Kim and The Satellite TV Dish - Who Will Win?

Not a 'Complete Idiot' yet - but I'm working on it.

So as you know, if you've been following Betsy's posts, we've been traveling from Snohomish, WA to Phoenix, AZ. So far we've gotten by with hooking up to the various camp ground's tv cable outlet. Well, now that we've gotten to the Phoenix area and are stayin in one spot for the next week it was time to drag out and set up the satellite tv dish. The satellite receiver has a built in application with two bar graphs and an audible signal that runs on the tv screen to help you aim the dish for maximum signal strength. So I'm all set up, the tripod is leveled and locked in place,the dish is aimed in the general direction (145 deg south) and I'm slowly moving the dish right to left trying to locate the signal. After several attempts with no luck I remember we are now much further south and the dish probably has to be re-aimed higher. I fired up the old computer and Googled 'directv aiming dish' and found a web site were you can enter your zip code and get the proper coordinates for that area. Sure enough, I need to aim about 10 deg higher. I make that
adjustment and...what!! still not a hint of a signal.

As I'm sitting at my computer, scratching myhead, I look up and notice that although I had run the dish cables through the window I neglected to connect them to the dish receiver. Once I had the cables connected it only took another minute to tune in the dish and, voila! tv!

I'm not sure if continuing to work at becoming a 'complete idiot' is better than finally becoming one and not have to keep making dumb mistakes. I'm sure I'll never know.