Another good week…………………………………………………..

As always, first the chronology:

6/30/24 – Sunday – Up at the usual time. Ready for church. Out with Kathy for service. Home and lunch. Down to do the blog. Out to Gary’s for the Sunday afternoon get together. Home, picked up Kathy and over to Shelbyville to Cattleman’s for dinner. Stop at the bank and a side trip to Dairy Queen for desert. Home, put the truck away and usual evening routine.

7/1/24 – Monday – Up at 7:30AM and made net. Cleaned up and out on the motorcycle for an hour. Took a short ride around the county. Home, put the bike away, inside and did some first of the month chores. Then lunch. Down to do some computer work then out shortly before 3 to pick up Chloe and take her to physical therapy. Home and played radio awhile. Kathy called to tell me she was on her way home so I went to the Kitchen and started dinner. She came home, we ate then usual evening routine.

7/2/24 – Tuesday – Up at 6AM and off to work. Did court room this morning from 8:30 to 11:30AM. Home. Kathy was out and about. Had lunch and played with the dogs. Then a nap. Up and cleaned up some stuff in the garage. Kathy came home with Shelby. We put away groceries. Then tended to the pool. Had dinner then usual evening routine.

7/3/24 – Wednesday – Up at 6 again and off to work. Did court this morning then lunch and another court session this afternoon. But it was quick. Home and helped Kathy with some pool stuff. Dinner then usual evening routine.

7/4/24 – Thursday – Up at 7:30AM and made the Altoona, PA Net. Down and started looking for the 13 Colonies Special Event stations on the radio. Knocked off for lunch around 11:30. Back down to work some more. Kathy went shopping with Julie. I knocked off about 2PM and went for a nap. Up and cleaned up. Out with Kathy to Mike and Julies for 4th of July dinner. Home and finished getting all the Special Event stations as well as the three bonus stations. Got that all ready to mail tomorrow. Otherwise, usual evening routine.

7/5/24 – Friday – Up at the usual 7:30 and made the net. Cleaned up, gathered test equipment and documentation and headed up to the repeater site. Repeater was working perfectly today. Checked all the options anyway and tightened up the squelch. Then down to the S.O. to pick up an application for my friend Dave. Home and had lunch. Then out and removed the lights from around the rear deck. Took them over to the Morton building and tried to get the mold off of them without success. Kathy and I decided for $18 times 2 we could afford to throw them out and get new ones. Removed the good bulbs and threw the rest out. Helped Kathy with the pool work and some other chores around the house. Had dinner then went over to Shelbyville shopping. Home and usual evening routine.

7/6/24 – Saturday – Up late today. Kathy was off to run errands and I started on the deck out back. Got 3/4 of the railing cleaned then moved furniture and scrubbed 3/4 of the deck. By then, Kathy was home and brought the two grand daughters. Had lunch then the grand daughter’s helped us clean the golf cart, the pool deck furniture then back to the deck behind the house. Chloe helped me the most. Then we all go cleaned up and went to the Yoki Buffet for dinner. Kathy and I took them back home, came home and usual evening routine.

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Now the specifics:

Monday I was off work so I took advantage and went for an early morning motorcycle ride. Got that in before it started getting really hot. Just took a little ride around the county but it was good. Rode around 50 miles.

The pool has been stubborn this year. We have been working on it feverishly. Spent time Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday working on it. Hopefully it will be ready soon. I’d like to get in and do some exercises in the evening.

Had dinner at Mike and Julie’s on the 4th. Julie cooked steaks and hamburgers on the grill. Had a lot of good things to add to it. Baked potatoes, corn, potato salad, coleslaw and much more. A very good meal.

Finally got time to look at the repeater on Friday. It’s been bouncing. Of course it was working great. However, it seems the only variable was the weather and I’m assuming the background noise increased when it was hot and dry like it does at my house. So, I tightened up the squelch and we’ll see where things go from here.

Overall I was lucky this week. Only had to work half a day Tuesday and then we had two court session Wednesday but the afternoon session only lasted an hour. So I was still home by around 2:30PM. This is not a really predictable schedule but it’s really not a lot of work. As of this week I’m officially off training and next week I will be on my own for whatever position they need me at. I’ve been working the handicap entrance to the main court house and when in the annex I’ve been in the court room. So, I’ll do whatever they need done.

Saturday was a hard ass work day. After breakfast I got started on the deck behind the house. I moved all the stuff over to one side and started cleaning the deck railing. Got a good 3/4 of it done then scrubbed down the flooring and got that all spick and span. Kathy was out and about so she picked up the girls and brought them over to the house. Chloe wanted to help me so we took the golf cart over and gave it a bath. Then took the power washer to the pool and cleaned the pool furniture off there. By that time the deck behind the house had dried so we cleaned and moved things to the other side of the deck and finished cleaning the railing and the floor. Let that dry and moved things back were they where. Just need to get some rubber feet for the two tables and some more chairs. Then put up the new light strings I got and that will be done.

I did manage to take some time to play radio. Chased the 13 colonies again this year. Got all 13 states as well as the three bonus stations. Did it with a variety of modes including voice, data and CW. Got my stuff all documented and sent that in for my certificate. I think that will be the 5th one I got.

Wasps have been very bad this year. Got stung by one while trying to get the pool deck stuff cleaned up. Hurt like hell. The generator has a red light on it and when I went out to open that up I ran into more wasps. So, I guess that will wait till I get some more wasp spray.

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.