A good week………………………………………….

As always, first the chronology:

10/11/20 – Sunday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine.  Downstairs and did the blog.  Spent time doing chores around the house and calculating what I need to make a bench for Chloe’s plants.  Had lunch, more chores then cleaned up and over to Gary’s for the afternoon get together.  Home and picked up Kathy.  Went to Lowes to pick up wood and paint for Chloe’s bench.  Over and ate dinner at Cracker Barrel.  Home, played radio, bed, TV and sleep.

10/12/20 – Monday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine.  Kathy took the truck over to Julie’s and helped her with some things and made a few trips to Good Will to get rid of things.  I did more work around the shack and came to the conclusion the ICOM radio has issues.  Started the process of swapping it out but need some auxiliary things to get it working like the ICOM.  Kathy came home and we had an early dinner then Kathy was off to the Chamber of Commerce building in Taylorsville for her Election Officer training.  I continued working on my HF issues.  She came home and we had dessert.  Then bed, TV and sleep.

10/13/20 – Tuesday – Up a little late. Kathy was already up and out to Persimmon Ridge to watch the grandchildren. Apparently I forgot to tell google home to wake me or it had issues this morning.  Didn’t get out of bed till almost 10AM.  While in the bathroom I heard a crash and on investigation found some shelves had come off the wall in my HAM room.  So, spent the day cleaning up that mess.  Made an adapter cable to make the Yaesu radio work in place on the ICOM.  Things did not go well.  The part for Kathy’s Dyson came.  I put that back together and it still has the same problem.  Not having a good day today.  Replaced the coax and chatted with a guy in Canada for awhile.  Band changed and I lost him.  Shut things down, did computer updates.  Cleaned up, bed, TV and sleep.

10/14/20 – Wednesday – Up a little early today, cleaned up and over to Gary’s to fix his audio issue again.  Back home and cut the wood for Chloe’s bench.  Played radio and had lunch.  Assembled the frame for Chloe’s bench after lunch and put wood fill in the screw holes.  Inside and played radio till our friend Stan arrived.  Had dinner.  Unloaded Stan’s Slingshot then into J-town for grocery shopping.  Got Stan settled in.  Bed, computer updates and sleep.

10/15/20 – Thursday – Up a little early to get my haircut but got a text from the lady that cuts my hair cancelling my appointment.  Said she wasn’t feeling well.  So went to the Morton building and did some sanding on the frame for Chloe’s bench.  Spent time chatting with Stan.  Had lunch and out to work on closing the pool for the year.  In and rest.  Dinner.  Chatted with the guys on 2 meters.  Bed, TV, computer updates and sleep.

10/16/20 – Friday – Up a little early and cleaned up.  Spent time chatting with Stan.  Kathy left to get her hair colored.  Stan and I went out to Hooter’s for lunch then to a club for some R&R.  Home and did some sanding on the bench.  In the house for dinner.  Chatted with the guys on 2 meters.  Was not feeling perfect so went to bed early, computer udpates, TV and sleep.

10/17/20 – Saturday – Up a little early and cleaned up.  Spent time chatting with Stan.  Then out to the Morton building and put another coat of paint on the bench project.  Walked the property picking up the trash that the pigs in the area have thrown out of their cars.  Cut up some large limbs that fell and carried them to the wood pile.  Did a bunch of other chores then inside for a late lunch.  Back out for more outside chores.  Inside for a nap.  Great dinner. Chatted with the guys on 2 meters.  Dessert, chores inside the house, bed, TV and sleep.

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Now the specifics:

Had issues with my ICOM radio that I use on HF. Would intermittently stop working and when it worked it was only half working. So, pulled it off the HAM desk and put the Yaesu FT-847 in it’s place. Things seemed OK but then they got flaky again. Their was only a couple things unique to that radio so I started swapping things out. First thing I replaced was the coax cable between the Yeasu and the Ameritron amplifer. Things have been working great ever since. I took a brief look at the coax and it was cheap RG58. I probably thought it was a better grade coax when I put it in or perhaps it was all I had but I suspect it broke down under power. I may dissect it later to find out or just throw it away. In the mean time I looked at the specifications and the Yeasu isn’t designed to handle the high powered amplifier so I ordered and interface that is designed to eliminate that problem. Unfortunately I got an email late last week that the device is on back order. I’ll call Monday and see how long it will take. If more than a week I will cancel the order. They have them in stock at some retail stores and I’ll get it there. Then I should be back up on HF and I’ll trouble shoot the ICOM as time allows.

Went to Gary’s last Sunday for the afternoon get together and Mike suggested I change some settings and of course nothing worked. I was very frustrated and had promised Kathy we would go shopping and have dinner out so I didn’t mess with it. I went back over on Wednesday and Gary already had cables unplugged and hanging. He was “seeing what was going on”. I plugged the cables back in where they belonged and straightened out the ones that were still plugged in and everything worked fine. I told him it he didn’t stop messing with things I wasn’t going to fix them anymore.

Here is the bench. This is what we have been working on for the last week. I bought the material Sunday evening and spent the first part of the week cutting the wood and putting it together. Since then we have been putting coat after coat of paint on it. The painting is done but Kathy thought since Chloe was going to put plants on it we should probably put a coating of ployurethane on it to keep it from getting stained. So I will start that process and it will probably take the better part of this week to get that all done. I will show you a picture of the completed bench later.

You can see Stan’s Sling Shot in the background there. He had initially planned on coming down from Michigan on Monday but the weather didn’t look too good so he waited till Wednesday. We have been having a good time. He likes helping us around the house and it has become a little tradition that we wait for him to help close the swimming pool. He likes to stay busy and he just pitches in with whatever we have going. Friday Kathy was getting her hair done so Stan and I took advantage of the time alone and headed off to Hooter’s for lunch then to a watering hole for some R&R. Kathy has been making some great food so he’s been eating like a king this week. He plans on leaving this coming week on Thursday.

As I mentioned we finally got the pool closed this week. Everything is cleaned up and in the Morton building. Again, I look back at how often we used it and wonder if all the time, money and energy expended was really worth it. Only time it got used was when the grand kids came over. I asked Kathy a couple times if she wanted to go out and she always had an excuse. I went out a couple times myself but it’s rather boring.

Kathy’s Dyson vacuum died. I went through the trouble shooting on their website and it finally said to call customer support. I called them and told them what I had done and the results I got and they said the motor assembly needed replaced. I ordered a rebuilt unit from Ebay and put things together when it got here and the thing had the same problem. I ordered a battery just to rule that out but I’m thinking both motor assemblies probably have the same problem. I’ll know that better when I get the battery later this week.

That’s it for this week. As always, hope this finds everyone safe and healthy. Blog at you again next week. Bye for now.