A rather busy week…………………………………………………..

As always, first the chronology:

3/6/22 – Sunday – Up at the usual time.  Chores around the house, cleaned up and out to church with Kathy.  Home, lunch and down to do the blog.  Over to Gary’s for the afternoon get together.  While at Gary’s I got a call that our son-in-law had invited us to dinner at the Olive Garden.  Drove home in the Chrysler and got the truck and headed up to Brownsboro Road for dinner with everyone at Olive Garden.  Quick stop at Lowes for some pop rivets then home.  Let the dogs out and fed them.  Otherwise the usual evening routine.

3/7/22 – Monday – Up at the usual time.  Cleaned up and out to the post office to mail some things.  Then in town to Best Buy.  Kathy bought me a new Ipad Pro for my birthday.  Stopped at IHOP on the way home for lunch.  Got home, dropped off Kathy and went to get gas in the truck.  Trying not to let it go completely empty so I can afford to fill it up.  Home and played with the new Ipad the rest of the day.  Usual evening routine.

3/8/22 – Tuesday – Up a little early this morning.  Plans were to take the motorcycle over to the dealership and get the annual maintenance done on it.  Home and rest awhile then to a HAM club meeting in Shelbyville.  I left the house about 20 minutes before 10AM.  Bike thermometer said it was 36 degrees.  Had the bike checked in for maintenance by 10:30.  Did not get out of there till 20 minutes after 3.  It was suppose to only take 2 hours.  Anyway, by the time I got home I was in no mood to go to a HAM club meeting so I just rested, had dinner and usual evening routine.

3/9/22 – Wednesday – Up a little late today.  Didn’t do much this morning other than some organizing in my room and getting cleaned up.  A snack at lunch time and out to the DMV office for Kathy to get her RealID driver’s license.  I tagged along and they helped me as well.  We got done there very quickly so we headed back toward home and stopped at Cracker Barrel for a late lunch or early dinner.  While there we decided to go back to Best Buy and pick up Julie’s computer.  Then home.  Had dessert and took a quick nap.  Up and downstairs for the usual evening routine.

3/10/22 – Thursday – Up at the usual time.  Cleaned up and out to the county clerk’s office to renew registration on 2 cars, my truck, the motorcycle and trailer.  Back home and put all the stickers on and put the paper work where it should be.  Let the wife take me to Hometown Pizza for lunch and Dairy Queen for dessert.  Home and worked in the shack cleaning things up and doing some odds and ends.  Kathy went up to pick up the grand kids to take them to the dentist.  She came home, we had dinner and usual evening routine.

3/11/22 – Friday – Got up a little late today.  Spent the morning cleaning up some things in the bedroom and getting my shit out of the wife’s way.  Had lunch then down to the shack and did some research for my friend Mike.  Then did some cleanup in the shack.  Dinner and the usual evening routine.

3/12/22 – Saturday – Didn’t get much snow last night so nothing needs cleaned up  outside.  Got cleaned up inside and continued working on things.  Got the TARPN stuff out and going again.  Went to Cattleman’s Steakhouse for dinner.  Usual evening routine.

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Now the specifics:

Last Sunday night we had the pleasure of dinning with the Rice family. It’s the first we’ve seen the grandchildren since we got back from New York. Had a good time and the Son-in-law picked up the tab which made it even better.

Monday the wife bought me a brand new Ipad Pro for my birthday. Actually the primary reason for the trip was to drop off Julie’s laptop for a tuneup, but more about that later. I took some time deciding which one I wanted and settled on the 11inch Pro model. The technological advances are amazing. It has face recognition and some of the most amazing apps that I wouldn’t have dreamed of 5 years ago. I am very pleased with it and use it on a daily basis.

Over last weekend we were up at Julie’s and she commented that her laptop was running very slow. I fired it up and it took for ever to load and always came up like you were adding a new user. Hard to tell what she loaded on it that bog it down so badly. Anyway, a few weeks ago when Kathy and I bought our new Iphones we were encouraged to get the Geek Squads Totaltech plan that also included the Applecare on our cell phones and it was cheaper than buying the Applecare. They said it would also cover any other computing devices. So, I tried it out and took Julie’s laptop in and dropped it off. No questions asked. We dropped it off Monday, I had an email that said they started working on it before the end of the day. Later Tuesday afternoon I got an email that it was done and we could pick it up. I made an appointment online to go Thursday morning but we got done very quickly at the DMV so we decided to reschedule which I did on the phone and we went over and picked it up Wednesday. Again, no questions asked, it was free and the laptop worked like new. So, long story short, if you ever have the chance to buy the Geek Squads Totaltech plan at Bestbuy, I would highly recommend it.

