Another Year in the Vineyard, Week 19 with Wes Hagen, Clos Pepe

July 16-22, 2010 Wes Hagen, VM/WM Clos Pepe Vineyard and Estate Wines This morning the vineyard’s technology level has been thrown back to 1990, and we’re feeling the sting. Carrying my cup of Kenya to the keyboard early Thursday morning, I tried to check the weather, but the page wouldn’t load. Either would my email. Either would Google. So I picked up the phone to call our ISP and describe my discontent, and after two tries (keep in mind, I wasn’t through more than a sip of my first cup of coffee), it dawned on me that our phone system runs through our copper Verizon T1. Worse than that, our cell phones don’t work on the property in any reliable manner, so we have cell phone boosters (you see where this is headed?) that are also dependent on our interweb connection. Well, at least we have electricity and water. So while I can’t call, email, or even text our situation to the ISP, I can write. In between sentences I am glancing over at my router to see if, by