Last post of 2023………………………..

As always, first the chronology:

12/24/23 – Sunday – Up at the usual time.  Cleaned up and out with Kathy to church at our sister congregation.  Took us about 1/2 hour over and back plus an hour service.  Went straight to Hometown Pizza for lunch when we got back.  They were swamped so it took awhile to get served.  Home and did the blog.  Had a light dinner. Then cleaned up and out to Christmas Eve service at our church at 6PM.  Home and usual evening routine. 

12/25/23 – Monday – Up at the usual time and out for church with Kathy at 10AM.  Home and had our Christmas.  A light lunch.  Then a nap.  Up and helped get things ready for the tribe to arrive.  They got here around 5PM.  We exchanged gifts then had our Christmas dinner.  They departed.  Usual evening routine.

12/26/23 – Tuesday – Up a little late this morning.  Feeling better.  Decided to take medicine the rest of today than stop for tomorrow.  Spent time in the kitchen doing things on the computer.  Kathy went to take a nap.  She woke up a little after noon.  We had lunch and I went to the shack and did some things to make sure everything was lined up with health insurance for next year.  Kathy was off to PT.  She came home and we had dinner.  Then usual evening routine.

12/27/23 – Wednesday – Up a little early this morning and made the 8AM net in Altoona.  Then some chores and cleaned up.  Out to Country Mart with Kathy to do some grocery shopping.  Home and lunch.  Did some after Christmas cleanup then a nap.  Down and played radio.  Up for dinner.  Usual evening routine.

12/28/23 – Thursday – Up a little early this morning, cleaned up and out for a hair cut.  Kathy took off to the VA to volunteer today.  I got back home and went back to bed and slept till 11AM.  Up and cleaned up the kitchen.  Had lunch then to the shack to do some reading.  Kathy got home around 3PM.  Decided on another nap.  Up for dinner and usual evening routine.

12/29/23 – Friday – Up a little early and made the Altoona Over the hill net.  Kathy was off early for Physical Therapy.  She came home and went back to bed.  I did some work on the computer.  Down to the shack and filled up my new coffee cup.  DHL came with the part I broke on my radio.  That woke up Kathy.  We had lunch.  Then down to the shack to resume putting my transceiver together.  Got it done and it doesn’t power up.  I was not feeling well so I let it alone for now.  Upstairs for a nap. Up and a shower.  Dinner and usual evening routine.

12/30/23 – Saturday – Up late this morning.  Watched Netflix till 2:15AM.  Kathy was already to go out and shopping with Julie.  I did my usual Saturday morning routine.  Then down to the shack, another coffee and some reading.  Up around 1PM for lunch, brought in the garbage can and mail and played with the dogs a little.  Back down to the shack and worked on my QRP transceiver awhile.  Played a little radio.  Up around 4:30 for a nap.  Kathy came home, I got cleaned up and out to the Mexican restaurant for dinner.  A quick stop at Country Mart for a few things.  Home and usual evening routine.

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Now the specifics:

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and I wish you the best in the New Year.

Well, I think I broke my record. Three church services in 2 days. Of course we had the usual Sunday morning service this week. That was held at our sister church just south of Louisville. It was a combined service. Then we had Christmas Eve service at our church. Again, a combined service so we had visitors from our sister church. Then in the Lutheran religion we have a Christmas Morning service which again was a combined service at our church with visitors from our sister church.

Monday after church we had our Christmas. I think Kathy was happy with what she got. The usual gift certificates at the place she gets her hair done and the place she gets her nails done. I did surprise her with new mouse pads she asked for. I got the dogs pictures on them. She seemed pleased with that. Then I got her a pair of shoes and a sweater she asked for. A Steeler’s blanket and a placard of Gibb’s rules from NCIS. 

I had ordered myself a QRP radio transceiver kit and some ear buds. Since Kathy was hard up for things to get me she paid for those. She let me have the radio kit when it came but I didn’t get the earbuds till Christmas day. Also got some new jeans, a new corduroy jacket, a pullover sweater and a couple gift certificates. All was good.

Later Monday, the Rice family came and we had Christmas again with them. The kids of course re-gifted me the fish flops that we have been giving back and forth for the last couple years. Mike got me a nice Ember coffee mug. It has an electric heater in it that keeps coffee at a preset temperature for up to an hour and a half or if you keep it in the charging saucer it will last forever. And I got a couple ARRL books from Julie and Todd that I asked for. So, a very good Christmas as far as I was concerned.

Of course it wouldn’t be the Christmas holiday if I weren’t sick. After the dinner theater on Friday night I started getting a soar throat and all the symptoms of a cold. So, I started with the Coricidine HPB, Afrin and Zicam. Things sort of lingered through till late Monday. I continued taking the medicine Tuesday and felt somewhat better Wednesday. Of course I think that medicine along with the drastic change in diet messed with me otherwise. Been feeling that tensed up feeling with pressure across the chest, minor arm pain. A couple bouts of light headedness. But I’m going to the Cardiologist this week so I’ll get that all checked out.

Spent a lot of time this week making sure all the health insurance stuff was lined up. Things keep changing and my effort is to keep the results the same. I think I have things covered. We just play it year to year. But on the other hand that is good as we can adjust if things change.

I’ve been checking in with the HAM group from Altoona. They have a net in the mornings starting at 8AM and running till everyone gets checked in and gets a chance to talk. My friend Jim from Bellwood, PA checks in so it gives me a chance to see how he is doing. They are a good group of guys. A very different kind of net compared to what they have around here. 

I ordered a QRP or low power radio transceiver kit from QRP Labs in mid November. I got it around December 22nd and started putting it together. It’s a great little kit but I didn’t like a few minor issues with it. As an example, it took a lot of adjustment to the leads on one particular component to adapt it to the board and in the process I broke one of the pins. So, I ordered a replacement and got that this week on Friday. I finished up the project on Saturday. I fired it up and it doesn’t work. So, I must do some trouble shooting on that. But it should be a nice little compact radio to take out in the field and work some CW. 

I read in some HAM documentation about a clandestine radio station in Portugal that was used during the cold war. It was located near a town called Gloria. Netflix did a series on it and since I am the geek that I am I wanted to watch it. I borrowed Julie’s password to Netflix and started watching it Thursday night. I watched several episodes but couldn’t stay awake to finish them. So I resumed watching Friday night. I didn’t get through all the episodes till around 2:15AM on Saturday. It had very little to do with the actual radio station which is why I wanted to watch it. But after I got into it I really enjoyed the espionage part of it. The purpose of the station was to broadcast propaganda into Russia and Russian held territories. So, needless to say, the Russian KGB had an interest in terminating the broadcasts. At the same time, the US had a presence in Portugal as it was in our best interest to keep the station going. However, at the time we were also funding some guerilla forces in Africa that were fighting troops from Portugal. So, from the brief description you can see how three major forces might have had some interesting interactions. It is one of the very few programs I have found to be interesting. If you think you might enjoy it, take a look. It’s on Netflix and the name of the series is simply “Gloria”.

I have been taking a break from CW classes over the holidays but did set down this week and look at the schedule. I’ve decided what classes I want to pursue and have the times for them. I will pick that up this coming week.

Kathy’s Physical Therapy has been coming along well. She did some extensive shopping with Julie this week and it didn’t seem to bother her. So whatever she did to herself in Punta Cana has been fixed with the Physical Therapy. She is down to one day a week now so that should be wrapping up soon.

As always, hope this finds everyone safe and healthy. Please stay that way. And I wish you all nothing but success and happiness in the coming year. I will blog at you again next year. Bye for now.