Ten dollars plus a lucky find in the garage is all it took to have an excellent wi-fi signal throughout my house.

Duh. For years, we have struggled with the wi-fi connection in the bedroom and the TV room.  The only room in the house with good wi-fi connection was the computer room, where my Airport Express sat.

It turns out that after going through a box of electronic gear a few days ago, I discovered an Airport Extreme base station my mother had used for her Mac computer.

All it took was the $10 Ethernet cord, which I just used to connect the Airport Extreme base station to the Airport Express.  After I connected the new cord, I plugged the Airport Express into a bedroom wall socket that is just feet from the TV on the other side of the wall.

Over the years, I have tried wi-fi extenders but they had not produced a full wi-fi signal as shown by the full three curved bars on my smart phone.

I was so excited to see three bars in all parts of my house.  I couldn’t leave the long Ethernet cord trailing on the floor between rooms. I temporarily taped the cord to the highest parts of the walls – from the computer room to the bedroom.

My son-in-law said he would run the cable through the attic, but I want to wait until next month, when we will be switching from Verizon to Cricket Wireless.  If I get those three bars with Cricket, I won’t even need the cord.

Speaking of connecting and cutting cords, I have been writing recently about cutting the cords with DirecTV and Verizon.  Now I have connected a cord.  Next month I may be cutting the cord I just connected. All this is making me a bit disconnected.

I suppose things will one day settle down.  On the other hand, it’s the unsettled moments that potentially lead to those big breakthroughs that I like to call DUHs.

To recap, today I discovered how a simple direct connection beats an ethereal wi-fi connection by a mile.

So, let’s make direct connections between each other. Let’s get together in the same room and actually make physical contact.

Perhaps you are into hugs as I am.

You may eschew the hugs and shake hands.

Maybe, in this way, we can light up the world with more rainbows, and feel the glow of the strong three-bar signal in our lives.

Hugs.

Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at robertzebsen@gmail.com