Another busy week……………………………………………..
As always, first the chronology:
10/25/20 – Sunday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Down to do the blog. Checked emails, sent emails and ordered things from Tigertronics for my Signalink. Up stairs and cleaned up. Lunch. Chores then over to Gary’s for the Sunday afternoon get together. Home and picked up Kathy. Up to Bob Evans for dinner. Home and chores. Computer updates. Played radio. Up stairs, dessert, bed, TV and sleep.
10/26/20 – Monday – Had a little family issue last night. Kathy had to leave for awhile and didn’t get back till midnight. We didn’t sleep well. Up at 7AM and out to vote. Home and did chores. Had a snack for lunch. Items from Allelectronics came so I worked on my ALC interface this afternoon. Up and took a nap. Dinner, down to chat with the guys on 2 meters. Upstairs for dessert and chores. Kathy went shopping. Helped her unload the car and put things away. Bed, computer updates, TV and sleep.
10/27/20 – Tuesday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Spent the morning doing domestic chores. Cleaned up and out for lunch at Hooters. Then for some R&R and home. Continued with some domestic chores. Downstairs and chatted with the guys on 2 meters. Kathy came home and we had dinner. More domestic chores. Bed, computer updates, Big Bang and sleep.
10/28/20 – Wednesday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Kathy was already out to help Julie with the kids and help her around the house. I started the laundry. Then got a UPS envelope with bank papers that I had to complete and send back. Made a trip to Taylorsville to put it in the UPS drop box. Stopped at McDonald’s and picked up food for lunch. Home and had lunch. Moved laundry around. Got a call from Gary. Went to Taylorsville again to pick up 1/2″ gas hose for him and took it over. Home and screws came. Rotate laundry and did some folding. Over to the Morton building and finished the work on Shelby’s table. Inside and took a 1/2 hour nap. Kathy called and wants to go out for dinner. Came home and chatted with the guys on 2 meters. Dessert, bed, Big Bang, computer updates and sleep.
10/29/20 – Thursday – Up a little early this morning, usual morning routine, cleaned up and out to get my hair cut. Home and started doing research on battery replacement on a Bose speaker system for Julie. Kathy left and went up to help Julie again today. I stripped the bed and gathered towels and wash clothes from kitchens and bathrooms. Start processing them and did all the laundry. Put things back. Cables and wiring plug for Signalink USB came in the mail. Reconfigured that and got things working on the Yaesu. After dinner chatted with the guys on 2 meters. Then dessert, Bed, computer updates, Big Bang and sleep.
10/30/20 – Friday – Up a little late this morning and usual morning routine. Chores and cleaned up. Decided to dedicate the day to radio and get on the air with RTTY and PSK31. Got the instructions up on my laptop and they didn’t compare with the program. Discovered I had a very old version of the program so I started the upgrade process which took till 2PM. Finally got some things going. Copied a bunch of stations. Had dinner and went downstairs to chat with Gary. Helped Kathy with come computer stuff. Back downstairs to try and chat with someone on digital and bands are dead. Computer updates. Kathy went shopping, help her unload the car and put things away. Bed, TV and sleep.
10/31/20 – Saturday – Up at the usual time and usual morning routine. Cleaned up and out with Kathy to Julie’s house. Checked on installing a remote garage door sensor/opener. Also fixed a computer problem for her. Kathy colored her hair. Had lunch then back to the house. Had dessert and took a nap. Up and played radio. Made my first ever PSK contact. Had dinner then chatted with the guys on 2 meters. Up for dessert and back downstairs for computer updates and to play a little radio. Upstairs to bed, Big Bang and sleep.
I don’t have a lot of things to cover but a couple might take awhile so hang on, this could get long.
I didn’t get a chance to take a picture before the bench was delivered to Chloe so this weekend I got a picture of it with her plants. As you can see she is very happy with it.
And this is the table I fixed for Shelby. Of course she is already jumping on it so it’s not going to stay in one piece for long.
Now for the long piece of news. Julie tested positive for COVID a couple weeks ago. The kids and Mike were tested and they were negative. We called the doctor for guidance and were told since the kids did not test positive we would not need testing unless we developed symptoms. So, Julie did the right thing about staying away from people and got through the contagious stage. Then last Sunday evening she started having difficulty breathing and called for Kathy to go over and take her to the emergency room while Mike watched the kids. She was admitted and of course no one was able to go visit. Mike took Monday off work to watch the kids and Kathy went over Tuesday for the day. Julie was released on Tuesday afternoon and came home. She was still extremely tired and on occasion was short of breath. So, Kathy spent most of the week over there helping Julie with all the things that needed done for a family with three kids while I did most of the domestic chores around our house. We were over this weekend and she seems to be doing very well. She has been fever and symptom free for the necessary time and will be going back to work this week. And this is how people with underlying medical issues are impacted by the virus. Julie was suppose to be taking medication for several issues but has neglected to take care of herself. It was those things that were aggravated by the virus. Although she was COVID free, the other things have taken a lot longer to correct themselves. I think Julie has learned a scary lesson here and will do more to take care of herself in the future. Anyway, all appears well with her at this time.
On to the HAM radio issues. As you know from previous blogs, my ICOM radio has problems so I replaced it with my Yaesu FT-847. The trick now is to get all the interfaces working with the Yaesu instead of the ICOM. I ordered a box from Ameritron to interface the keying circuit to my amplifier. I ordered parts from Allelectronics to build the interface for the ALC since they don’t make it anymore. I also ordered a cable and jumper module for my signalink to get the audio connected between my computer and the radio. Got all that done this week. Friday decided to learn all there was to learn about a software package call fldigi that allows me to work various digital modes. Most allow you to talk to other HAMs keyboard to keyboard. As it says in the chronology, I quickly learned that I had a very outdated version of the software so I had to download the current copy from the developers website, download all the dependencies, then compile and install the new program. I also added a link in my repository on the computer so it will automatically update to the current version. Got all that done Friday in time for the bands to start fading out. Last evening after getting back from Julies I sat down and made my first ever PSK31 contact with a gentleman in Utah. Very neat being able to type computer keyboard to computer keyboard over HF radio. I have declared the week a success in this department.
Other than that, Kathy and I went to vote Monday morning as we will be working Tuesday at the polls. We expect it to be a very slow day. As of yesterday at 4:05PM, 47.25% of the 16,298 registered voters in Spencer County had cast their ballot. That means that we would only have 8,598 people voting Tuesday if we get a 100% turnout. That is divided between 3 polling locations in the county. That won’t be bad at all.
Wednesday was a little busy. I started domestic chores and got a bank form via UPS express delivery that I had to sign and return. So I filled it out and headed for Taylorsville. I picked up lunch for myself at McDonald’s as Kathy was up helping Julie. Got home and ate then my friend Gary called. I had promised to get him some gas hose for a rebuild project he was working on and he was calling to tell me he needed 1/2 ” hose 2 feet long. So, back to Taylorsville to get it at the auto parts store and took it over to his house. Did a lot of running around but still got my assigned domestic chores done.
OK, that is enough for this week. As always, hope this finds everyone safe and healthy. Stay that way. Blog at you again next week.
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