Another busy week. Still no break………………………………………………

As always, first the chronology:

3/10/24 – Sunday – Up at the usual time (Well, considering day light savings time).  Cleaned up and out to church with Kathy.  We stayed after church for Kathy to sing in the choir.  I cheated and did the blog last night so it auto-published today at 3PM.  Got home and had lunch.  Took a nap then up and out to Gary’s for the Sunday afternoon get together.  Home, picked up Kathy and over to Shelbyville.  Stopped at Feeder Supply for dog food then over to Cracker Barrel for dinner.  Home and usual evening routine.

3/11/24 – Monday – Up a little late this morning.  Missed the net.  Didn’t sleep well last night.  Spent the morning cleaning up the garage at the house and getting the golf cart running again for the summer.  Had lunch then finished the fine tuning on my new end fed antenna.  Had some home made soup Kathy made for dinner.  Very good.  Usual evening routine.

3/12/24 – Tuesday – Up at the usual time this morning and made the “Over the Hill” net.  We got cleaned up and were ready to go out and visit our son-in-law’s mother in the hospital but then Julie advised us that she was suffering from an air borne virus and we’d have to wear masks if we went but advised us against going to see here for our own protection.  So, Kathy decided to go out shopping instead.  I went to the shop and got the frequency and voltage adjusted correctly on the portable generator.  While I had it warmed up I changed the oil so that’s all finished for now.  I put sand in the sandbags for the new canopy I got and I unfolded it to make sure it all worked.  It’s cheap so I guess that’s why I got it for such a reasonable price.  I went inside and had a late lunch.  Kathy got home and we unloaded her car then made a mutual shopping trip to Country Mart for some lunch stuff for me.  Home and a nap.  Up around 4PM and a frozen fish thing I picked up.  Wasn’t bad.  Then over to Shelbyville.  Ran the truck through the car wash then up for HAM testing at 6PM.  Had club meeting at 7PM.  Stopped for Arby’s on the way home.  Put the truck away and inside the house by around 9:30PM.  Otherwise, usual evening routine.

3/13/24 – Wednesday – Up at the usual time.  Didn’t sleep well at all last night.  Made the Net.  Went back to bed and slept till noon.  Up and lunch.  Then out for some chores.  Chatted with Mike on the radio.  Helped Kathy get things ready for the soup supper tonight.  Got cleaned up, loaded the car and off to church.  Got things cleaned up at church and back in the car after service.  Otherwise, usual evening routine.

3/14/24 – Thursday – Up at the usual time.  Made the net this morning and Kathy took off to do her volunteer thing at the VA hospital.  I got cleaned up and did some work in the kitchen.  Lots of things left to clean after the soup supper last night.  Loaded the drying rack and put soapy water in other things to soak.  Took off on the bike awhile.  Stopped for lunch at Hooter’s.  Home and finished cleaning up the kitchen.  Then down for my Zoom class at 3PM.  Kathy came home and after some chores we had dinner.  Usual evening routine.

3/15/24 – Friday – Up at the usual time.  Not a good night.  Had storms passing through the area till almost 2AM.  Finally got to sleep.  Did manage to make the “Over the Hill” net this morning.  Kathy was already out to pickup Shelby at home and take her to school.  She got home and went back to bed.  I got cleaned up and crawled in bed till Kathy got up.  When she did we got ready and out to Taylorsville.  Stopped at the County Clerks office to get the Vibe re-registered.  They were busy as hell and about to close for lunch so I opted to do that next week.  Then we went to Lynda’s for lunch.  To the church to clean.  I dropped off Kathy and went up to Batteries Plus to get some fresh batteries.  Some for my radio memory and some for the weather radio.  Got home and started putting that stuff in service.  Finished up about the time Kathy got up from her nap.  Had dinner and usual evening routine.

3/16/24 – Saturday – Up at the usual Saturday time.  Did the usual Saturday morning chores.  Then down to the shack and worked on the straight key awhile.  Up for lunch then put the finishing touches on my portable end fed antennas.  In and changed clothes.  Out to pick up sticks, rake and cut up some large branches that came down.  Need to get the lawn mowed on Monday.  Inside and dinner.  Usual evening routine.

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Now the specifics:

This is the season of Lent at our church and we have Wednesday evening services. Before service we have a soup supper and the ladies take turns preparing. Of course the down side is that we had potato soup twice in a row. But Kathy called her sister-in-law who is Italian and got her recipe for pasta fagioli. We were sure no one was going to do that. Well, since it was her first time she did a trial run on Monday. It was great. So she made a second batch and married the two together for church. They loved it. So that was a success.

