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In: Lion's Journal

Because we have to move, our attention has been focused on the obvious needs of such a massive effort. Sex has taken a backseat. I’ve been spending a lot of time working out how to support our ability to live without disruption despite inevitable external problems. Mrs. Lion works from home and has to have a broadband Internet connection at all times. We get all of our TV from streaming Internet sources. Our smart home devices also need Internet.

The last time I considered our home network, I looked for the best router/WiFi access point I could buy. I didn’t believe I could protect us from Xfinity or electricity failures. We lease our houses. Buying never made sense to me. That means we have to limit the investment we make in a new home. At minimum, we require an electric vehicle charging station and a way to connect our portable generator to needed house circuits. I wrote about those solutions yesterday.

Until very recently, there was only one viable Internet provider around here, Xfinity. Our local landline phone company also offers rather slow broadband service at a high price. Xfinity is reasonably priced for a 200Mbs connection. T-Mobile recently introduced 5g broadband home service. It uses their cellular network to provide about 50Mbs service. Since this service comes via the cellular network, it is far less likely to fail due to a storm or other natural disaster. This service comes in at $50 a month.

Mrs. Lion’s work gives her about $50 a month for our Internet bill. We’re using that to cover the T-Mobile service. Xfinity costs us $30 a month for 200 Mbs service.  The problem was how to combine the two services. Yesterday I wrote about how we are solving the power failure problem. Today, I thought I would tell you what we are doing to provide uninterrupted Internet.

It turns out that TP-Link makes a $50 router that integrates multiple Internet connections. It has far more features than I need, but will easily solve our problem. This router doesn’t have a built-in WiFi setup. We needed to buy a separate WiFi access point. That cost $80. The total cost of $130 is far less than I paid for our current Asus combination product.

Before Mrs. Lion started her current job, supporting two ISPs seemed extravagant. If the T-Mobile’s speed were reliably high, we wouldn’t need Xfinity at all. Working from home changes the importance of the Internet connection. The home network becomes the office net too. Mrs. Lion loses pay if she can’t access the Internet. Our smart home gets dumb if we aren’t online. I’m glad that I’ve been able to get the education I need to keep up.

By:
In: Lion's Journal

I have been working on the design of our new home network. We are moving next month and I’m taking the move as an opportunity to update our network. Because our part of the world suffers occasional power outages, I’ve decided to try to harden our house against power loss. When the power goes off, we have several UPS units to keep our PC’s and network alive for a while. The problem is that the power lines and cable Internet are on the same poles. When one goes off, we lose the other.

We have a 30 amp generator that is sufficient to keep our basic power needs going during a power outage. Since Mrs. Lion works from home and needs Internet to do her job, I want to keep the Internet even if the cable provider fails. Also, we get all of our TV on the Internet. We want to keep our streaming services as well.

Our cable company offered a two-year contract for $30 a month. We get 200 Mb service for that money. T-Mobile offers a 5g Internet service for $50 a month. The cell service tends to stay up during power outages. Ideally, we should have both Internet sources available without having to plug and unplug them. It turns out that there are multi-homing routers that manage multiple Internet connections simultaneously. Best of all, a really good one costs only $50.

Of course, buying a router is only the first step. We also need a WiFi access point. Most consumer routers also include the WiFi access point. The more specialized multi-homing products don’t include the radios. Fortunately, it doesn’t break the bank to buy a standalone access point. The new house will have two separate Internet suppliers. This configuration should give us broadband even if the power goes off.

Last night, I realized that I may have planned myself into a corner. Once we go on our emergency power, how will we know when the utility power comes back on? Our generator interlock uses the main panel for the house. That means we won’t see anything change when the utility power returns. I fretted about that. Would we have to go outside and see if the neighbors have power? Are there streetlights that will come on?

It turns out that we can get an alarm that will go off when power is restored. It’s an easy hookup in our power panel. When we are on generator power, we arm that alarm. When utility power returns, a 100DB alarm sounds. Cool beans!

When the power goes out we will have heat and hot water. Our refrigerator, freezers, general lighting, computers, and TV, including streaming programs will be available. Best of all, Mrs. Lion won’t have to run extension cords all over the house. All she has to do is drag the generator out of the garage and plug it into an inlet we are installing outside of the house. Once the generator is running, she simply turns off the main utility power and turns on the generator circuit breaker on the panel. Voila! Power is on all over the house. We can’t use the stove or microwave, but we will have light, heat, and entertainment.

We are lucky that LED lights that use small amounts of power, are installed everywhere in our house. Our TV’s are OLED models that are also light power users. We replaced a plasma TV that used 250 watts with a larger screen OLED that only draws 40 watts.

