“Get Naked And Sit Out On The Deck All Day” weather here this past weekend. Was really nice. Then the weather changed back to cool and rain for the past couple of days. I hate the weather in this state. I see the rest of the country having 70 degrees Plus Wx and I hate the Wx up here even more! Damn.
Let’s see, what’s been happening up here lately.
Saw the ISS the other night. Got out my binocs for a better look but it still just looked like a big bright light moving across the sky. No definition at all. I *need* a pair of “Big Eyes” like we had aboard the various ships I was on. Really. Need.
Right now I’m running celery & carrots through the juicer for SWMBO. Part of the “health kick” she’s been on lately. I don’t mind. Gives me something to do. I like experiments in the kitchen. It’s when they sit in the refrigerator and take on a life of their own I don’t like. Seems to happen a lot in our refrigerator…
Haven’t been doing a whole lot of Ham stuff as far as being on the radio. Still do my usual nets on Sunday, Tuesday & Wednesday evenings. Did make a contact in Kentucky on 17 meters psk31 the other day.
My friend in Pa sent me an automatic antenna tuner that is working real good. Much faster than the manual tuner I have been using. Has a bit of trouble tuning in 10 meters ssb but I think I can fix the antenna and get that working like it should. Need another pigtail so I can still switch over to the 6btv antenna when I want to. (Even though I’m thinking of putting the 6btv on the RV.)
Still ripping our dvd’s but am ripping them to mp4 files now. Mp4 seems to play on everything; our phones included. Now wondering if I should go back and re-rip those I’ve already done to avi… (Lots of work!)
Getting ready to wipe my drive and reinstall Windows 7. Been acting up lately like something has taken over but I can’t find anything. All the virus/rootkit programs come up clean even when I boot from a cd; so I have no idea what’s going on there. A lot of my settings have been coming up different than what I usually set them at.
If I do reinstall Windows 7, I’m going to make some Windows XP/Windows 7 virtual machines and install stuff I use in them to see if I can track down what’s making all these changes before reinstalling in the “real” Windows 7. I’m getting sick of rebuilding Windows every few months!
Downloaded and set up a virtual machine for Windows 8 Consumer Preview. So far I’m not impressed. Seems like Windows wants to be like an Android phone more then anything else. It even has “Apps” for gosh sakes! I still haven’t found a “Start” menu or how to install programs I might actually use. Hell, I may have to actually RTFM! (Oh, my Techness suffers at the thought!!!)
The RV is still in the shop getting “checked out.” So far they’ve found about $3k worth of work that needs to be done on it (not counting the cost of getting it “checked out). Still, if we’re even half way frugal we should be able to get all of it done before our major trip back east/down south. I’m just hoping I haven’t gotten us locked in to a lemon that will never be road worthy no matter what we have fixed on it.
Let’s see. Have I forgotten anything? Probably. Most of my life is SSDD anyway.
Oh, the North Mason Amateur Radio Emergency Service Club (NMARES) I’m President of members are thinking of merging with the Mason County Amateur Radio Club (MC-ARC) in Shelton. Of the 7 paid members only 3 of us show up at the meetings. We have a meeting tomorrow night and we’ll see how many show up to vote on the merge. It kinda doesn’t really matter to me; this club has been pretty lame since I joined a couple of years ago. Can’t get anyone to actually do anything. But don’t get me started!
AND, my laptop is going TU. At least the USB ports and the DVD drive seem to be. Which means my laptop is going TU.
Well, gotta get back to juicing 25 lbs of carrots!