The fires are not out but huge headway has been made toward that, and most (if not all) evacuation orders have been lifted.

Highway 32 is still closed east of the Butte Meadows turnoff near Lomo, but things are getting better, literally by the hour.

And so, here is a well deserved...

THANK YOU, FIREFIGHTERS !!!

I grew up going to concerts in "center city" at the Academy of Music on Friday afternoons to hear the Philadelphia Orchestra. In high school, it was a regular part of being in the school's music programs. We knew, even as kids, that it was "something special" but because we were kids we just took it for granted. It was there. We went. Some of us (me!) even liked it.

And then there was opera. Some very good. Some very bad. Most acceptably somewhere in between. Real opera. With fully staged productions and a full orchestra in the "pit" and Big Names on the stage.

Rock and Roll? Sheesh! I lived less than 15 miles from Jon Bonjovi and spent over 30 years teaching in Bruce Springsteen territory, not to say anything about the many acts that were "born and raised" in the Philly/NJ area!

And so I moved out here after retiring from teaching - to the Chico area.

What? No Opera House?!?! No real orchestra? Oh, we have the North State Symphony (which is quite good, by the way). But I "cut my musical teeth" with the Fabulous Philadelphians. North State gives four concerts a year. The Philadelphia Orchestra gave (and still gives) four concerts a week. Slight difference, eh?

Now it is really obvious that Chico simply cannot support the same sort of music "scene" as a city the size of Philadelphia (or even Sacramento). But if Central City (Colorado) can have an opera house, and an opera festival every summer, on a resident population roughly one-tenth that of Chico, then why can't we?!? Where can this happen? Without even thinking very hard, the Senator Theater or the El Rey come to mind. Both have suitable halls; both could be "converted" for opera and ballet with a minimum of work; and the Senator Theater could do that without having to "surrender" its present role as a venue for up-and-coming rock and hip-hop acts.

Really. If the Academy of Music could host a political convention, a college graduation, and an indoor football game in the same season as orchestra concerts, ballet performances and "legitimate" theater, I think the Senator Theater could pull off something similar.

And just who would direct this new Opera Company?

I volunteer. And I won't even charge money to do it. Of course, it will cost money to do it. But not for me.

I just want it to happen. Badly. Very badly. We need it.

This is good - for us as a company, and more importantly, for our customers and potential customers.

Now folks can find out what it is like to call their internet provider and get a HUMAN on the phone instead of having to deal with endless 'press this' and 'press that' in order to MAYBE get a human (after waiting on 'hold' for who knows how many minutes/hours/days).

And if you've ever had to deal with "the phone company" or "the electric company"... you know what I mean.

After all those years I spent in Catholic School (16, to tell the truth), I think the Nuns had the phone company in mind when they taught us about years in Purgatory. I wonder if there are indulgences available to cut through the 'on hold' nonsense those companies give us these days?!?!?!

Please tell your friends, neighbors, and family about us. Particularly if you have friends or family 'out there' in other states. Let them know!! And to see how this can benefit you, please read further in this newsletter to find out how our referral program works. Yes, there's money in it for you!

This is good for you folks, our great and loyal group of customers! So here goes...

Any existing customer that brings us a new DSL customer will get a credit applied to their DSL account in the amount of ten dollars.

Any existing customer that brings us a new customer for any of our advanced connection products (normally used by businesses) will get a credit applied to their DSL account in the amount of fifty dollars.

There's only one small catch... the credit will be applied after the new customer has been here for ninety days.

So, bring 'em on!

We are starting something new in the way we price our DSL accounts.

We have lots of folks signing up for one year accounts, but paying every month. We've automated the payment process so that it happens without much interruption to the daily task list around here, but we are going to make something else available to you, and in the process we will be saving you even more money.

You will now have the option of paying for a full year of service all at once. Up front. The whole enchillada. That makes things alot easier for us and a lot better for you, and here's why...

To find out how much your 'full year in advance' amount would be, just take your monthly payment and multiply by 10. Yes, ten - not twelve. That's why it becomes better for you. By paying for the full year up front, you will be getting twelve months of DSL service for the same price as ten months if you pay every month.

Here are some specific examples:

One Month Price	X 10 =	Full Year at Once	Your Saving
$19.99 $24.99 $29.99 $34.99		$199.99 $249.99 $299.99 $349.99	$39.98 $49.98 $59.98 $69.98

It was all very... primitive. And yet, in many ways, it had a very, very, VERY good feeling to it. And I think I know why.

Back then, people actually got to know each other. We had lots of real-time chats. We had online BBSs (bulletin board systems) on which we left messages - sometimes informative, sometimes controversial, sometimes humorous, sometimes maddeningly aggravating, and sometimes all of the above. And people loved it.

And it was, by today's standards, crawlingly slow! 300 baud slow! And later, 1200 baud slow. The huge advance of that era was when ordinary mortals could actually purchase a 9600 baud dialup modem without the need for a second mortgage! Of course, as an ISP, Yours Truly (that's me!) didn't have to deal with the slow part - one of the bennies of owning the company was this nice, fast T-1 that ran to my house.

But we loved it. Slow, sometimes aggravating, software that often crashed (yes, software crashed before Windows!), and all. We loved it. We loved to communicate. There was something in all of that "primitive stuff" that I think we really suffered by giving up and going to the "Magic Picture Show" that the Web has brought to the internet over the past ten years. Not all of that was good for us, or good for the internet.

Today you can pay your bills, shop for a house, apply for a mortgage, trade stocks and bonds, and more. All from the convenience of your home. And this is good stuff. I don't know where we, as a society, would be today without some of the incredible advances in this part of our "connected world."

But where has all that folksy but fun stuff gone?

Please let me know if you find it!

And please keep watching here in a month or so when we here at NetK2NE announce our Big Brainy Idea for helping to bring that back - at least for us here in the Forest Ranch and Chico areas!!

We're back... [Ghostbusters]
I'm Bach! [The Governator]
The Phoenix has Arrrrrisen! [Stefano DiMera]

I've been asked to keep this relatively brief. What we do is much more than just provide folks with gateways to the interent. We also like to view ourselves as Community builders. You see, we like our customers. We like to talk to you; we like you to talk to us; we even like to meet up with you in our wanderings about the area. And yes, we've even been known to drink coffee and eat food with other people in the room! But more about that in a week or three... .

NetK2NE, of course, has been in existence for about 25 years, beginning in 1983. When we decided to do DSL provisioning and sales here in California it became apparent that a name appropriate to our area would be a Good Thing, so Chico Connect was born. And since we also happen to own the domain name for Forest Ranch, the use of Forest Ranch Internet for our customers here on The Mountain seemed like the natural thing to do.

We do DSL. And we do Web Site hosting. We also do web site design and consulting.

We offer all sorts of special (and very high speed) connections for businesses, along with business network consulting and implementation.

Among the three of us that do the technical side of this there is an accumulation of roughly sixty years combined experience in "things Internet" so you might say we've "been there - done that" when it comes to just about any problem one might expect to encounter.

So if you've got a problem you want solved... (well, this really isn't an advertisement, so let me stop!).

By Phone:

(530) 313 - 5345 Use this one between 9am and 5pm
(530) 893 - 5111 The Infamous Bat Phone - use this one after hours

By Email:

Josh (Technical, Business, Networking)
Vince (Networking, Unix/Linux, Management)
Jimmy (Hardware, Layout & Design)
Kelly (Sales, Personnel)