An interesting week…………………………………………

As always, first the chronology:

1/2/22 – Sunday – Up late this  morning.  Blew off church.  Did the blog and some chores around the house.  Over to Gary’s for the afternoon get together.  Home and found Julie, Chloe and Carter there doing the laundry.  Apparently Julie’s washer quit.  Kathy and I left and went to Milano’s in Mt. Washington and had dinner.  Home and usual evening routine.

1/3/22 – Monday – Didn’t sleep well last night thinking about the problem at Mike and Julie’s.  Up and loaded the truck and over to work on it.  Conferred with Mike and decided how to fix it.  Job complete by noon.  One item off my list.  Home with a stop at Kroger for Kathy’s medicine and McDonalds to pickup lunch to bring home.  Ate then put things away.  Nice long nap. in the afternoon.  Usual evening routine.

1/4/22 – Tuesday – Up at the usual time.  Into J-town to see my friend Bill and get a good cheap computer from him.  Home and had lunch.  Worked on the new computer all afternoon trying to get it setup.  Dinner and usual evening routine.

1/5/22 – Wednesday – Up at the usual time.  Down to the shack to put the finishing touches on Gary’s new computer.  Then started playing with my TARPN stuff.  Kathy went shopping.  By lunch time I had the connectors I order for the back of my ICOM IC208H.  I put together a cable and am now a TARPN node.  Just into a dummy load now but still have it all together.  Just need a good antenna next.  Usual evening routine.

1/6/22 – Thursday – Up a little early today.  Started snowing around 8:30.  I went out anyway because I wanted to get the lien off the title for my truck and that took a trip to the county clerks office.  Then I went over and dropped off a computer to Gary.  Roads were getting bad so I headed home and put the truck away.  Had lunch then rearranged a bunch of equipment in the shack.  Usual evening routine.

1/7/22 – Friday – Up at the usual time.  Downstairs and started sorting out TNC issues.  Think I have them all resolved now.  Lunch then cleaned up the disaster I made in the shack.  Even went through paperwork on the desk and got that sorted out.  Called again for a colonoscopy.  I’ve never had so much trouble getting and appointment for an ass reaming.  Usual evening routine.

1/8/22 – Saturday – Up at the usual time.  Downstairs to play HAM radio.  Finally got my TARPN node to connect to another node.  Lunch and helped Kathy with re-arranging a closet in the family room and putting the Christmas decorations away there.  Then cleaned up and out to the district 5 band concert that my grandson Carter was playing in.  Dinner at Claudia Saunders restaurant.  Home, put things away and usual evening routine.

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Now the specifics:

It snowed in Kentucky. Thursday morning it started around 9AM. I went out in the truck for a ride to the County Clerks office to get the lien off the truck since I have it paid for now. Also took Gary’s computer over to him. Roads were getting very slick and it was obvious that people around here have no idea how to drive on them. I could give you at least a half dozen stories about observations I made but suffice to say these people suck at driving in bad weather. The snow continued all day and I would guess we got perhaps 3 to 3 and 1/2 inches. Some places got as much as 6 to 8 inches. The picture was taken Friday morning. Then it warmed up here and started raining late Saturday night and it’s all gone now. That’s the way I like it. Didn’t even think about putting chains on the tractor to plow.

The weather did screw up the district band concert this week. They were suppose to go practice Friday and Saturday but all the roads were not cleared by Friday morning so they canceled school and didn’t have practice. They did go early Saturday morning and had their concert Saturday evening. It was amazing. Of course the conductor was amazing and was excellent with the kids. I was very proud of Carter making district band his first real year working at it. It took me 3 years to make district band. Afterward we all went to Claudia Saunders restaurant for dinner. Yep, she was the Colonel’s wife and the one he stole the secret recipe from for the chicken that is now served at KFCs.

Monday I went over to Mike and Julie’s and fixed the electrical issues in the upstairs bathroom. That was bothering me so it was great getting that monkey off my back.

Tuesday I got a new computer for Gary to use for his remote system. It is a very low end Windows 7 machine that will replace his Windows XP machine. Now he will be able to work on his DrDuino project.

Wednesday I got the connectors to get my TARPN Node up and running. I did a lot of messing around with it and finally got it connected to another TARPN station on Saturday. I think that’s the first point to point TARPN connection in the state of Kentucky. Worked with a guy named Gary, K7EK over in Radcliff. A very interesting project. The best marriage between HAM radio and computers. Here is what a node looks like. Not very impressive.

In the process I had a very steep learning curve as so much has changed in the world of packet radio. I found a lot of difference between the old style TNCs and the new KISS model of TNC. I guess you are never too old to learn something new.

Back in December I made a call to a doctor’s office to schedule a colonoscopy. Hadn’t heard anything so I tried again. No response. Tried another doctor and still can’t get an appointment. I have never had as difficult a time trying to get and ass reaming.

OK, that’s it for this week. Hope this finds everyone safe and healthy. Will blog at you again next week.