A busy week but didn’t get much done…………………..

As always, first the chronology:

11/12/17 – Sunday – Up early and out to pick up Gary for church. Back home and another bagel and cup of coffee while I read the paper. Kathy came home and we did some chores. Then lunch. Julie and grand children came over. Julie did some work on the computer I’m restoring for her. They left. I finished my blog then got ready to go to Gary’s for the afternoon get together. Home and a nap. Up and dinner. Then to my room to trouble shoot radio noise problem. To bed and some computer work. Watched some of a movie and to sleep.

11/13/17 – Monday – Up and cleaned up. Then out shopping. Kathy wanted to go to Kohls then we went to Lowes. Got new lights for in the kitchen to resolve the noise interference and carpet for our dining room. Had lunch at Bob Evan’s while out. Home, put up new lights in kitchen then put new carpet down. Had dinner, played radio, to bed some TV and sleep.

11/14/17 – Tuesday – Up and out to pick up Gary. We both wanted some things on sale at Rural King. Picked up some McDonalds on the way home. Kathy was getting her hair done. After I ate I took a nap till Kathy got home. Up and did chores around the house. Some computer work and made net at 6:30. Had a snack, to bed, some Big Bang and sleep.

11/15/17 – Wednesday – Up and the retirees net at 10AM. Then out for errands. Shopping and to the bank. Picked up Arby’s on the way home. Home and ate. Then computer work and over to pick up Gary for dinner at Church. Home, some research, Big Bang and sleep.

11/16/17 – Thursday – Spent most of the day finishing up my efforts to restore a computer for my daughter. Then worked on another HAM project. Got cleaned up and took Kathy to J-town for dinner at FDKY then dropped her off at church to practice handbells. I went to the supermarket and Goodwill to look around and waste some time. Back to the church to pick up Kathy and over to Mike and Julie’s place to celebrate Mike’s birthday. Tried to make net on the way home but radio was not cooperating. Got home and had a snack. Then to bed, some computer work, Big Bang and sleep.

11/17/17 – Friday – Spent the day working on computer upgrades, doing research for parts, essentially working in my room. Kathy was giving me the cold shoulder and hot tongue all day because I let the next door neighbor hunt deer on our property with a rifle.

11/18/17 – Saturday – Up, cleaned up and over to Gary’s to put his new TV on the wall. Never finished up till almost 1 PM. Stopped at Hometown Pizza for lunch then home. Kathy went grocery shopping and I got cleaned up again. Ready and out to see the performance of Aladdin that Chloe is in. Then home, watched some Pitch Perfect (No Big Bang tonight) and sleep.

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Now the particulars:

While trying to compete in the KY QSO Party on the radio it was apparent I had several problems.  So, I started a project to replace the existing microphone with a boom microphone and a foot switch.  That way I can transmit and talk while both hands are still on the computer doing the logging.  The other problem I ran into was noise.  I have noticed it periodically but it was never bad enough to get rid of.  Now it was.  So, I just turned off breakers in the main electrical panel till I found the one that made the noise decrease.  Then looked in that area of the house and sure enough, the noise decreased significantly when I turned off the ceiling lights in the kitchen.  So I replaced both fluorescent fixtures.  That resolved the problem.  I took a look at the ones I removed and it was obvious that a ballast had been replace in one of the fixtures.  I could have probably replace that one fixture and resolved my problem.  But now they are both LED fixtures.  Less power, same light, no noise.

Kathy has been wanting some carpet in the dinning area to make it more quiet.  So a couple weeks ago she bought a small throw rug and put it down in the room to see if she liked the color and pattern.  Everything seemed to work so we went back to Lowes, returned the small throw rug and bought a 8′ by 10′ area rug with a pad.  Put it down and it looks good.

So, generally speaking I have finished one project this week and have worked on two others.  I still have several out in the Morton building in progress as well.  So, I think I’ll order material for my HAM radio projects and till it’s delivered I’ll go over and work in the Morton building.  I still need to mount my luggage rack on my top box for the motorcycle.  I also have the wheels to put on the generator and to finish the cleanup effort on the compressor.

I won’t have a full week to work on things as Thursday will be family day.  Kathy is making things to take over to Mike and Julies.  Tuesday we have to go to Shelby’s school for their Thanksgiving celebration.

So with that I wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving day.  Let us all put our differences aside and unite in giving thanks for our blessing this year.  Many have had difficult years but I have found that if you just look around, you will find many people in much worse situation than ourselves.

Bye for this week and blog at you again next week.