A usual week I guess………………………………………….

As always, first the chronology:

7/12/20 – Sunday – Up late this morning and usual morning routine. Downstairs to check emails and got a notice my weather station was off the air. Investigation revealed bad sensor head. Ordered a replacement. Did the blog. Did some chores around the house then some radio. Kathy came home from helping Julie and we had dinner. Downstairs to chat with the guys on 2 meters. Computer updates. Upstairs to bed, Big Bang and sleep.

7/13/20 – Monday – Up a little early, cleaned up and out for a dentist appointment. Kathy was off to watch the grand children. I came home and did some chores and had a little early lunch. Then out on the motorcycle for about 3 hours. Started getting to hot to enjoy the ride so I came home around 3PM. Cooled down and took a little nap. Kathy came home and we had dinner. Downstairs to chat with the guys on 2 meters. Practice CW. Upstairs to bed, some TV and sleep.

7/14/20 – Tuesday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Kathy was off again to watch grand children. I spent the morning playing radio but bands were terrible. Nothing much going on. Did some phone calls and research. Upstairs and did a few dogs on the grill. Back downstairs and did a little FT8. Kathy came over with the grand children around 2PM. I took the twins swimming. Shelby and Kathy came out later. Mike came over to pick them up and we decided on going out for dinner at Hometown. Called ahead to make sure they could accommodate us but when we got there I got an attitude from the girl working there. I didn’t feel the need to eat at a place I wasn’t welcome and Kathy was giving me attitude so I left. Picked up some Moby Dick’s Seafood on the way home and had dinner here. Kathy and the crew ate somewhere and either Mike or Julie dropped Kathy off at home. I chatted with the guys on 2 meters. Did computer updates. Upstairs to bed, Big Bang and sleep.

7/15/20 – Wednesday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Checked the radio and bands are not good. Out and got the hoses to put water in the pool. Got the the chipper/mulcher working and ground up some shrub from the burn pile. Started getting hot so I put things away and went in the house. Got cleaned up and cooled down. Had lunch. Back downstairs and canceled SirusXM on the truck. Played radio awhile. Kathy went out to take Chloe to the doctor’s for a routine exam. I went upstairs for a nap. Kathy came home and we had dinner. The new sensor came for the weather station. I got it configured and waiting for it to sync with the stuff in the house. Chatted with the guys on 2 meters. Upstairs, dessert, bed, Big Bang, computer updates and sleep.

7/16/20 – Thursday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Spent the morning debugging the weather station. Ended up resetting both displays and the web interface. Had lunch. Downstairs and did some research on the internet and played radio. Made some FT8 contacts. Upstairs for dinner. Downstairs and chatted with the guys on 2 meters. Upstairs for dessert, bed, computer updates, Big Bang and sleep.

7/17/20 – Friday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Got ready and went down with Kathy to drop her car off at the garage for routine maintenance. Home and chores around the house. Check the radio bands and again they were terrible. Upstairs for lunch then got a call that Kathy’s car was ready. Went down and picked it up. Home and did some research online and learned some more about my FT847. Dinner, chatted with the guys on 2 meters. Computer updates and practiced CW. Upstairs to bed, TV and sleep.

7/18/20 – Saturday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Spent most of the morning dealing with a gastrointestinal issue. Had a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. Downstairs to work. Got the battery for my VNA and installed it. Put the new fan in a computer. Stripped another computer. Printed out some information on using the Raspberry Pi for my HAM computer. Kathy went up to Mike and Julie’s awhile. She came home and we had burgers on the grill. Downstairs to chat with the guys on 2 meters. Put in an order to Allelectronics. Did computer updates. Upstairs. Bed, Big Bang and sleep.

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Now the specifics:

Kathy has been watching the grand children Monday and Tuesday of each week.  Gives Julie a break from paying a babysitter 4 to 5 days a week.  Mike is working weekends now so he usually watches them on Friday.  That way Julie only has to pay a babysitter two days a week.  Mondays are difficult as Carter and Shelby both have things to do in the evening.  So Kathy doesn’t bring them over here as it would be a little tight on time.  But this week she brought them over on Tuesday so I got to spend some time with them.

Monday was a nice day here.  Temperatures where not off the chart and humidity wasn’t bad.  So I took advantage of the opportunity and went out on the motorcycle.  Had a beautiful ride.  No assholes to bother me on the road.  Around 2:30 I was coming through Shepardsville and the bank thermometer was reading 91.  I guess I didn’t realize how warm it was getting till then.  And of course with everything shut down there were no watering holes to stop and get a bottle of water and some cool air.  So I cut the ride short and came home by 3PM.  Rode a total of 113.5 miles.

Had a fiasco with Hometown Pizza this week.  Should have known it was coming.  Mike came over to pick up the kids on Tuesday and we decided to eat together.  Julie suggested Hometown pizza and I was concerned about the limit of 6 people in a party.  Julie called and they said they could accommodate us by sitting the adults at one table and kids at an adjacent table.  Again, I should have seen the writing on the wall.  Anyway, we all went down and put our masks on.  I went in and when they asked how many I said 7.  Before I could explain what had transpired the girl rolled her eyes and started shaking her head.  I don’t need that kind of arrogant disrespect.  So I turned around and walked out.  Kathy was shaking her head at me as well so I decided to fuck them all and just leave.  I stopped at Moby Dick’s on the way home and got myself a seafood dinner, brought it home and ate it.  That’s the last time I will go to Hometown Pizza.

Sunday morning I got an email from Acurite that said my weather station was down.  I did some investigation and it was the sensor head which is the usual problem.  They don’t seem to last more than a couple years in this area with the heat and high humidity.  So I order a replacement.  It came late Wednesday.  I configured it and put it outside.  Got up Wednesday morning and the displays and the web interface never synced up with it.  So, I double checked it and all was good.  The vendor suggested resetting the displays to resolve the problem.  I reset the first one and it started working, so I did the other display I have and the web interface.  All is good  now except the interface to the weather underground.  I need to look at that a little more this week.

HAM radio bands have been terrible for the last couple weeks.  So, I actually gave in and did some FT8 contacts.  It’s not very satisfying as it’s just my computer talking to a computer on the other end.  Takes a total of about 3 minutes to complete the contact then I get a log entry for it.  At least I got to play with the radios.

I got some of the stuff I ordered from China on Saturday.  The battery for my VNA and another BM800 microphone.  I spent the day putting the battery in the VNA and repairing a computer and stripping another one.  I have a lot of projects lined up for this week as it looks like it will be raining most of the week.  If I do get a break I’ll do yard work.

Another item I have lined up is some work I need to do on my Yeasu FT847 radio.  It is a little off frequency and my research indicates it’s a common problem.  So I found the alignment procedure and will try to get that done this week.

Other than that, the bullshit with COVID-19, protestors and change shortage has really started to get to me.  This is all so much bullshit.  I don’t know why more people don’t see it.  We have a state attorney general here that understands it and actually took steps to control the governor.  Apparently the governor has friends on the state supreme court so had did an end run around the AGs efforts.  Just so many people being hurt by this.  It really is a terrible situation.  I hope it ends soon.  I don’t think I can wait till November.

OK, that’s enough for this week.  Hope this finds everyone safe and well.  Try to stay that way and I’ll blog at you again next week.