Hrmm makes sense. I've had it on for a day and the bitcoin node is connected. Now that you mention it, when I first looked after a couple hrs I had no peers. Looking at it 30 min ago I realize now that my peers were all there, just not connected. 

Of course I rebooted my node OS (not the machine) right before I made the note. I prob have to start the process over... doh! Maybe I just need more patience.  

 Well it won’t have to “start over” in that it’s already caught up on a lot of the chain but yah, give it more patience. Check back in 3-4days to see if you’re still having issues. In the meantime you might need to use a custodial or other solution for transactions. 

 Yeah I think I just need more patience. I just realized that it's running on ancient onboard wifi from like 2010. I might not have plugged in the ethernet 🙈 

 Yup, give it more time - I just went through this same scary scenario with MyNode. Stressed for a day - moved on to another project and couple days later it was fine.