Not a bad week, got a lot done………………………..

As always, first the chronology:

7/14/19 – Sunday – Up and cleaned up the kitchen. Downstairs to do the blog. Played radio and did some updates. Upstairs and cleaned up. Out on the motorcycle to the afternoon get together at Gary’s house. Home and chatted with Kathy. Down and tested the pool. Hung out there till 5PM then back to the house and out to Hometown Pizza for dinner. Grocery shopping and home. Chores then bed, Big Bang and sleep.

7/15/19 – Monday – Up and out to do the yard work. Was worried about rain so I worked through lunch. Ran out of steam around 3:30PM. In the house to re-hydrate and to bed to rest and cool down. Up around 4:30 and cleaned up. Chores, dinner. Downstairs to chat with the guys on 2 meters. Upstairs, more chores. Bed, computer updates, TV and sleep.

7/16/19 – Tuesday – Kathy was up and out early to go babysit the grandchildren. I did the usual morning routine and out to put the coax I fixed back on my 80 meter dipole. All worked well. Got cleaned up and had leftovers for lunch. Played radio most of the day and took a nap since the house was quiet. Did dogs and burgers on the grill for dinner. Down to my room and chatted with the guys on 2 meters. Fixed a grounding problem on my antenna switches. Computer updates, Big Bang and up to bed.

7/17/19 – Wednesday – Up and did some online banking and some other chores. Cleaned up and took my wife over to Shelbyville to Wendy’s for lunch. Stop at bank and Lowes. Home and made sand bags to hold canopy down on rear deck in windy weather. Dinner. Chatted with the guys on 2 meters. Did some computer work. Upstairs to bed, Big Bang and sleep.

7/18/19 – Thursday – Up and chores around the house. Did a couple dogs on the grill for lunch. Then out to the pool for several hours. Did some maintenance on it while out. In and cleaned up. Dinner. Chatted with the guys on 2 meters. Some computer research. Bed, more computer research, Big Bang and sleep.

7/19/19 – Friday – Up and downstairs to check the HAM bands. Made a couple contacts then started cleaning up my room. Took a break to cook a couple dogs on the grill for lunch. Made a lot of phone calls. Helped Kathy with groceries when she got home. Dinner, out to the pool for an hour. In and shower. Bed, Big Bang, computer updates and research. Sleep.

7/20/19 – Saturday – Up and downstairs for most of the day. Played radio and worked on a new project. Made a few contacts and got my project scoped out. Kathy made a great meatloaf dinner. We went swimming after dinner. Updated Windows 10. Took 2 hours. To bed, computer updates, Big Bang and sleep.

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Now the specifics:

Kathy made it home Sunday afternoon.  She did a lot of driving last weekend.  But she got to see her sister and some other folks in the family she hadn’t seen in awhile.  So I would say the trip was long but productive.

It has been very hot this week like a lot of the country.  We have taken advantage of the weather and used the pool a lot.  The pool has been staying clear although we find it necessary to add water occasionally.  We had the solar cover on but that made the water too warm.  Of course without the solar cover you get more evaporation.  So we opt to just add a little water now and then.

I finally got to make some phone calls this week.  Didn’t get everyone I wanted but I got some important people.  Chatted briefly with my friend Rick in New York and a co-worker from AT&T in Denver, CO.  A lot happening everywhere but both my friend Rick and Ron seem to be happy.  Still have a few more calls to make.  Always seems like the time I think about making them is not always the best time.  I’ll try some more this week.

While I was making phone calls I made arrangements to have the septic system get it’s routine checkup and pumping.  Also found a place to dispose of some defective sealed lead acid batteries.

We bought some canopies that we put up.  One down on the pool deck and another up here on the deck behind the house.  Kathy likes them but didn’t want me to secure them to the deck with screws or anything permanent.  I guess she just wanted to challenge me a little.  So, I had made some sand bags to go with my target stands to keep them level and from blowing around in the wind so I tied a rope on the D rings on the canopy top and used the sand bags to hold down the canopy at the pool.  It worked well so this week I got the hose clamps and some rope to make some more.  I just cut the legs off an old pair of jeans then cut them in half.  Kathy sewed the one end for me.  Then I tied knots in the ends of a short piece of rope.  Loaded some gallon plastic bags with sand and put that inside.  Put the end of the rope with the knots inside the bag and secured everything with hose clamps.  Worked well.

Since it was too hot to do anything outside I did a lot of cleaning and organizing in my room.  In the process I found several unfinished projects.  So I’ve been working on those.  I’ll update you as I finish them.

That is probably more than you wanted to hear.  But I want to say it was good talking to some folks I haven’t talked to in awhile and I look forward to some more calls this week.  Hope everyone is well and I will blog at you again next week.