Not a bad week…………………………………………….

As always, first the chronology:

7/28/24 – Sunday – Up at 8AM. Cleaned up and out to church with Kathy. Home and lunch. Down to do the blog. Over to Gary’s for the afternoon get together. Back to the house and picked up Kathy. Over to Shelbyville and Cracker Barrel for dinner. Home and usual evening routine.

7/29/24 – Monday – Up at 7:30AM and made the “Over the Hill” net. Got cleaned up and waited for my friend Dave to come over with is amplifier. Checked it out and looked at some specifications and determined there was nothing wrong with the amp so his problem had to be with his setup. So he took off at lunch time. Kathy was already out to take Chloe to physical therapy. So I had lunch. Then did some computer work. Kathy came home and took a nap. I played radio awhile then dinner. Cleaned up and out for a swim with Kathy. Inside, showered and usual evening routine.

7/30/24 – Tuesday – Up at 6AM and out to work. Started at 8AM and court was over by 9:30. Home by 10AM. Kathy was already out to watch Shelby as the twins were at a volunteer function. I dressed down and took a nap. Up for lunch then down for some computer work. Got some things accomplished and the dogs started bothering me. I went upstairs to see what that was about and discovered that it was storming outside. So I kept the dogs entertained for awhile. Kathy came home with Shelby and we had dinner. Usual evening routine.

7/31/24 – Wednesday – Up at 7AM. Didn’t sleep for shit last night with Shelby talking to her friends in the next room to barking dogs. Didn’t want to be as big a dick so I didn’t get on the net this morning. Did updates on iphone and ipad. Kathy finally got up around 10AM. I got cleaned up and out to Country Mart for some groceries. Home and lunch. Out to the Morton building to start cutting some wood. Got too hot so came inside and started Windows computer updates. Mike came by to pick up Shelby. Kathy and I had dinner. I made the meet with Mike and Gary on the radio and the 9PM club net. Then to bed.

8/1/24 – Thursday – Up at 6AM. Didn’t sleep for shit again last night. Dogs in and out of bed and barking. Went in and started work at 7:30 AM. Had an hour off for lunch and went to Dairy Queen for a fish sandwich. Off at 4PM and over to the office to close out my time sheet for this pay period. Home and put things away as I don’t have to go back in till Tuesday or maybe Wednesday. Had dinner, did some domestic chores around the house. Early to bed tonight.

8/2/24 – Friday – Up at 6:30AM. Slept very well last night. Internet was out so recycled modem and router. All good now. Back up and took a shower and got dressed. Then breakfast and made the “Over the Hill” net. Down for a hair cut. Back and picked up Kathy and took her into Bowman Field to the State Police barracks to get the lens restriction removed from her driver’s license. Out of there and back home to pick up the socks Kathy wanted to return for me. Then to Taylorsville to pick up my coffee mug that I forgot at work yesterday and chat with my co-worker Donald a bit. Then over to Shelbyville. Stopped at the bank for some money, then UPS to drop off the socks Kathy was returning. Then back to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants for lunch. They have a buffet on Friday and Sunday. Then to Walmart for some shopping. We were planning to go to Lowes but I think the Mexican food started working on me so I headed for home. Got things unloaded and did some chores around the house. Then a nap. Up for dinner and usual evening routine.

8/3/24 – Saturday – Up at a little after 8AM. Breakfast, some chores around the house and cleaned up. Got some information together and headed to Lowes for some shopping I didn’t get done yesterday. Home and cut some more wood for the flower shelves I’m making for my two grand daughters. Inside for lunch. Too hot and muggy to go back out so went to the shack and started updating my QMX radio. Got all the software upgrades done. Up for a nap. Back down to try some CW contacts. A contest this weekend so little chance of making a slow speed QRP contact. Up for dinner. Back down and put batteries on charge in preparation for next weekend. Then out to the pool for some exercise. Discovered the pump wasn’t running. Apparently a lightning strike was near enough it tripped the GFI breaker. Reset that and all was well. Inside and showered. Usual evening routine.

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An interesting week to say the least. Not the usual.

My friend Jim’s wife, Joyce, had a heart valve replacement this week. She seems to be doing well. They had intended to use a pig’s valve but there wasn’t enough tissue so they replaced the existing metal valve with another metal valve. I’m not a cardiac surgeon so I don’t understand all that. But the good thing is that she’s doing better and expects to be back home by the end of this week.

My friend Lynn is still struggling with the remnants of the storms in Texas. Please read her comments the last two weeks and you will be up to date on that. I still didn’t get to call. I really need to do that this week.

We had our share of storms this week. Things started Tuesday and lasted till late Friday into early Saturday. Most were just a lot of rain and some wind for a short period. I lost one of my antennas that was suspended between a tripod on the roof and a tree. I assume the tree started blowing around too much and broke the wire. We also took a very close lightning hit on Wednesday evening. It took out a port on one of my internet switches and last night we went out to check the pool to find the pool pump wasn’t running. Turned out that the strike also tripped the GFI circuit breaker for the pool pump so that wasn’t running from Wednesday evening till Saturday evening.

With the wet weather this week and intermittent periods of bright sunny weather, the bugs are thriving. I need to go spray for them this week some time.

I did get a chance to go swimming Monday evening and Saturday evening. Kathy even joined me Monday. But was apparently not in the mood last night.

Kathy has been doing a lot of running. Monday she was up to take Chloe to physical therapy and was back up to the Rice residence to watch Shelby on Tuesday as the twins were doing their volunteer thing. Shelby also had some oral surgery Friday so I suspect between that, the Terminex people and the people to install the radon equipment, she’ll be up there most of this coming week. I don’t understand how we ever got along without our parents being so close to us.

Friday was a very productive day. I got a hair cut and we got Kathy into the driver’s license place at Bowman Field to finally get her lens restriction removed from her driver’s license. When we first got here to Kentucky, the Circuit Court Clerk’s office took care of our driver’s license. Then they migrated to regional offices. We now have no place in Spencer County to do that sort of thing so we went to the closest which was off Hurstbourne parkway to do our business. They told us we needed for her to go to the state police facility at Bowman Field (An airport area with an adjacent industrial park) to have an eye exam before the restriction could be removed. Kathy looked several times and they were always booked up. She finally called this last week and the lady told us to just go and advise them that she needs a license modification. Well, we got there 15 minutes before our scheduled time and the folks at that place are really confused. No one seemed to know what the other was doing. But we managed to get to the lady that did know her shit and she just took the eye doctor’s letter and did the change for us. We were out by 20 minutes after her scheduled appointment. So that’s done.

Spent time in Lowes this week gather lumber, paint, glue and screws for the girls plant stands. I cut wood Wednesday and Saturday. Need Kathy to help with the last as I have to rip some boards. They should be rather nice when I’m done but it’s very time consuming.

Had a short day in court on Tuesday. Court started at 8:30 and of course we have to be there a half hour early. So I started at 8AM and it was all over by 9:30. Not a bad day. Then of course I did my usual on the door to the Circuit Court Clerk’s office on Thursday from 7:30AM till 4PM.

Practiced my CW several times this week. I’m doing the CW station this coming weekend for the clubs KY POTA outing. I’m up to about 15 to 18 words per minute. I think that’s as fast as I’ll get since you really can’t write things down at a speed faster than 15 words per minute. After that you have to be able to head copy and at my age I don’t think that will ever happen.

Well that’s about all the excitement from here. As always, hope this finds everyone safe and healthy. Stay that way and I’ll blog at you again next week.