Another rather busy week…………………………………………..

As always, first the chronology:

7/23/23 – Sunday – Up a little early this morning.  Didn’t sleep for shit last night.  Got maybe 3 hours.  Anyway, got cleaned up and had my breakfast before waking up the kids.  Had biscuits, scrambled eggs and sausage for them for breakfast.  Then made them get cleaned up for church.  Off to church.  Home and the crew from Nashville had returned.  So Mike, Julie and the grand kids took off.  I took Dee over to the Morton building to get her car.  Back inside and had lunch.  Then to bed till 4:30.  Up and out to dinner at Hometown Pizza.  Back home, cleaned things up and otherwise usual evening routine.

7/24/23 – Monday – Up at the usual time.  Downstairs to respond to some emails.  Started the upgrade of my Linux mint machine.  While it was doing it’s thing I called to see how my friend Gary is doing.  Ordered some replacement batteries for the UPS at the repeater site.  Then up to lunch.  Back and finished the upgrade process and called my friend Jim.  I think I’m going to go up and see him. Got ready and went over to Harbor Freight to pickup some things we want that are on clearance.  Then to the Cracker Barrel for dinner.  Home and usual evening routine.

7/25/23 – Tuesday – Up a little late this morning.  Didn’t sleep for shit last night.  Kathy was up and out early to get the two girls and take them to get their hair done.  I finished up the modules for the National Weather Service in Louisville to be a weather reporter.  Then started getting caught up on my code practice.  I went up for lunch.  Kathy came home with the girls shortly after.  I went out to the shop and fabricated a base for my portable vertical antenna.  Came back to the house and tested it.  Kathy was off taking the girls back home.  I did some more code practice.  Kathy came home and we had dinner.  Usual evening routine.

7/26/23 – Wednesday – Up a little late again today.  Kathy was already out for a doctor’s appointment and to go shopping.  I did my code practice then outside to pick up the stone that washed out during last nights rain and put it back where it belongs.  Then inside to cool down and clean up.  Kathy came home and I helped unload groceries.  Lunch than out to test the long wire antenna I built.  Did some cleaning up in the shack.  Dinner and usual evening routine.

7/27/23 – Thursday – Up a little early this morning.  Didn’t sleep for shit last night.  Between the dogs and Shelby it was constant noise or moving around.  Got cleaned up and had breakfast.  Then took the bike down to get my hair cut.  Took the long way home.  Came down to the shack to work on some CW but ran into another computer problem so had to fix that.  Up for lunch.  Back down to copy code.  Out to the garden with Kathy and Shelby.  Got some tomatoes, peppers and a zucchini.  Tied up some plants than back to the house.  Mike came over to pick up Shelby.  Had dinner then usual evening routine.

7/28/23 – Friday – Up at the usual time.  Got a good night’s sleep.  Spent most of the day in the shack doing research on Allstarlink and trying to practice code.  Not a good day.  Kathy spent the day doing chores.  I helped with cleaning up the kitchenette.  Had a great dinner.  Usual evening routine.

7/29/23 – Saturday – Up at the usual time.  Got a good night’s sleep again.  Did my usual Saturday morning routine and got cleaned up.  Down to practice code.  Up and out with Kathy to the Pizza Craft House in J-town.  Then some grocery shopping at Kroger.  Home and put things away.  A nap.  Up and did burgers on the grill for dinner.  Usual evening routine.

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Now the specifics:

Had the grand kids last weekend while Kathy, Mike, Julie and Dee went to Nashville for a concert. I had a big breakfast for them. Eggs, Sausage and biscuits. Then got them ready and off to church. I’m not sure how happy they were with that but it was part of the agreement when they stayed over.

Monday I upgraded Linux Mint on my laptop. It took most of the day. I had to un-install a couple programs that were not native to the Mint distribution. Then had to re-install them when I was finished. Still much better than windows.

Did an online course through the local National Weather Service and got my weather reporting status upgraded. Now I have the “Secret” phone number to call the NWS with weather information. I did that Monday night in bed and finished it up Tuesday morning.

Shelby was over to visit Wednesday evening into Thursday. The twins were doing their volunteer thing at the VA. Kathy didn’t give her the medicine that keeps her calm so she was a little difficult to deal with this week. But it was still a nice time.

Spent a lot of time this week working on Allstarlink. A lot of options that need checked and fine tuned to make it work correctly on the repeater. I need to go up to the repeater site this week. I need to change some settings on the repeater itself and change out the UPS batteries. I ordered them Monday and they arrived here Thursday.

Putting things together to participate in the Kentucky POTA exercise next month. Our club will be going to the Taylorsville Lake park and setting up equipment. Sometimes the parks don’t want you putting things in the ground or hanging things from trees so I built a base this week for my vertical antenna. The antenna screws into the base that can sit on the ground and you just put a couple rocks on it to keep it level.

I have been trying to practice my CW at least twice a day. I’m getting good but need to wait till the cycle comes back around on the BC2 carousel. I.E. They start the process over with the characters KMY. Hopefully I’ll be able to progress a little faster this time. I’ll keep you posted.

My friend Jim has been in the hospital in Pittsburgh for 3 weeks now. He has an infection that they can’t figure out how to get rid of. He was really down the beginning of the week. I was almost tempted to just pick up and go up to visit him. But, toward the end of the week things were looking up and he was feeling better. So that’s all good.

My friend Gary is home. I called his wife to see if he wanted visitors and she said not yet. She texted me Friday evening and said he would be ready this Sunday. A lot happening here that are issues with me but I’ll just keep my thoughts and ideas to myself.

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