I know that all this has nothing to do with sex or spanking. It’s an important issue for us. Even though we don’t lose power very often, when we do, our lives are impacted. With more of us working from home, strategies like this can be important. Back to sex tomorrow!

By:
In: Spanking

Things are fairly quiet here. I’ve been binge-watching “Sister Wives.” Like many Discovery Channel programs, the adventures move at a glacial speed with constant repeats of scenes. I’m interested because it’s fun to see how people internalize different cultural norms like polygamy. The Mormons were polygamous from the start. The Bible is full of practice, so it was easy for the church to adopt it.

The practice was never about sex. It was about creating a plentiful supply of new congregants. Mormons, polygamous or not, espouse large families. All are encouraged to have as many children as possible. The Brown family, tracked by the Discovery Channel series, has four wives and seventeen kids. Most of the children will end up in their parent’s church. The Browns accept their lifestyle as an expression of their religion. They never discuss sex on the show. My guess is that the sex is extremely vanilla, with an emphasis on breeding.

Most of us imagine multiple partners as opportunities for super sex. I always did. The idea of two (or more) women I could fuck at will was amazing. The reality was very different. For me, at least, once the novelty of two partners wore off, it came down to building a relationship with each. Sex was the least significant part of it. My experience was very much like the Browns; most of our time and energy was spent dealing with exactly the same things every other couple has to handle. The difference in our case was that we had to multiply those things by three.

When I think about my experience with male chastity and our disciplinary activities, I realize that they are no different than any other activity introduced into a relationship. Before we started, and while they were new, I spent a lot of time thinking about them. I wanted to believe that male chastity and spanking were revolutionary ways to improve a marriage. I looked for reasons why they cured common relationship issues.

For example, I expected that giving Mrs. Lion the ability to punish me would provide her with a way to guarantee that she was being heard. I wanted her to use her paddle to equalize the power balance in our marriage. I’m not sure that happened. I do get spanked for breaking rules. I almost never get punished for annoying her. I’m not saying that we are failing. We aren’t. Mrs. Lion is meeting a need: I have to be spanked. She is also getting some benefit from the ability to ensure I do my share of the chores.

The power balance in our marriage hasn’t changed. I am still the leader and Mrs. Lion looks to me to make many decisions. I don’t think she ever wanted that to change. I never thought much about it until I tried to change it. Then it became obvious that we didn’t want to change. I wanted to introduce spanking. I didn’t want to change my role in our marriage. When I tried, it didn’t work. Neither of us liked the FLR dynamic.

We managed to integrate discipline by unconsciously adopting a limited scope of authority for Mrs. Lion. She can make rules that I have to follow. She doesn’t make them in a vacuum. We discuss her ideas before they are implemented. So far, she has let me veto rules I don’t want to follow. If she decided to take away my veto power, I would be fine with it. She isn’t interested in reversing our roles. From what I can glean on the Internet, this seems to be the model that works for others, too.

How does this relate to polygamy? I think that both practices have a similar basis. Once you remove the fantasies and rationalizations from the equation, you are left with the simple reality that both practices don’t change the relationships of participants. They add complications, more work, and hopefully, rewards to the people who practice them. I’m not claiming that there is any relationship between disciplinary marriage and polygamy. They are unrelated practices. I am saying that both appear to radically change the way participants relate to one another. In fact, they don’t. Both have potential rewards and risks. Neither radically changes the way couples relate to one another.

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In: Mrs Lion Comments

My idea of keeping Amazon boxes may be flawed. Sure, it gives us variety in the sizes and shapes of boxes available to us. However, it creates a giant mess in the living room. The boxes I’ve packed have nowhere to go. More correctly, I have to do a lot more maneuvering to make a simple stack of boxes. What I need to do is disconnect all wires and move speakers out of the way so there’s more room. It’s a giant game of Tetris.

A friend offered to come on Sunday to help pack. If things were more organized, I might have accepted. There’s too much going on right now. I need a staging area for things that will be donated. Where? There’s no room. I need a staging area for things that can go right to the new house as soon as we get the keys. Again, no room. It’s frustrating. Personally, I don’t mind going through a maze of boxes. Lion has a hard time both from a mess point of view and a vision point of view.

I’ll just be glad when we get the keys. Luckily, I think it will be a Friday so we can make a bunch of trips over the weekend to get things started.

Yesterday was punishment day. No, I didn’t spank Lion. I may not be able to be in move mode and spanking mode at the same time. Too many balls in the air. Of course, Lion will probably say there aren’t enough of his balls in the air. His balls are another matter. He can do his Edex shot whenever he wants to. There’s a brand new can of IcyHot spray that hasn’t been tested yet. The clothespins haven’t been packed yet. The rope is still available. So many options.