A different sort of week……………………………………………….

As always, first the chronology:

02/04/24 – Sunday – Up at the usual time.  Cleaned up and out to church with Kathy.  A quick stop at the auto parts store on the way home.  Lunch then down to do the blog.  Over to Gary’s a little early today for the afternoon get together.  Home and picked up Kathy.  Took presents and cake up to Mike and Julie’s for the twins birthday.  Out to P. F. Changs for dinner.  Back to Mike and Julie’s for presents and cake.  Home and gathered tools in the shop for tomorrow mornings work.  In side, a little snack and bed.

02/05/24 – Monday – Up a little early today and cleaned up before breakfast.  Made the “Over the Hill” net.  Then out and took the battery out of Kathy’s Equinox.  Down to the auto parts store and got it traded for a good one.  Picked up some other miscellaneous items.  Home and put the new battery in the car.  Everything looks good.  Then some other chores around the house.  Lunch and a nap.  Kathy got up and took a few items to the post office.  I made a Zoom class at 5PM.  Dinner then usual evening routine.

02/06/24 – Tuesday – Up a little early today.  Made the “Over the Hill” net.  Down to the shack and practiced my CW.  Did some computer work and organized some tax forms.  Up for lunch.  Back to the shack to write up some Radiograms for later.  Kathy took off to take Chloe to the dentist.  I continued work in the shack.  I did a Zoom class at 3PM.  Kathy came home and we went down to Taylorsville and the Chinese restaurant for dinner.  Home and usual evening routine.

02/07/24 – Wednesday – Up a little early today.  Made the “Over the Hill” net.  Down to the shack to practice CW.  Then did paper work.  Got finances taken care of.  Got the desk cleaned off.  Got all the tax papers together to work on later.  Then up for lunch.  After lunch met Gary and Mike on the radio for a bit.  Then out to the church to reinstall the computer in the sound room.  Then up to Mike’s Carwash to get the crud off the truck.  Home and put  things away.  Did some research online.  Looks like they don’t make the light bulbs we use in the bathroom anymore.  Finally up for dinner.  Usual evening routine.

02/08/24 – Thursday – Up a little early again today.  Cleaned up before breakfast.  Checked in to the “Over the Hill” net while I was eating breakfast.  Then cleaned my teeth good and off for a hair cut.  A short stop at ACE hardware for light bulbs and cards.  Then to a dentist appointment to put my permanent cap on.  Home and let the dogs out.  Had a cup of coffee and did some chores.  Then out to my buddy Bills computer place to ask some questions.  While in that part of town I went to Drakes for lunch.  Got the truck gassed up on the way home.  Home and some chores.  Then called MAX BMW and talked a little bit about the problem with the motorcycle.  Called CQ a couple times on my QRP rig.  Kathy came home and took a nap.  I played radio.  Then dinner and usual evening routine.

02/09/24 – Friday – Up a little late today.  Missed the “Over the Hill” net.  Had breakfast and got cleaned up.  Out to clean the church with Kathy.  Down to Taylorsville and picked up some light bulbs and furnace filters at ACE Hardware.  Then to Hometown Pizza for a late lunch.  Home and some chores.  Upgraded the firmware in my QRP radio.  Up for a short nap.  The out to J-town for HAM testing.  Home a little before 7PM.  Kathy wasn’t home.  I heated up a frozen dinner for a late snack.  Kathy came home from shopping and I helped her unload the car.  Then downstairs and usual evening routine.

02/10/24 – Saturday – Up at the usual time today.  Did the Saturday morning chores.  Got cleaned up.  Then down to the shack to order some things online.  Up for lunch.  Back to the shack and cleaned up the workbench.  Got out my Libre computer that I bought many months ago and tried it out.  I doesn’t work as well as the Raspberry Pi.  Put that stuff away.  Nick came over and we started working on his project.  Worked on it till almost 7PM.  He took off and we had a late dinner.  Then usual evening routine.

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Now the specifics:

Sunday was the twins birthday. For whatever reason they wanted to go to P. F. Changs for their birthday dinner. I don’t know how that place is in other parts of the country but I have never been there that the food was good and we got good service. It was terrible as usual. But Kathy made Chloe a Molly Brown cake so she enjoyed that after we got back to their house. Carter wanted a chocolate sort of cake that Julie got somewhere. So, desert was good, but dinner was a bust.

Monday I spent the day getting the battery replaced in Kathy’s Equinox. A challenge to say the least. Thank God for Youtube videos. It was obvious I had to take the computer off the top of the battery to get to it but I would have been hours figuring out where the clips were for the cover and which bolt to remove to slide it off. Other than fighting with a couple very short battery leads, the job was actually rather easy. More time consuming than anything. But it’s done. Thankfully it failed in the garage and not out somewhere and let Kathy stranded. It should be good for another 5 years.

Wednesday I got the computer back to the church and reinstalled in the sound room. The intention is to record the service so it can be put on our website so people can listen to it if they don’t make church. Sorta seems counter productive to me. If I can stay home and listen to it, why bother going to church. Just my opinion.

Got a chance to take the truck up to my favorite car wash and get all the crap off from the bad weather a couple weeks ago. Looks pretty good. It will get a much more complete cleaning when the weather warms up a little.

Thursday was a busy day. Started with a hair cut at 9:30. I’m always early and she is quick so I was out by 9:40. So I went to ACE hardware and bought a replacement bulb for Kathy’s bathroom. Then over for a dentist appointment to get the cap put on the tooth I broke off. I was about 1/2 hour early but I got in early and was out of there by 10:40. So, I went home, let the dogs out then headed to J-town to chat my friend in the used computer business. Since I was in the area I decided to have lunch at Drakes. Kathy was doing her volunteer thing at the VA and the girls at Drakes all wear short skirts.

After I got home I called MAX BMW up by Danbury, CT to discuss my problem with the motorcycle. They gave me some ideas. I asked them how far in advance I’d have to let them know if I bring the motorcycle up there as no one around here is well qualified to work on them. I was surprise when he told me to just give them a call and ask for him personally and he would find time the following day to look at it. So, that’s an ace I have in my pocket.

Friday we cleaned the church and ate out at Hometown like we usually do when we clean. Picked up some more light bulbs at ACE hardware while we were there. Then went into J-town Friday afternoon late to help with HAM testing.

They came out with new firmware for my QRP rig so I loaded that Friday afternoon. Very different menu system now but an improvement I think. Sent a couple CQs and chatted with a guy in Rome, GA. Not bad from Louisville, KY on 5 watts.

I’ve been attending the CW Zoom classes but the Thursday evening class was canceled. Haven’t been practicing as much as I should but I think I’ll be finishing up the beginners curriculum this month so I’ll start the intermediate program. That should bring my speed up rather quickly. I’m copying 100% at 10WPM or less but it goes down to 90% at 13WPM and then falls off rapidly after that as the speed increases. But I’ll keep at it.

The Net Manager for the Norther Kentucky CW Traffic Net has been bugging me to be the Net Control Operator. Still don’t think I’m ready for that. Too much involved and you have to do almost everything on the fly.

Saturday my friend Nick wanted to come over and work on his boom mike switch project so I was sort of forced to clean up the work bench. 

That was my biggest accomplishment for the week.

A lot more trivial things this week but I got the highlights. As always, hope this finds everyone safe and healthy. Stay that way and I’ll blog at you again next week.