Week Ending 12/23/23

This might be long but I have some pictures…………………………

As always, first the chronology:

12/17/23 – Sunday – Up at the usual time. Cleaned up and out to church with Kathy. Had lunch and did some decorating at church. Home and did the blog. Over to Gary’s for the afternoon get together. Home, picked up Kathy and up to Bob Evan’s for dinner. Home and usual evening routine.

12/18/23 – Monday – Up a little early this morning. Listened in on the Altoona Old Timer’s Net. Cleaned up and out to put the new gas cap on the Vibe. Over to Shelbyville to the bank then to Lowes to get a new GFI receptical for the sewage tank. Home and put things away. Turned off the water to the Morton building and reset the GFI. Kathy was off to physical therapy then to Julie’s to color her hair. I had lunch, took a nap for an hour. Then downstairs and worked on my TARPN node awhile. Played radio. Kathy came home and dinner. Usual evening routine.

12/19/23 – Tuesday – Up a little early again this morning. Actually called in and participated in the Altoona Old Timer’s Net. Downstairs and out to check the GFI on the septic system. It was not tripped this morning. Spent most of the day on the computer with TARPN issues. Did some cleaning up in the shack. Kathy played Santa Claus to the hair dresser, the post office folks and the vet. Then she got her hair done for the holidays. Nothing else exciting today. Usual evening routine.

12/20/23 – Wednesday – Up a little early again this morning. Checked into the Altoona Old Timer’s Net. Kathy got up with one helluva head cold. We tested her for COVID anyway to be safe and it was negative. She took off to take Carter to the dermatologist. I started laundry and cleaned up the kitchen. Kathy came home but wasn’t hungry. Julie suggested she go get a test for the flu. So she was off to do that. I had dinner and worked more on the laundry. My QMX radio kit came from QRP-Labs. So took that downstairs and inventoried it. Printed off the assembly and operating instructions. Kathy came home and everything tested negative. We took a nap. Her medicine was in at Kroger Pharmacy so I went in and picked that up. Then to Taylorsville and got Chinese takeout for dinner. Home, ate and usual evening routine.

12/21/23 – Thursday – Up a little early again this morning and got on the Altoona Old Timer’s Net. Kathy was feeling better today. I spent the day in the shack working on my QMX transceiver and Kathy spent the day wrapping Christmas presents. Otherwise just the usual routine.

12/22/23 – Friday- Up a little early again and chatted with the guys on the Altoona Old Timer’s Net. Spent most of the day working on my QMX transceiver project. After lunch I took the truck down and filled it with gas. Around 3PM I stopped and got cleaned up. Then at 5PM we went to the Derby Dinner Theater over in Indiana to see “A Christmas Carol” musical. Home and usual routine. Started getting a cold tonight.

12/23/23 – Saturday – Really felt like shit today with a head cold. I think Kathy and I are giving it back and forth. Worked on the QMX transceiver till I broke a pin on one of the components. I order that and packed the project away till I get the replacement part. Finished cleaning up the shack area. Up for dinner. Usual evening routine.

Now the particulars:

OK, for those that don’t think it gets cold in Kentucky.

This is what I woke up to Tuesday this week. Nothing on the roads, driveways or walks. But here is the weather station.

But, as you can see, the temperature got up to the low 50s toward the end of the week.

Awhile ago my friend Jim told me about the Over the Hill net that they held on the Altoona HAM repeater. I got looking into it this week and discovered they had Allstarlink. So, Monday I disconnected from the local repeater here and connected to them in Altoona. I didn’t check in but I listened and it was neat hearing folks talk about areas I was familiar with up there. So, Tuesday I checked in. They seemed delighted that someone that grew up in the area was checking in from Kentucky. Did that about every morning last week. Didn’t check in Saturday or Sunday. Probably won’t check back in till next Tuesday.

We have what I would call a weird septic system here at the house. I would guess at one time they had a cesspool. In other words, the output from the house goes into a septic tank and is broken down with bacteria. In the old days, the effluent would then run out of the top of that tank into an area in the yard and then just evaporate. Not a very healthy system but it was cheap. Then the health department made them get rid of that arrangement so they put in a second tank to fill up with the overflow from the septic tank. The second tank has a float and pump in it and when the tank gets mostly full it operates the float switch which turns on a pump and pumps the contents out to a septic field that is slightly uphill and about 100 yards away. Well, that pump and the associated float is powered by a GFI receptacle just outside the opening to the tank. It was tripped over the weekend so I went to Lowes and got an outside 20 Amp GFI receptacle. Well since I bought the replacement, that thing hasn’t tripped. So, I guess I’ll keep the spare as an insurance policy. Too cold to be out there changing it now anyway.

I ordered myself a low power (QRP, around 5 watts output) transceiver kit from QRP-Labs. It came this week. Kathy ended up paying for it as a Christmas Present. Anyway, I ordered it around the 21st of last month and it just got here this past week. It comes from Turkey and they were having issues with the circuit boards. Anyway, I’ve spent a lot of time this week working on that project. I was ready to finish it up yesterday and in the process of preparing one of the two digital encoder knobs, I broke off one of the pins. So, I had to order a replacement. I guess it will be another couple weeks now before I can get back on that project.

Week before last I felt crappy like I had a cold. I toke a bunch of medicine and it only lasted one day. Well, apparently that was enough to give it to Kathy. She woke up Wednesday with a head full. We tested her for COVID and that was negative but Julie suggested she go to emergent care and get tested for everything. We agreed and she took off. They tested her for COVID again as well as a couple other strains of virus and everything came back negative. So we missed the Advent service Wednesday evening but Thursday she was starting to feel better. Friday night our son-in-law treated us to the Derby City Dinner Theater and I started getting the sore throat and stuff head while we were there. So now I have it as well. Thank God for Coricidine, Afrin and Zicam.

Yes, like I said, the son-in-law treated us to the Derby City Dinner Theater Friday night. Their whole family was going so Kathy and I drove up to Indiana in the truck and met up with them there. The tables only seat 4 so Mike, Julie and Chloe sat at one table. Kathy, Shelby, Carter and I sat at another. We were about 6 feet from the stage. The show was the musical “A Christmas Carol”. And it was great. Here are some pictures we took.