Brian,
Knock on wood - no flat lines in 3 weeks !!!
I wonder if possibly the one after updating the driver my jan 1 post wasn’t a flat line. It is possibly I was looking at weather underground (which at the time I didn’t know was having issues) and interpreting all the gaps as WD not sending data/flat lining.
We shall see… 
My fingers are crossed !!!
I understand if it happens once and a while but several times a week was too much