Not the best week I’ve had lately……………………………….

As always, first the chronology:

2/23/20 – Sunday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Downstairs to do the blog. Kathy came home from church and we had lunch. Back downstairs to do more computer work. Upstairs for a nap. Up and dinner. Chores around the house. Bed, TV, computer updates and sleep.

2/24/20 – Monday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Downstairs to play radio and do computer work. Upstairs for lunch. Kathy went off to her Circle Meeting for the church. I went to the Morton building and spent the afternoon finishing up the bracket for Mike’s hose reel. In for dinner, downstairs to chat with the guys on 2 meters. Bed, computer updates, TV and sleep.

2/25/20 – Tuesday – Up very early. Didn’t sleep well at all last night. Had heartburn that kept waking me up and between Kathy and the Dog snoring I couldn’t get back to sleep. So, the alarm was set for 6AM but I was up and out by 5:30AM. Usual routine, cleaned up and out for my semi-annual physical. Everything was good. Kathy got called early and Shelby was home sick. When I got home the house was empty so I went back to bed till noon. Got up and called Kathy. Shelby was positive for the flu so I called the doctor’s office for more flu medicine. Had lunch and started chores around the house. Kathy came home with Shelby to make sure I was very much exposed. The family made plans to go out for dinner so I missed my 2 meter chat tonight. Finally got to bed, computer updates, Big Bang and sleep.

2/26/20 – Wednesday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Chores around the house and out to get my glasses at Lenscrafters. A stop at the gun store for a holster then to Hooter’s for lunch. Some R&R this afternoon then home and cleaned up the laundry. Kathy came home from babysitting and we had a nice meatloaf dinner. Downstairs and chatted with Gary on 2 meters. Computer updates. Upstairs to bed, Big Bang and sleep.

2/27/20 – Thursday – Up at the usual time and got ready to go to Dare to Care. Neither Kathy or I felt super ready to work this afternoon and you can hardly hear Kathy when she talks. So, we decided to blow off Dare to Care. I helped her get things organized to deposit money in the bank account for her circle group. Then to FDKY for lunch. Stopped at the gun store to exchange my holster, then to our bank to sign some paperwork for Mike our son-in-law. Home and picked up the shopping list and to Kroger for groceries. Home and a short nap. Up for dinner. Chores around the house. Chatted with the guys on 2 meters. To bed, Big Bang and sleep.

2/28/20 – Friday – Up late this morning, did not sleep well last night. Got cleaned up and had breakfast. Kathy was up and out early to watch Shelby again today. I did some chores around the house and ran some parts over to Gary. Home and painted the bracket I made for Mike. Inside and played radio. Kathy came home and we had dinner. Chatted with the guys on 2 meters. Did computer updates. Chores, Bed, TV and sleep.

2/29/20 – Saturday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Downstairs to play radio. Bands were good. Started cleaning up and both shelves came off the wall over my desk area. Got cleaned up, down to the hardware store and Mexican for lunch. Back home and started patching holes and put shelving units back up and replaced the things that were on them. Finished up a little before 6PM. Waited till 6:30PM and no one on 2 meters. Upstairs and a light dinner. To bed, computer work, TV and sleep.

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Now the specifics, hang on, this may be long:

A positive note this week is the radio bands have been good.  I’ve made contacts to Austria, Slovenia, Chile and Nova Scotia.  Also had the pleasure of chatting briefly with a guy working the club station at the Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston, TX as well as a young lady working the W1AW station in Newington, CT.

Had my bi-annual (I think that means twice a year) appointment and everything was good.  Blood work was great and I took great pleasure in showing that to my daughter and wife as neither of there’s is very good.

Of course my doctor’s appointment was Tuesday morning and Kathy got called to take care of Shelby.  Julie got a doctor’s appointment and sure as shit she tested positive for the flu.  I called the doctor’s office and advised them that we have been exposed or will be exposed so he called in prescriptions for the new Tamiflu equivalent for both Kathy and me.  Of course it wasn’t good enough that Kathy had been exposed and then was coming home, she had to bring Shelby with her.  Then made plans for everyone to go out to Hometown Pizza for dinner, so I ended up in the front seat of Kathy’s car with Shelby behind me hacking and coughing for the ride to the pizza place.  I guess Kathy wanted to make damn sure I was exposed.

Anyway, Kathy started feeling shitty late Wednesday and I woke up Thursday feeling like shit.  Kathy still can’t talk much and I’m getting to feel a little better.  I’m not really sure if I did in fact get the flu from Shelby and the flu shot and medicine is making it a mild thing or perhaps I just got a cold.  Either way I’m trying to take it easy and stay away from people for awhile.

Of course I had mentioned to my friend Gary that I had some parts on hand for the audio interface needed to complete the job of setting up the remote system for his radio.  He called me Friday and wanted to know how I felt.  I told him like shit.  Any normal person would have said OK and hope you feel better.  But not Gary.  He wanted to know how he might get his parts if I wasn’t feeling good enough to bring them over to him.  Kathy has been telling me for a long time now that Gary is just a user and this just clinched the case.  I took over the parts I promised him and that was the end of it.  I no longer have any time for the man and he certainly won’t get any help from me unless he is on his death bed.  I’ve had it.

With that monkey off my back I have a lot more time for things I want to do.

Beside being relegated to domestic chores to some degree this week with Kathy being busy baby sitting, I did manage to finish up the metal work on the bracket I was making to mount the air house reel for my son-in-law Mike.  Got one coat of paint on it but it will need another coat before installation.

My pants are getting tighter.  I really need to lose some weight.  But I’m not ready to buy new pants.  With that said, it’s getting uncomfortable to carry my gun in the holster for inside the pants.  So, I stopped at the gun store and got one for outside the pants and I’ll just wear something long enough to cover it.  Of course I didn’t have the gun with me when I got the holster and I got the wrong one so I had to make another trip to exchange it.  The new one works great and resolves my problem for now.

When I got my eyes checked this time there was no change.  So I asked the optometrist about glasses made specifically for working my HAM station.  She did a special script which I took over to Lenscrafters and they made up a pair for me.  I picked them up this week and they are great.  Now the screen on the wall and the displays on the radio all look crystal clear.  Another success for the week.

The week ended with a bang.  Literally.  I was trying to get thing organized in the room here and was putting some books up on the shelf over my desk area.  I either leaned on the shelf too hard or the books I put up there was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  The result was both shelves with all the crap I had on them coming down with a bang.  Got Kathy’s attention.  The scary thing was my good laptop was on the desk under everything.  Kathy helped me pick things up and the laptop was OK.  Since it was close to lunch time, Kathy got ready and we went to the hardware store for some material and stopped at the Mexican restaurant for lunch.  When I originally put up the shelves I wanted to use 5 supports but they would not line up with the studs so I used the plastic inserts you put in the drywall to secure them.  That was apparently a bad idea and they all pulled out.  So this time I put three supports across into the studs and a 4th support in the drywall.  I don’t think it’s going to come down again.

Sorry for the long story this week.  Still working on the travel blogs so stay tuned for those.  Hope this finds everyone well.  That’s it for this week.  Blog at you again next week.