A good week…………………………………………

As always, first the chronology:

5/8/22 – Sunday – Up at the usual time.  Cleaned up and out to church with Kathy.  Home and let the dogs out then up to Stoney River Steakhouse for lunch with the Rice family.  Finished up there and back to the Rice house for cake and ice cream to celebrate Kathy’s birthday.  Around 4PM they were going to start playing cards so I left.  Julie brought Kathy home.  I let the dogs out and tried to take a nap to no avail.  Downstairs and did the blog.  Kathy came home.  Had a snack then down to practice code and join in the Rust Belt Net.  Otherwise, usual evening routine.

5/9/22 – Monday – Up at the usual time.  Out for gas to do the yard work.  Also stopped by Dollar General and picked up some batteries.  Home and started.  Kathy called the eye doctor and they said she could do the riding but had to wear sun glass.  That means I pushed the mower and did the trimming all day.  Ran out of steam about 3PM.  Inside and a quick nap.  Cleaned up, dinner and usual evening routine.

5/10/22 – Tuesday – Up at the usual time.  Out to finish up mowing the yard.  In for lunch.  Chores around the house.  Cleaned up and nap.  Dinner and out to give a presentation on HF digital to the HAM club.  Home and usual evening routine.

5/11/22 – Wednesday – Up at the usual time.  Cleaned up and downstairs to play radio.  Bands were not good.  Discovered I lost memory in one of the radios so reloaded that.  Downloaded some things pertaining to field day.  Kathy went to her last eye exam on the right eye.  Doctor said all is well.  Has all the papers signed for the left eye.  Took her to Mexican restaurant for lunch.  Home and power washed the Chrysler and Vibe.  Came in and took a nap. Up and out for some Archery practice.  Dinner and usual evening routine.

5/12/22 – Thursday – Up a little early this morning and out to pick up Gary to get our hair cut.  Kathy went to vote early as she probably won’t be in shape next week.  Came home and replaced the battery in my VHF/UHF radio.  Broke a speaker lead and fixed that.  Had lunch.  Got dressed and out for my spinal injection.  Home and dinner.  Usual evening routine.

5/13/22 – Friday – Up a little early to wait for my son-in-law.  He arrived and we went out for breakfast at Lynda’s.  Back and tried to get the tiller running.  Need to work on that tomorrow.  In the house and some brain storming about some shelf dividers he wants to make.  He left and the HVAC guy came to do maintenance on the system.  He left and Kathy and I went to Cattleman’s for a late lunch.  Then to Lowes shopping.  Home and programmed some garage door openers we bought.  Out and practiced archery.  In and had a ragchew with a fellow in Texas for about an hour.  Upstairs for dinner.  Usual evening routine.

5/14/22 – Saturday – Up a little late today.  Didn’t sleep well last night with dogs moving about and jumping in and out of the bed.  Kathy took off to do things with Julie and the grand kids.  I got cleaned up and out to practice my archery.  Inside and practiced some CW and did the reading about election officer for this coming Tuesday.  Upstairs and had a snack for a late lunch.  Out to the shop and did the maintenance on the rottotiller.  That runs fine now.  Cleaned up a bit out there before coming back in.  Did some more reading till Kathy came home.  Had dinner and usual evening routine.

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Now the specifics:

Last Sunday was Mother’s Day and also Kathy’s Birthday. I kept asking what she wanted and she just wanted to go out and have a nice dinner with the family. So she got reservations at Stoney River which is an excellent steakhouse that everyone seems to like. Our reservations were for 1PM so we met the Rice family there. It was a good time for everyone. After eating we went back to Mike and Julie’s where our family friend Dee met us and we had ice cream and cake. Kathy stayed to play cards but I came home.

Monday was a good day and everything was dried out so I started the yard work. Kathy wanted to help and I told her to call the eye doctor’s office first. They told her not to do anything strenuous but as long as she wore sun glasses she could ride the mower. So she did that and I did all the trimming with the push mower and string trimmer. Ran out of steam around 3PM so just did the front of the property. Tuesday I went out and finished up.

Tuesday evening I was invited to give an HF digital modes presentation at our ham club meeting. I felt the presentation went well but really didn’t have time to cover much in depth. They asked me to set up a digital HF station for them at Field Day the end of June and asked to use my call sign for the event as I was an extra and that would give them access to all the bands. I’m rather pleased with this and glad I decided to join the group.

Wednesday I experimented with washing cars with the power washer. I got some detergent by Krud Cutter that was for automobiles and boats. I did the old Chrysler and the Pontiac Vibe. I’m still not sold on it being good for the finish on the truck. I guess it’s no different then taking it to a car wash and using the power washer wands there. I’ll have to give this more thought.

I hear people complaining about the medical system here in the Louisville area but I’ve had good luck. Two weeks ago on Wednesday I called the pain management folks and got an appointment to see a nurse practitioner on Friday. She was delightful and I thought very competent and thorough in her work. She said I would hear from scheduling this past week and sure as shit I got a call Tuesday and got it scheduled to be done Thursday. I thought that was rather excellent service. Of course the shot hurt like hell this time for some reason. But the results were great. It’s amazing what those shots do for you. I just hope this last more like the couple years the previous ones have lasted rather than the 10 months the last one lasted.

Not that you care but I mentioned it in the chronology so I’ll clarify things. The older radios like my Yaesu FT-736 have an old style memory that requires a battery backup. The only time the battery is used is when the radio is not turned on or connected to 12 volts DC. The built in power supply was bad when I got it so that was not an option. And at night or when the station is not going to be used for awhile I always power things down including the 12 volt DC supply. That means the battery is used more then it normally would be. So it dies periodically. It did that this week so I replaced it and reprogrammed everything. Of course because of it’s age it can’t be remotely programmed either so I have to do it manually. It takes awhile but I only do it every year or so.

I’ve continued my efforts at archery. I am still at 75 feet and my efforts are not at all consistent. I’m not sure if I should go have an other lesson and get some suggestions or just be happy with what I have. It will only be for one day this year when I compete in the archery contest at the renaissance fair for my grand kids. Chloe especially is looking forward to dressing in period accurate attire and going with me.

Still working on my CW (Morse Code) skills. I have all the alphabet and numbers down, just a little shaky on some of the punctuation and pro-signs. I’m working rather well at 7 and 1/2 words per minute but would like to get up to 13 before I get on the air. I bid on a beat-up paddle for sending CW on ebay but I set my limit at $51 and it went for $72. I don’t understand it as it will cost another $30 or so to replace the paddles and put a good cord and plug on it. So I bought a new one from R and L electronics up in Hamilton, OH for $129 brand new.

Kathy’s reports on her right eye have been favorable. She now has 20/22 vision in her right eye. She is able to function with no corrective lenses at all. They will do her left eye this coming Monday. Another two weeks and she should be good to go. Her biggest concern of course is getting the corrective lens restriction removed from her driver’s license. It seems ass backward to me that she had to wear glasses from elementary school till she was 74 before they would correct things. But I guess it’s better late than never.

I have not forgotten about the pictures of the deck lighting. I just have not thought about it when the light was good to get a decent picture.

I will be glad when this coming week is over. Monday I have to be up early to get Kathy to the eye surgery center by 7:15AM. Tuesday I have to be up and out to be at the polls by 5:15AM and won’t get out of there till well after 6PM.

Next week should be a difficult week but I should have a lot to write about.

As always, hope this finds everyone safe and healthy. Stay that way and I’ll blog at you again next week.