I had scheduled the motorcycle for it’s annual maintenance on Tuesday. I asked how long it would take as it varies depending on what’s needed. This year it was oil and filter change and check the valve clearances. A couple hours I was told. So, rather than inconvenience Kathy, I decided to stay while they did the work. After all, to pick me up, drive home 1/2 to 3/4 hours then turn around and drive back, it only made sense to stay. And that would give me some down time to get ready for the HAM club meeting Tuesday evening. Well, they hadn’t planned on it taking so long to remove the engine guards that I have on the bike and I never got out of the dealership till 3:20PM. Almost 5 hours after I had it checked in. Anyway, I was not in the mood to go to a ham club meeting after sitting in the dealership for almost 5 hours waiting on the work to be done. The good part was they didn’t charge me for the additional time it took to do the work.

An interesting comment about the motorcycle ride. I of course dressed appropriately for the temperature so I didn’t mind the ride. But going in the bike said it was 36 degrees and coming home it was 44. But it felt colder coming home. Not sure how that worked.

I guess the state of Kentucky is like several other states who’s driver’s license process does not meet the federal standard for security. So, by May of next year, if you don’t go through some additional scrutiny and get a “Realid” driver’s license, you can not use it for boarding planes or getting into certain government buildings. I did the research and it appeared to me like you had to go to Frankfort to get one of these new kind of license. So, I just renewed mine online and got the regular license. After all, I was not planning on flying anywhere and I certainly didn’t want to drive over an hour to get one. Then my daughter finds out you can do it right here in Louisville at a regional DMV office. Kathy made an appointment for Wednesday and we were off. I took along my things as well just in case they could do mine at the same time. As it turned out, they let us go together with no problem and we both got our Realid driver’s license. In the mean time, the really nice lady that was helping us asked if I was a veteran. I gave her my usual song and dance about spending 10 years in the national guard but did not get a DD214. She asked me what I did get and when I told her it was an NGB22 she said that was good enough. She also mentioned that her son was in the guard and went through the same process and it was just recently that places like Lowes and Home Depot accepted the NGB22 as well. So she gave me a pass to come back with my NGB22 and I’ll have veteran’s status on my drivers license. I also checked and sure enough, Lowes and Home Depot both now recognize the NGB22 and I got my veteran’s registration with them as well. Another good thing for the week.

Thursday was the day for re-registering vehicles. It comes up in the month of your birthday every year. Since the Chrysler, Vibe, Silverado, motorcycle and trailer are all in my name, their registration all expires this month. In Kentucky they get you with a tax on the value of each vehicle as well. So, I managed to spend $516 for taxes and registration. Then had to come home and make sure I got the correct sticker on the correct vehicle and got that vehicles registration form in the glove box. Took the entire morning but another monkey off my back for the year.

The Cyclone Bomb was suppose to dump 3 to 4 inches of snow on use Friday night. It was suppose to start raining late Friday and then temperatures were suppose to take a nose dive and things were suppose to turn to snow. I’m not sure what happened but I got up Saturday morning and the grass and raised surfaces where snow covered with about an inch but the driveways and walkways were all free of snow. There was some icing in front of the garage where it’s shaded but that was it. So we dodged the bullet again.

I want to thank Jen for her comment on last week’s blog. She and I differ on a few things but we respect each other’s opinions. In any case, I think she was spot on with her comments. It’s very sad how this country is bottoming out. I try not to think about it very often as it’s very depressing to me. I don’t watch the news on TV anymore and I am very particular in which news sources I read. But thanks so much Jen for taking the time to comment.

Gas is holding steady around $4 a gallon locally but as high as $4.50 in some areas. I read an article from a source I believe is reliable and he thinks this is going to continue to climb and peak sometime in May. But he made no commitment about what would happen then. I read a post on Facebook that commented about Biden shutting down the pipeline in Russia to hurt the Russians. So what did he think he was doing when he shut down the XL pipeline?

OK, enough for this week. As always, hope this finds everyone safe and healthy. Stay that way. I will blog at you again next week.