A different week…………………………………….

As always, first the chronology:

9/3/23 – Sunday – Up at the usual time.  Cleaned up and out to church with Kathy.  Had lunch at church.  Home and did the blog.  Then over to Gary’s for the Sunday afternoon get together.  Home, picked up Kathy and out to Olive Garden for dinner.  Home and usual evening routine.

9/4/23 – Monday – Up a little late.  Out to put water in the pool.  Inside to get cleaned up and help Kathy prepare for lunch.  Julie, Mike and the grand kids came over shortly before noon.  Had steak on the grill, baked potatoes and salad followed up with some desserts the grand daughters made.  They took off, helped clean up.  Down to do some paperwork in the shack.  Up for a snack at dinner time.  Usual evening routine.

9/5/23 – Tuesday – Up a little late this morning.  Out to do yard work around 10AM.  A break for lunch and finished up shortly after 2PM.  Over and in the pool for awhile.  Inside and showered.  Did some paper work and banking.  Dinner and usual evening routine.

9/6/23 – Wednesday – Up at the usual time.  Cleaned up and down to ACE hardware for a couple light bulbs.  Then to the bank to take out money for the Hamfest.  Back to Kroger for some lunch meat and pharmacy items.  Home and a late lunch.  Then first of the month chores.  Figured out how the logging works on Netlogger.  Got my log stuff from last night uploaded.  Had dinner then usual evening routine.

9/7/23 – Thursday – Up a little early today.  Cleaned up and took the bike to get my hair cut.  Down to ACE hardware for some more light bulbs.  Then the long way home.  Had lunch then spent some time doing research on the motorcycle.  Some computer work.  Made a CW contact.  Dinner and usual evening routine.

9/8/23 – Friday – Up at the usual time.  Was going to do code at 10AM but they were apparently having trouble with that.  So, Kathy and I went to the church to do the cleaning.  Then to Lynda’s for lunch.  Home and put things away.  Did some code practice then setup for my Zoom classes at 4 and 5PM.  Up for dinner.  Usual evening routine.  

9/10/23 – Saturday – Up at 6AM, cleaned up and out to the hamfest at 7AM.  Helped with testing from 8AM to 10AM.  Then did some shopping.  Spent time chatting with a few people.  Left the hamfest shortly after noon.  Home and unloaded things.  Nick came over and picked up the radio I promised him if he passed his General.  While he was here he got on the air with it and made his first HF contact.  He left and we had a light and very late lunch.  I took a nap.  Then played with my new bug.  Had dinner and usual evening routine.

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Now the specifics:

Monday we had a rather large lunch in celebration of Labor Day. Mike, Julie and the grand kids came over shortly before noon and we had steak on the grill with baked potatoes and salad. The girls made different desserts and they were both good. Julie threatened the grand kids and told them they would have to go home early with their dad if they didn’t want to go swimming. That didn’t work, both girls when home early with Mike. Kathy, Julie and Carter went swimming. They left mid afternoon because Carter had a tennis match scheduled. I helped Kathy clean up.

Tuesday we did yard work. It wasn’t bad as it wasn’t too deep. But it was a little hot. Yesterday Kathy left the solar cover off the pool thinking we would use it more. I decided to jump in after we were done. Of course Kathy didn’t feel like it. I think she is afraid to get in the pool with just her and me.

Sunday I went over to see Gary. He is still in bed. I don’t think the poor guy is ever going to get out of it. Just not enough motivation and his attitude makes people just not want to care. It’s very sad. I’d like to shake the shit of a bunch of people and get him motivated. But, it’s not any of my business so I keep my mouth shut and do what I can.

Thursday I rode the motorcycle down to get my hair cut. I was hoping I’d recreate the problem I had the last time I rode with it not starting after I put gas in it. But it started fine after getting my hair cut. I went to ACE hardware for more 25 watt bulbs but they were out. Started fine there. Rode the long way home to try and heat it up and when I got home it started fine. This thing has got me down. I just don’t know what to do..

On another note, I got some 25 watt bulbs to put in my lamps at my HAM operating position. They seem to work the best at lighting things up and not causing too much of a shadow. Picked some up on Wednesday and went back for more on Thursday. They were out. Looked online and it said they wouldn’t be selling them anymore. Looked around and it dawned on me that it was the federal governments mandate that they had to stop selling incandescent bulbs. So, I got online and order two 4 packs to make sure I have spares.

We cleaned the church on Friday. It’s really a breeze now. We have a home school group using the facility every Thursday and they clean the bathrooms and the areas they use. So, all we have to do is the Sanctuary. Had it done in 45 minutes. Think I’ll be going down this week one day to clean and organize the audio booth. Need to coordinate that with Kathy.

Joined a HAM group called OMISS. Yea, you’d thank by that name they had something to do with MIssissippi but you would be wrong. It stands for “Old Man’s International Sideband Society”. Anyway, they run nets several times a day on different frequencies. I got on one Tuesday night. They start at 9PM with early checkins starting at 8:30PM and they run till 11PM. I thought it would be a good way to do something to stay awake till a decent hour before going to bed. Anyway, I made 23 contacts during the net. It’s rather interesting and I won’t bore you with it hear. But if you are just dying to know, you can google it and read all about it. An important part of the net is to upload your contacts so they can be confirmed. They use an online logging program called Netlogger so I had to learn a little about that so I could work the program. But I figured it out and everything got uploaded Wednesday.

I have been continuing my efforts with the code practice. Made a couple contacts but I’m still a little shaky. Especially on number and pro-signs. But I will stick with it.

Saturday was the local HAMfest. I was down there by 8AM to help with testing. Two people from our club in Shelbyville upgraded. One to Extra and another to General. Nick was the guy that upgraded to general. He texted me Friday with the scores he has been getting on the online practice tests. Doing in the mid 80s. Usually you tend to get a little better score on the actual exam so I told him he was ready and should go for it. Well, I could tell he was still a little hesitant. So I suggested he go to the hamfest and take the test. It would only cost him $10. In the unlikely event he didn’t make it he could go to the club meeting early on Tuesday and take it there. Well he showed up, took the test and only missed one question out of 35. Needless to say he was happy. This is the guy I promised I’d give him my old ICOM radio if he passed. So Saturday afternoon he was over. We set up the radio on the bench. Showed him how to use it and he made his first HF contact as a general. So that was all good.

I took money just in case I found something I couldn’t live without the rest of my life. Specifically I was looking for an older general coverage receiver at a decent price and perhaps a Vibroplex bug. Well, I found the bug that was listed for $200 but wasn’t in great shape. They were starting to pack things up and I went back to see if the price dropped. He said he would give it to me for $150. So I got the money out and only had 20s so I gave him $160 for it and he threw in a home made keyer.

Here’s what it looks like. I cleaned it up a bit and still need to adjust it. As you might be able to see, it has many adjustment and the process of adjusting it is very tedious and needs to be done in a specific order. Once adjusted you don’t move it around much so it stays adjusted correctly. However, as it is in the picture, it can not be adjusted to send any slower than around 23 WPM which is much faster than I can copy at this point. There is an adjunct piece you can buy that will allow you to adjust it slower. I’ll look into that this week.

Otherwise I didn’t get the general coverage receiver. They didn’t have any of the kind I was interested in. But I did see some mobile style speakers for $10 and I couldn’t pass that up. I also got a replacement hat for Gary for $30. So, all told I only spent $200 which is way less than what I had budgeted.

On the medical scene, I checked on Peggy’s husband Jerry and he was getting out of the hospital this week. And my buddy Jim got out of the hospital in Altoona last weekend. So things are improving on that front.

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