door and tried but it still wouldn’t work. On my phone I did a search for "wifi password works on phone but not computer" and found a site that suggested that this kind of problem can often be resolved by resetting the router. I knocked on Shankar's door again and asked him if he could reset his router but he said he didn't know how. I told him there’s a little hole in the back that one can stick ma paperclip into and it will reset the router. He said he’d call his friend to ask him or else call tech support the next day.

I decided that since my phone was my only web vehicle I would have to use it to post things online. I hardly ever use my phone for the internet and it doesn't even get used as a phone very often. For the most part it just functions as a very expensive clock. I had never used it to access my Google account or to go on Facebook. I sat down to use my Google and Facebook passwords to get them on my phone for the first time since I got this phone. Then I remembered that I could probably use the usb end of my charger cable to download files to my phone and then to post them. I plugged my phone into my computer and looked on my phone for how to transfer data between two devices. I clicked on tethering and then did a search about tethering. Suddenly I noticed my computer was logged onto something called “Network2” and I was connected. I hadn't even known that I could use my phone as a modem or even what tethering was. I used that for a while and then suddenly I lost wifi on my phone as well. I checked my network list and saw that Shankar had two versions of his network on the list. I had been using the one that had “5G" on the end. I logged into the other one with the same password and connected. My laptop had been charging and now that it was at 100% I was going to turn it off but decided to try one last time to connect to Shankar’s network and this time it connected. I looked at my computer and saw that Shankar’s network was finally on the list and I logged on. I assumed that Shankar must have reset his modem after all.

I had been on track to getting caught up on my journal that day until this wifi problem ate up two hours of my day. I felt kind of ripped off by circumstance.

I got back to writing until dinner. I had the last of my steaks with a potato, broccoli and some gravy while watching two episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood.

The first story is about a miserly land owner named Sir William who loves silver more than anything and doesn’t want to spend money for his own or his family's comfort. He doesn't want to pay his taxes. He has collected the rent from his serfs but refuses to give that to the sheriff. The taxes have always been paid out of the rent but he says no more. He says that from now on the serfs will pay both the rent and the taxes. He sends the rent to Nottingham to pay the taxes but gives his serfs one day to pay it all back to him or he will throw them off the land. Friar Tuck tells Robin of this. Robin reckons that the guards carrying the money will stop for a drink at Redford on their way to Nottingham and so he tells Tuck to make sure all the villagers are in church and to give a long sermon. Robin poses as the bartender of the Redford inn and when Sir William’s soldiers arrive he puts sleeping potion in their ale. After they lose consciousness he removes all the silver from their bags and replaces it with buttons. When the sheriff sees the contents of the bags he says to send a message to Sir William that he will pay his taxes three times over for this or he’ll be thrown out of his castle. Robin gives the silver back to Sir William's serfs to pay him for the taxes and gives them a story to tell as to how they made the money so fast. They tell William it was a miracle. A man of magic came to the village, told them to cut off all of their buttons, put them in bags and hang them all night on the apple tree. He said some words of magic and the next day all of the buttons had turned to silver. Sir William asks where he can find this man of magic and he is told that he lives in a cave at the top of the hill. Sir William proceeds to collect every button in the castle to the extent that they are even ripped from the clothes of his wife and his servants. Sir William takes all the buttons to the cave where he finds an old wizard with a peaked cap, white hair and a beard, adding ingredients to a boiling cauldron. The wizard is really Robin Hood in disguise. Robin would have to be a wizard indeed if he had access to 20^th Century theatrical makeup in the 13th Century. The wizard tells Sir William that the only reason he could turn the villagers buttons into silver was because they had no silver in their homes. Since Sir William’s strong room is full of silver the charm will not work. Sir William says there will be no silver in his home. The wizard says some foreign sounding words over the bag of buttons and tells Sir William to hang it overnight on the apple tree until three hours after dawn.  That night in the forest outside Sir William’s castle Robin and his men see Sir William and his man bury his silver. The next morning when the sheriff comes to collect the tax Sir William takes the bag from the apple tree, but it is still full of buttons. Sir William leads the sheriff to where he buried his silver, but when he digs for it he finds also only buttons. When William goes to the wizard he reveals himself as Robin Hood. They sword fight very briefly before William’s sword is knocked away. Robin takes most of the silver that William hoarded but leaves him one bag.

In the second story the king’s commissioner is coming to examine the accounts of Nottinghamshire. Friar Tuck tells Robin that he’s heard that he is going to waylay the commissioner on his way to Nottingham. It is the first that Robin has heard of it but he figures he should be there when it happens. In the forest the commissioner is attacked by Sir Gyles of  Wren with the intent of murder. Robin intervenes and he and Gyles sword fight but Gyles pulls a secret knife and slashes Robin. Little John and Derwent rush in to save Robin and Gyles escapes. The commissioner is indebted to Robin and Robin tells him he must give him half his purse in exchange for dinner. The commissioner comes with them to table but he has quirky ideas about diet and so always carries a few nuts for himself to eat. He refuses to eat Robin’s venison because he says the animal lives in fear, causing melancholy humours of its flesh, which when eaten engenders a superfluity of yellow bile or gore. He also refuses to drink while eating because it extinguishes natural heat and corrupts the digestion. The stomach is like a cauldron and our food is cooked by heat which simmers in the liver like a furnace.

The commissioner refuses to pay half his purse since he did not eat Robin’s food and besides it is the king’s money. When Robin and his men hear that the commissioner is loyal to King Richard they let him go. Robin tells Marian to go to the accounting at Nottingham Castle and to watch over the commissioner, since there are still people about that want to kill him. He tells Marian to carry a dagger. At the accounting Sir Gyles is there. He secretly removes Marian's dagger without her noticing. The commissioner climbs the stairs to look at the account rolls. Marian sees Sir Gyles go after him and so she follows. In the chamber she finds the commissioner dead with her dagger in his body. She pulls it out just as Sir Gyles and the sheriff step in. Sir Gyles demands that the sheriff arrest Marian. He is reluctant but Gyles threatens to go to Prince John and so Marian is arrested. At her trial Marian says that Sir Gyles already tried to murder the commissioner but when asked how and when she cannot say because she would have to reveal that she had been with Robin Hood. Just before being sentenced to hang Marian challenges Sir Gyles to trial by battle. The sheriff accepts this and says the trial will take place in one week. Marian had been hoping that somehow Robin would be her champion but the knife wound from Sir Gyles has incapacitated him. Friar Tuck tries to find a champion for her but some come up with mysterious injuries and others can’t risk offending Prince John. The sheriff offers that if she confesses he would commute her death sentence to house arrest under his jurisdiction. She refuses to be his captive. On the day of the trial the sheriff says he will call for Marian’s champion three times but if he does not come she must face the death penalty. Just before the final call Robin steps forward in disguise as a freeman named Hugh Son of Tom who lives on Marian’s estate. He offers himself as her champion. She accepts his offer. Robin and Gyles begin with axes and shields while Robin’s left arm is still weak. They fight until Robin loses his shield. The rules are that the weapons must always be equal and Hugh is given the choice. He chooses swords. They fight until Robin disarms Gyles and he calls “craven". Marian is proclaimed innocent.