On the down side, she was tired by the time we got home Wednesday evening and she had to get up for her volunteer duty at the VA hospital so guess who cleaned up all the pots and pans? It really wasn’t a bad job. I did some in the morning on Thursday and put others to soak. Then did the rest later in the day. It was a good time.

I’ve been eating Braunschweiger for lunch a lot lately. It’s the German equivalent of LIver Wurst. So I decided to go shopping for lunch meat on Tuesday. I got a total of three different meats. I got something called Dixie Loaf. I thought that would be like spiced loaf but this stuff has hardly any taste to it. Then I got Olive Loaf and some Beef Bologna from the deli. I’ll keep trying different things till something tickles my fancy.

Mike (Our son-in-law)’s mother was in the hospital last week. Julie told us if we had time to go see her and take some puzzle books or something for her to stay occupied. So we decided on Tuesday morning. We got all ready to go and Julie texted us that her mother-in-law was now in isolation as they thought she had some kind of air borne virus. That would require us to wear masks and Julie advised us against going for our own protection. So we followed her advice and blew that detail off. As it turns out, it was just a scare and they discharged the woman later that day.

Had a HAM club meeting Tuesday evening at 7PM with testing at 6PM. They were short a guy that was out of town so I went to the testing session. Nothing exciting. Had three guys test and they all made it. We now have three new hams in our ranks.

It was nice on Thursday so I went for a motorcycle ride. I waited till the temperature got up in the upper 60s then took off. Rode awhile and found myself at Hooter’s for lunch. Don’t know how that happens. Anyway, by that time it started clouding up so after lunch I decided to head back home. I was out for a total of perhaps 2 hours and put around 60 mile on the motorcycle.

We had very sever storms here Thursday night into Friday. Was awake most of the night listening to the weather radio and watching all the alerts. We were lucky again and had no damage. A tornado reportedly touched down about 60 miles north east of us. Mike and Julie lost power around 11PM and didn’t get it back till 11 AM Friday. Needless to say, the dogs were nervous and between them pacing the floor and shaking the bed we didn’t sleep much.

Friday after Kathy went up to take Shelby to school (Julie had something she had to do with the twins) we both took a nap. Then out to clean the church. I thought I’d stop at the county clerks office and re-register the Vibe but the line was out the back of the building, it was about 11:30AM and they close at noon for lunch. So Kathy and I decided to go to lunch before going to the church. We drove up past Lynda’s and it wasn’t too busy so we stopped in there for lunch. They have the greatest burgers. Usually we drive past and being the place is so small it’s usually packed. So we took advantage of it not being so busy and ate there. Finished cleaning the church and I wanted to go to Batteries Plus for some fresh batteries but Kathy wanted to go home. So I took her home first then went up and got the batteries.

With the weather so shitty Thursday night I got Kathy and the dogs and took them downstairs for awhile till most of the alerts were clear. However, I took the weather radio from the bedroom that has batteries and it died after about 10 minutes. So, I wanted batteries for that. They are the NiMH re-chargeable batteries. Then I turned on my VHF/UHF radio and surprise, the memory battery died in it and all the memory channels went away. So I wanted to get a fresh replacement for that as well. I was successful at getting the batteries I needed. Took things home and got them fixed.

Made my Zoom class on Thursday afternoon. The instructor suggested that I try moving up to the Intermediate 2 class. Apparently he thought I had learned all I could from him. I’m not so sure. So, next week I’ll keep going to the Thursday afternoon class but will also find the next class and attend some of those. Just moving along here. Up to about 100% copy at 13 WPM and 90% copy at 15 WPM.

Did the fine tuning on the generator Tuesday. Got the frequency to 60 Hertz plus or minus a couple cycles depending on load. The voltage also came in at just around 112 volts which is great. Got the oil changed so that’s the end of the work that needs to be done there.

Not to confuse you but I did say I did the final fine tuning of my antenna earlier in the week. However, Saturday I just wanted to try and get it better. Which I was successful at. Now both my portable end fed antennas will work on almost every band. I am very proud of that accomplishment.

Last but not least, let me explain the publishing issue last week. I can really do the blog anytime I want and set it up to be published at a particular time. I knew I was going to be busy last Sunday with Kathy wanting to sing in the choir and I usually do the blog after church and before going to Gary’s. So last week I did it Friday night and set it up to publish itself on Sunday at 3PM. The same thing I’m doing this week as I’ll be busy Sunday again.

So, with that, hope this finds everyone safe and healthy. Stay that way and I’ll blog at you again next week.