Another busy week…………………………………………………
As always, first the Chronology:
3/29/20 – Sunday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Kathy went grocery shopping and I went down and did the blog. Kathy came home and we unloaded her car and put things away. Had lunch. Got water down to the Morton Building for the summer. Then worked on a noisy fan problem on my server. Spent most of the afternoon. Up for dinner then down to chat with the guys on 2 meters. Upstairs and chores. Bed, some Python studying, TV and sleep.
3/30/20 – Monday – Up early and usual morning routine. Dressed and out to do the yard work. Spent most of the day on it. Came in for a light lunch and quit around 3:30PM. Inside and cleaned up. Down to Country Mart for some desserts then to Hometown Pizza to pick up pizza for dinner. Home and ate. Downstairs to chat with the guys on 2 meters. Computer updates. Upstairs and chores. Bed, Python studying, TV and sleep.
3/31/20 – Tuesday – Up a little late today, didn’t sleep well last night. Too much pizza before bed and nose was running from being outside. Anyway, checked the radio and bands were bad. So I started working on the computer I am trying to load linux on and determined there may be a problem with the hard drive so I ordered a used one for $15. Up and had dinner then back downstairs to chat with the guys on 2 meters. Installed a LAN jack on the side of my shelving unit for easier access. Then upstairs to bed, computer work, Big Bang and sleep.
4/1/20 – Wednesday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Got cleaned up and downstairs to play radio. Kathy went over to watch the girls while Julie took Carter to the pediatric orthopedic doctor. She went shopping and came home. I helped unload the car and we had a late lunch. Downstairs and finished cleaning up the shack. Did some computer work. Upstairs for a nap. Up for dinner then downstairs to chat with the guys on 2 meters. Upstairs for dessert, bed, computer work, Big Bang and sleep.
4/2/20 – Thursday – Up early and cleaned up. Mike and Phil came by and we took my truck and trailer to Georgetown to dig up flowers for Mike’s sister Ann. Then took them over to her house near Lexington and unloaded. Got back home around 4PM. Had dinner, downstairs to chat with the guys on 2 meters. Upstairs to bed, computer updates, Big Bang and sleep.
4/3/20 – Friday – Up and usual morning routine. Cleaned up and over to pick up Carter for a doctor’s appointment. Stopped at Kroger for groceries and McDonalds for lunch on the way home. Out to clean the worst of the dirt and mud off the truck. In the house and chores. Dinner, downstairs to chat with the guys on 2 meters. Computer work, upstairs to bed, TV and sleep.
4/4/20 – Saturday – Up late this morning as I didn’t sleep well last night. Dinner last night didn’t agree with me. Chores and downstairs to do computer work. Played radio and payed bills. Late lunch and back to continue work. Got Winlink working. Had dinner and downstairs to chat with the guys on 2 meters. Upstairs and did some Python studying. Dessert, bed, Big Bang and sleep.
Now the specifics:
We did the first cutting of the yard this Monday. I was surprised it wasn’t more wet than it usually is. I was out about 8:30 and started. New spindles on the mower deck and freshly sharpened blades helped a lot. Kathy came out and worked while she got her dose of sun. Took a short break for lunch and we finished up around 3:30PM. Not a bad day. Temperatures where comfortable and the humidity was not overwhelming. Additional pictures available on request. lol
I guess the most important information was our grandson Carter. He was out roller blading and fell on Tuesday. Wednesday the orthopedic doctor put him in a cast. The cast has to be on for a month then a brace for a year. It is a compression fracture so I think they are concerned that the area of the break will be fragile for a long period so they want to have a brace on it to prevent another fracture from occurring. However, the cast didn’t hold so Kathy and I went up and picked him up Friday and took him back to the pediatric orthopedic guy to have it re-wrapped.
