A very busy week………………………………………………

As always, first the chronology:

8/2/20 – Sunday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Kathy went with Julie to get peaches. I went downstairs and checked the radio bands. Nothing happening again. Started the blog. Kathy came home and we had lunch. Back to the blog. Finished it up then upstairs, cleaned up and out to Gary’s for the Sunday afternoon get together. Home and down to Moby Dick’s to pick up fish for dinner. Home, ate and downstairs to test Gary’s remote. All works now. Upstairs for dessert and some chores. Bed, Big Bang and sleep.

8/3/20 – Monday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Kathy was already out to watch the grand children. Out and mixed a tank of bug spray to put on the back yard. Started to sprinkle so went over to the Morton building, cleaned up the sprayer and put the mowers deck back on the lawn tractor. In for lunch, cleaned up and domestic work in the kitchen. Downstairs and computer work. Kathy came home and we had dinner. Chatted with the guys on 2 meters. Upstairs for dessert, got range bags ready to go to the range tomorrow. Bed, TV and sleep.

8/4/20 – Tuesday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Kathy was already out to watch the grand children. I got cleaned up and awaited Ann Coates arrival. Then over to the gun range to meet Mike. The three of us shot for 1/2 hours. They went their way. I headed home and stopped at DQ to pick up a burger and fries to bring home for lunch. Cleaned guns and put things away. Domestic chores. Kathy came home and we had dinner. Chatted with the guys on 2 meters. Out to do some pool maintenance. in and did computer upgrades. More chores. Bed, Big Bang and sleep.

8/5/20 – Wednesday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Out a few minutes after 10 to do the yard work. Came in around 1 and had a light lunch. Back out and worked till 6PM and came in for dinner. Kathy had hair appointment today so she was limited on what she could do. The battery died in the golf cart so I had to tow that over to the Morton Building. Will try and get one for it tomorrow. Had dinner, got cleaned up. Had dessert and downstairs to do computer updates and play a little radio. To bed, Big Bang and sleep.

8/6/20 – Thursday – Up a little early today and usual morning routine. Kathy was already out to watch the grand children. I got cleaned up and out for a hair cut. Home and took the battery out of the golf cart and went up to the dealer and got a new one. Brought that back and waited for Kathy’s arrival. She dropped off Carter at the house and took the girls to the hair salon to get the hair cut and get Chloe’s highlighted. Carter and I put the new battery in the golf cart and brought it back to the house. Then to Dairy Queen to pick up lunch. Played a couple games of Mastermind. Kathy and the girls came home. Helped Chloe with home work. Mike came over to pick them up and I had coffee with him. Kathy went with them to the Chinese buffet for dinner. I just had a snack. Chatted with the guys on 2 meters. Had dessert and did computer updates. Upstairs to bed, Big Bang and sleep.

8/7/20 – Friday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Out and finished putting lattice up in the storage area over the garage and took all the tools back over to the Morton building. In and cooled down and cleaned up. Had a snack for lunch then out on the motorcycle. Went to Homedepot for some things then a ride over to the Dixie Highway and back 44. Out a couple hours and rode a little over 100 miles. Home and dressed down. Out and put the new head on Kathy’s string trimmer. Got the old lawn mower running. In and had dinner. Chatted with the guys on 2 meters. Dessert, bed, TV, computer updates and sleep.

8/8/20 – Saturday – Up a little early today and the usual morning routine. Kathy was up and out to help Julie with things at her house. I spent the day downstairs working on the FT-847 and the Raspberry Pi. Got the final alignment done on the FT-847 so it receives and transmits on the correct frequency. Cleaned up the work bench then started on the Raspberry Pi. Stopped for a lunch break and Kathy came home in time for dinner. Did burgers and dogs on the grill. Chatted with the guys on 2 meters. Computer updates. Upstairs, chores, bed, TV and sleep.

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Now the specifics:

The biggest accomplishment this week was getting the field mowed.  Mr. McCall, a neighbor down the road came up Tuesday and cut it.  Yesterday they raked it and he started bailing but had problems with the bailing machine so they will be back later today or tomorrow to finish it up.  It really looks nice when it’s cut.  Almost like I have a couple acres for a back yard.  I doubt it will grow enough to get another cutting this year.  But if the weather cooperates he should be able to get two cuttings out of it next year.

Got the tractor out Monday and sprayed for bugs in the back yard.  They are worse than normal this year for some reason.  Perhaps because of all the wet weather.  Everything worked great and I got the mower deck put back on Monday.  Then Wednesday we mowed.  A bad decision.  The grass was very thick and very wet.  I think we would have been better off letting it dry out for a couple days and then do it Friday.  Oh well, it’s done now so that’s water over the damn.

My HAM buddy Mike wanted to go shooting this week.  He mentioned it to his sister and she wanted to go as well.  His sister Ann came to my house and said she had been shooting so I didn’t bother going over things with her.  That was a big mistake.  She followed me to the gun range and when we went in it became obvious rather quickly that she didn’t know a thing about what to do.  She could hardly hit the paper target at 7 yards.  Scared the shit out of me.  A very stressful 1/2 hour.  I will not make that mistake again.  I’ll need to go again this coming week by myself and do some relaxing target practice.

The girls (Chloe and Shelby) needed to get their hair cut before they go back to school so Kathy told Julie she would keep them Thursday and take them to the Blue Moon salon where we go to have Faith get their hair ready for school.  She brought Carter over to the house and dropped him off to pal around with me while Kathy and the girls went to the hair salon.  The battery crapped out in the golf cart on Wednesday so I went up and got a replacement at the golf cart dealer before Carter got here.  So after he got here we went out and put the new battery back in the golf cart.  We brought it over to the house and put it back in the garage where it belongs.  Then we decided on Dairy Queen for lunch.  Went and picked it up and brought it back to the house.  Then played a couple rounds of Mastermind before the girls came home.  Julie has them doing some summer home work so I helped Chloe with some of her math.  Then Mike arrived to take them home.  A very nice time with the grand kids today.

Kathy went over to help Julie with some things yesterday (Saturday).  So I had a quiet day in the house.  I finished up the work on the Yaesu FT-847.  It’s now on frequency within 1.6ppm.  The specification says 2ppm so I’m well within that tolerance.  With that project out of the way I could clean up the workbench and did some playing with the Raspberry Pi.  A very relaxing but productive day.

I’m trying to stay around the house and get things done here and stay away from the public.  Things are just so screwed up it’s beyond understanding.  And of course when I don’t understand it I get frustrated.  I go to one place and I walk in with a mask and I’m the only one with a mask.  Other places you can’t get in the front door without a mask.  I just don’t understand.

There is a local Facebook Group for Spencer County and periodically they post a chart published by the Central District Health Department that covers 4 counties in Kentucky including Spencer County.  They simply list by county the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19, the number that have recovered and the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19.  I didn’t think that told the whole story so I called and asked what population they covered and of course they had no idea.  They referred me to another county health department that wasn’t even one of the four in their coverage area.  But I called anyway and of course they had no idea.  So I went to a demographics website and got the population for the four counties and published my own chart showing the percentages of total population.  Of course the numbers were very low.  Less than 2% of the total area have contracted COVID-19.  It was funny that several weeks later I noticed I had not gotten any posts from that group.  It seems that my post had been deleted and I was removed from the group.  I guess you just can’t post anything that is against what people want to hear.

OK, that’s it for this week.  Sorry it was so long.  Hope this finds everyone well and safe.  Stay that way.  Blog at you again next week.