Didn’t seem like a busy week till I looked at the chronology………………………

As always, first the chronology:

8/15/21 – Sunday – Up at the usual time.  Relaxed this morning till time to get ready for church.  Kathy went with me today.  Home and sandwiches for lunch.  Down to do the blog.  Then work on the repeater controller.  Chinese takeout for dinner.  Usual evening routine with some more work on the repeater controller and my longbow.

8/16/21 – Monday – Up very early this morning.  For some reason I was awake around 4AM and could not get back to sleep.  Laid in bed and played games on my phone till I heard Kathy up.  She got a call that both the twins were having and adverse reaction to the COVID shots they got yesterday.  So Kathy spent the day at the Rice home watching the twins.  I stayed home and spent the day working on the repeater controller.  Got the chassis punched and started mounting things.  Did some wiring and knocked off for the day.  Kathy came home and we had dinner.  Usual evening routine and to bed early.

8/17/21 – Tuesday – Up at the usual time.  Kathy was out to watch the grand children again today.  I got cleaned up and went over to help Gary research some things.  Then over to Hooters for lunch.  Hit a couple watering hole for a quick bottle of water.  Then to Best Buy for a new fire stick for Kathy’s TV.  Came home and set the fire stick up for Kathy.  Didn’t feel 100% so went over to Mt. Washington for a quick COVID test.  It was negative.  Home and chatted with the guys on 2 meters.  Dinner then usual evening routine.

8/18/21 – Wednesday – Up at the usual time.  Chores around the house, cleaned up and out for an appointment with the banking advisor at 11AM.  The computer system screwed her and made two appointments at the same time so she was not in the office.  So Kathy and I went over to Art’s Rentals (They rent contractor kind of equipment) to see if they had a bush hog and they were too expensive.  Stopped at Hobby Lobby for some material to work on refurbishing my long bow.  Then up to Olive Garden for lunch.  Over to Shelbyville to Wright Implements to see if they had anything we would be interested in.  Back and dropped Kathy off at the house and drove over to Gary’s to fix his remote.  Home with the intent of mowing lawn but took a nap instead.  Up and dinner.  Usual evening routine.

8/19/21 – Thursday – Up a little early this morning.  Cleaned up and out to pickup Gary for our hair cuts.  Took him back home.  Did some chores around the house.  Made arrangements for a guy to come and bush hog the field next door.  Kathy was out having her hair done.  She came home and we had lunch.  Spent the afternoon in the shack working on the repeater controller.  Usual evening routine.

8/20/21 – Friday – Up at the usual time.  Phone calls and banking then cleaned up and out to Jeffersonville, IN to take Kathy and Rusty to doggy school.  Home and lunch.  Then out to work on the yard.  In around 4:30PM.  Dinner and usual evening routine.

8/21/21 – Saturday – Up at the usual time.  Out to move some things with truck for Julie.  Home and lunch.  Out to finish the yard work.  Folks came today to finish the railing on the deck.  All done now.  Moby Dick’s fish for dinner.  Usual evening routine.

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Now the specifics:

Let me start by explaining why I had the COVID test. As you know, a couple of us get together every Sunday afternoon to talk about HAM things. One of the guys named Mike was there a week ago Monday. Friday of that week his son tested positive for COVID. Since we had been together just a few days before I considered it highly possible that he had COVID. So, to make sure I hadn’t inherited it and since we were going to meet other people this week and I felt a little off I decided to error on the side of caution and get checked. It was negative so all is good.

I spent a lot of time at the beginning of the week working on the repeater controller.

Here is what it looks like. Simply a Raspberry Pi with a daughter board as an interface. The little black box you see at the top of the picture is a DC to DC converter that takes 12 volts in and converts it to 5 volts to run the Raspberry Pi. I got the software loaded and all seems well. I will configure it this week and start running it in a test environment to make sure all is well. Then we’ll take it over and plug it into the repeater and see if it works.

The folks came Saturday and finished the deck. This is what the rebuild looks like. The wood will get stained in November. A few issues but overall a good job. Glad this is finally done.

Still working on the longbow. Got the main pieces glued together and tested. That is all good. Now just the finishing work. Put an arrow guide and some suede I got at Hobby Lobby on for a handle. Will keep you posted on this and have a picture when it’s done.

We had things to do most everyday this week. So Friday after we got back from doggy school we did yard work. Didn’t get it all done so finished it up yesterday after we got back from Julies.

Well that is the main stuff. Hope this finds everyone safe and well. Stay that way. Blog at you again next week.