OK, next is Megexcel. What is that you ask? lol Well, it’s my server here in the house that does all sorts of magical things. But it started making noises early this week. As with people, when they start to complain they need attention. I disassembled her and found a noisy fan on the heat sink that cools the processor chip. Had a bit of a challenge getting the processor chip back in the machine as it came out when I removed the cooling fins. I was a little concerned so I started configuring another computer to take her place in case I couldn’t get her repaired. I was able to get the processor chip back in after 3 attempts and I have a fan on order. I still want to get another computer configured. However, the one I chose had windows 10 on it and it has some kind of lock on the hard drive. I am going to give it to my friend Mike to have his son look at it as he is more computer save then I am. Will keep you posted.
Thursday my friend Mike and another HAM named Phil came over to the house. Phil took his own truck for social distancing and Mike and I took my truck down to Georgetown, KY to Mike’s brother’s place and met Mike’s sister Ann. Ann had been living with her brother there and had planted a lot of Day Lilies in his back yard. She now has a house over near Lexington so she wanted to move her flowers. So, Mike, Phil and me spend a few hours digging up her flowers, loading them in her car, Phil’s truck and my truck then transporting them over to her house. It was very labor intensive work but I think we all had a good time. Mike’s sister Ann is delightful and was gracious in feeding us lunch. All in all a very good day.
Last but not least I want to comment about the COVID-19 virus stuff that is going on. I realize that everyone is home and bored which is obvious by the steep upswing in social media posts. People are simply re-posting information that comes across with absolutely no regard as to it’s validity or the adverse impact it might have on people. Please, Please, Please, stop believing everything you hear, see or read on social or mass media. All you are doing is making a fool of yourself by publishing wrong information and in a lot of cases scaring the shit out of people. If you want to be on top of things and publish the real scoop, please also publish the reputable source of that information. The CDC has some great statistics on their website and there are other government sites that can be a good source of data. Bottom line, this thing is serious and should not be taken lightly. However, after all the scare tactics about all the deaths, the statistical survival rate is 98.5%. And that’s without all the people being tested. I’m sure in the day’s to come the number of people who have contract the virus will climb significantly as more testing is available and being done. That should make the 98.5% survival statistic climb even higher. But that is just my guess. We’ll have to wait to see if that proves true. Remember, you are only hearing things from mass media that they want you to hear. The more morbid they can make it the more money they will make. A sad reflection on our societies hunger for this stuff. In Spencer County here we have a population of 19,351 estimated as of 7/1/2019 per the US census department that can be verified here. There have been 2 cases identified in the county that can be verified here. If you do the math that’s .0103% of the population have tested positive. Now here’s where things get interesting. The health department has said that one of those two people have recovered and is no longer under isolation. Wow, 50% of the people that get the virus here in Spencer county recover. Does that mean the other 50% will die? You get what I mean about distorting the facts? In the state of Kentucky, the population was estimated at 4,467,673 per the census in 2019 which can be verified here. Again, here is where it gets difficult. Depending on where you look, approximately 16,663 people have been tested and between 917 and 933 cases have tested positive. I’m not going to give you the links anymore, you can google it yourself. But that indicates that a little less than .4% of the population has been tested (not very many) and the total number of cases is a little over .02% of the population. Now, reportedly there are 40 deaths in the state attributed to the COVID-19 virus. That’s a mortality rate of a little more than 4.36% of those identified as having the virus. But, remember, less than .4% of the population have been tested and only because they have presented with the symptoms. People, we are not dealing with an armageddon here. If you are elderly and have underlying problems, for God sakes don’t go out especially to crowded places and start shaking everyone’s hand. However, if you are young and healthy or even old and healthy, don’t stop your life completely. Yes, of course, follow some precautions. But this is not the end of the world. Just my opinion. Please, do the statistics for your area of the world. They will be different then what I present here. Especially in heavily populated areas. That is another reason I live in the middle of nowhere and am considered anti-social. But guess what, now that’s the in thing. lol
That’s enough for this week. Perhaps I should do a separate blog just on the COVID-19 virus. Anyway, hope this finds everyone safe. Please continue to be safe and stay healthy. Blog at you again next week or before if the urge hits me.
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