Finally, for my computers, there is the Network jack for my ethernet connection. This goes to a Verizon-supplied 4-port router (made by DLink). From this, I go to the rest of my existing network, including the wireless access point that serves my laptop PC. I chose to get the basic $39.95 service of 5 Mb/s down and 2 Mb/s up. For $10.00 more, I could have 15 Mb/s down. For $99 a month, the power-hungry super user can get 30 Mb/s down and 5 Mb/s up. Eventually, FIOS TV will become available. That also comes out of the ONT.

Powering the ONT is the AC power supply. Basically my AC power and the backup battery replace phone power, backup, and ringing hardware back in the central office.

In my basement, we see what is on the other end of one of the cables to the ONT. This is the power supply for the ONT. This box also contains the backup battery for the system. If I lose power, the backup battery supposedly runs my phone and data for 4 to 6 hours. Once it dies, I have no phone or internet connection. Since we seldom have power outages (except for that August 15th thing when I was out for 23 hours), I think we'll be OK. After that, there are cell phones, then carrier pigeons!

From the telephone pole, the fiber optic cable goes to the ONT (Optical Network Termination) box. This box contains all the logic to decode the optical signal into my telephone line and the ethernet data line. Although it is not obvious from the photo, this box is about a foot wide, 18" high, and a foot deep! Since there is no copper wire going from my house to the central office, the box has to power my phone system, as well as doing the ringing.

Gino's Place now has a FIBER-OPTIC connection to the world! I signed up with Verizon FIOS recently, and it was installed with much fanfare (even a FIOS sign outside while they were doing it). Starting at the telephone pole, the rectangular black box on the bottom is the fiber-optic junction, with the loop at the bottom ending up at my house. The smaller gray box above is my cable TV connection.

This is a Foxglove, or Digitalis plant. It is really beautiful, and it should grow to be quite tall.

Here is a close-up of one of the five Japanese Andromeda plants we put in last week. This plant is expected to grow to about 5 feet high and 5 feet wide.

I have posted some nice photos of some of the plants added to our newly-renovated garden. Since the garden looked so nice, I decided to add tags to the plants like you see in botanical gardens. I got the tags at a local nursery for $2.50 for 10. I then used my Brother label maker to make nice 1" labels to fit on the tags that contain the plant name as well as its Latin name. It also contains the place we got the plant, and when it was planted.

Here is a lovely new Sage plant, or Salvia Officinalis. Sage is a lovely herb, used in cooking. We also have Thyme and Rosemary in the garden.

Since Blogger posts are read chronologically from top to bottom, please start at the BOTTOM of this page to see the progress from WINTER to SPRING at Gino's place. I deleted most of the older winter photos that never changed, and posted new photos of recent landscaping and renovation.

This seemed to be a year of renewal here, as I got a new Sears belt-drive garage door opener that is lots quieter than the 20-year old Genie one. This opener even has a battery back-up, so it can open the door even if the power is out. Note: posting inane stuff like this is the major thing people like (or hate) about blogs.

Oh, what the heck - here's a shot of the front of the house, NOT covered in snow! We planted the deep red Azelea to the right of the steps last year, and it looks like it will do nicely if we keep feeding it. The large Rhododendron to the right has not yet begun to bloom, but is a mass of white blossoms in early summer.

As long as I am shooting photos of the landscaping, here is a photo of the outside after the landscapers got through. The purple Azela is always in bloom at this time, and the big white Rhododendron at the side is ripping into full bloom.

Here's another AFTER shot of the area in the back. The four small Boxwood are in front of a small ditch that comes from a drain we had installed a couple of years ago. Since the ditch is a couple of feet deep, we put a small fence around it and the Boxwood in front. A Viburnum blocks entry to the opening at the back of the fence for access to the ditch for cleanout. Things sure got neater on every inch of our property!

Here's the AFTER shot showing an absence of branches and twigs, and the planting of several Viburnum, which should grow quite large and bushy. Note a couple of small Boxwood at the lower right. We focused a great deal on things that deer don't eat.

Here is a BEFORE photo of a mess of leaves and branches we had at the back of our property. The landscapers were in a good mood to tackle anything, so we asked them to manage this mess. They took away the larger branches and buried the smaller stuff under topsoil, then planted Pachysandra back where it it was.

Here is a shot looking to the left of the previous picture. The neighbor's garage is at the right. The floral border continues with the addition of a white Lilac tree near the right, to complement our existing Lilac tree near the center. White Azeleas flank the these. As you go to the left, there is an older red Azelea, some Hosta and our mature Japanese Andromeda, which is how big I hope the five to the right get.

This photo shows the "AFTER" view of our neighbor's garage, which was obscured by the dead arborvitae. The five Andromedas that we planted will eventually grow to about 5 or 6 fieet high and obscure our view of the garage. Notice the lovely curving border that was put in. Hostas were planted at the right around the Japanese Maple. At the far left is a white Azelea.

Here is a photo of a very sickly bunch of Arborvitae that needed to be replaced. We had a bunch of guys with chain saws cut them down, then another bunch of guys came in and thoroughly renovated the property. The following photos show the dramatic improvements.

Well, here we are in SPRING at Gino's Place! It has been raining a bit, so all looks lush and green - quite a contrast to the pictures taken in winter, when this exact shot was of a bunch of snow!

Well, it's been a long season between posts here, but I finally got something to post - we had a major renovation done of our landscaping over several days and I just shot some "AFTER" shots today. I'll be posting the rest of the shots using "HELLO" via Picasa.