Well, I’m back down with some sort of virus. This time, unlike last week, it’s not just something straining my system in the background. It kind of hit me by surprise, given that I felt fine over the weekend. Woke up today with a swollen throat and fatigue that slighly worsened as they day went on. My biometrics were only off slightly last night, but not at all the night before, or earlier nights, other than about a week ago when my overnight HRV was abnormally low. Although I don’t have temperature tracking with my Garmin Forerunner 265 watch, I wonder if I had an Oura ring if the “symptom radar” would have been triggered. Google Gemini speculated that it likely would have detected at least “minor signs,” but possibly “major signs” if my skin temp increased too. On my medium term “wants” list, I’m adding Garmin’s Index Sleep Monitor, in lieu of an Oura ring, which monitors sleep very well including skin temp comparably well. It would be about $170, keep things in the Garmin ecosystem, and have no subscription fee. It would effectively have all data needed for symptom radar if I looked. However, I’m not sure how much of a “heads up” would have helped as I felt fine yesterday and whatever I have now seemed to just come on out of nowhere. I don’t think all symptoms including biometrics would have gotten 100% percent better for a week, then worsened. Moreover, I did all the right things with zinc lozenges, tea, water, and homeopathic supplements. At this point, I just need to take it easy and let it run its (hopefully short) course. I must have been exposed to two different viruses back to back. Right now seems to be the time of year too. The good news is I haven’t gotten super sick lately. Everything I have had has been mild. Let me not jinx myself though!

Change of topic: I also decided to try out Ziply Fiber for home internet service (since my wife was more or less indifferent but felt similarly) on all of the following points. I got an ad from Ziply for no contracts, free install, and first month free, and a lower price, it seemed like a no brainer, especially for someone that doesn’t have cable TV. For those who don’t know, Ziply uses exclusively fiber optic cable and supposedly has strong equally strong symmetrical upload and download speeds. This is because it uses fiber optic strand from the house all the way to the street, rather than an old school coaxial cable. It also includes 6 GHz signal in addition to the usual dual band 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz found with Xfinity.

Verdict: so far, it’s great! I was able to drop off my Xfinity equipment at the store, and the return process was fairly straightforward, once helped in person. However, they (I’m sure very intentionally) make it impossible to cancel over the phone or online, which is soooo slimy. There was an option for an Xfinity rep to call back on Friday, 3 days from now. Friday?! Are you fucking kidding me?! And they had jacked up my price of $55/month that I’d been paying for a couple of years, unexpectedly, to $85/month a few months ago. The most deal breaker though of it all, was that many of my Verizon phone calls at home (when assisted with WiFi) just weren’t being received from my wife. According to an AI deep dive search, there’s plausible conspiracy speculation that “net neutrality” rules ain’t exactly being observed between competitors Xfinity and Verizon, and Xfinity just doesn’t want Verizon phone users to have a smooth experience. So I’m ruling out one variable at a time. I may switch to T-Mobile for their $800 phone payoff, and then Mint Mobile later for some savings, now that I’ve tried out T-Mobile’s dual e-SIM this month.

Whatever has strong, unlimited connection and doesn’t break the bank is a telecom win in my book!