Nice and HOT the past couple of days. Really really nice (for me). Me and the Dog did what we do yesterday after mail run and have stayed that way, except for mail run today, since. I think we really need to live “down south” someplace. There are “colonies” for people like me; I think mine would be on the Moon. (With any kind of luck!)

Unfortunately, our Cooler has gone offline and won’t do anything except grunt at me every once-in-awhile. No cooling and little fan. Tried calling the HVAC place but they were busy. Took a message and told me they’d call back. They haven’t. So tomorrow I’ll call one of their competitors. Already have their numbers written down.

SWMBO is home and trying to chill. It’s gotten a LOT cooler since the Sun went behind the trees.

And I’m rambling. I hate when I do that.

My kind of weather! So we’ve been making any runs we need to make early so we can spend the rest of the day home enjoying this weather. Oh, Yeah!

Been getting my shit ready for Field Day. Made a trip to Shelton Walmart and bought a $50 battery (plus $12 core charge) and stopped by to invite AD7DY to the Field Day.

When I got home, after walking the Dog, I hooked the new battery up to the solar controller, then hooked up the solar panel, and attached my volt meter “just to watch.” It all appeared to work

The solar panel was feeding 14.1 volts to the battery which was feeding 13.5 volts to the volt meter. That should run a radio for awhile! I let it run until the solar panel had been in the shade for about an hour. It was still feeding 12 volts to the battery. I think this will do well for Saturday.

if I get this to work I’ll be buying more batteries and hooking up another solar panel to run everything (radio wise) in my shack. Maybe run a convertor for awhile if needed. Going to set up in the garage and feed the lines through that hole I already made.

I don’t like playing with big batteries since that one blew up on me a few years ago. It freaks me out. I do the connections; but I don’t like doing it. I was deaf in my left ear for 3 days after that battery blew!

Got my new CAT cable today. Except it wasn’t exactly what I ordered. The cable had the usb end but not the other that plugs into the 857d. Not even close to what I ordered. I went and double checked the order just to be sure. Nope. The picture on the one I ordered had that plug and the usb. So I contacted Amazon to return this one and sent a scathing e-mail to the company that I bought it from.

I don’t really need the CAT cable; it would have jsut made things a bit easier. I can still do psk but will have to manually change frequencies and stuff. May have to manually add contacts too. We’ll see.

Anywho, SWMBO is home and we made a run to the Amazon locker to drop off my return and she checked for sewing machine needles (nada). Made a short contact with the Net on 28.450 and now it’s about my bedtime. Think I’ll go read a bit.

Oh, We got peas!

I got to view the total eclipse last August. I’m still awestruck with the moment of totality. There was a big, black, hole in the sky that could have been an entry to another dememsion or a space-gate or some sci-fi thing like that. Cool As Fuck!

Spent part of the day helping one of the guys from the South Club (MCARC) get familiar with how to post to our web site and how to install “stuff” in Linux. Was fun. (I don’t get a lot of visitors. I even forget to offer coffee or soda’s cause I’m just not used to visitors.) Glad if he learned something though. (Even if it was just to NOT try to learn anything from me!)

Then spent a couple of hours painting the doors I started on yesterday. Hooked up this electric paint sprayer thingie and it sorta kinda worked. I feel it made more mess than anything. Would be working just fine but would suddenly spit out a stream of paint. Have a dozen places I’ll need to sand down and touch up. So much for getting things done the easy way.

Sun feels nice when it comes out. Lots of clouds and some drizzle this morning. Sure will be glad when Summer gets here! But it looks like this afternoon is going to heat up a bit. Yay! It did. When me and the Dog drove down to check mail I forgot I wasn’t wearing anything. Made it safely. Thenk goodness.

Oh, had two visits by the Mason County Sheriff’s yesterday. One asked me to pass on his number so my renter doesn’t get “contempt” charges against her for not letting the Ex- get his stuff. Done. She called.

The other was the Sheriff asking me if I’d been contacted by the ex-boyfriend. Turns out he’s been breaking the “No Contact” order about 20+ times a day (by texting my Renter and contacting her on Social) AND he’s not supposed to be contacting me either (since I could have an impact on what my Renter does by threatening to evict her, whatever. Not that I would!) So, the Mason County Prosecutor is going to charge the ex-boyfriend with about 200 No Contact violations. Which will add time to the Assault 2 (federal) charges and possible sentencing. Poor guy just keeps digging himself in deeper and deeper. Idiot.

Door are back in where they belong. They do look a bit better. Not good enough to justify this backache though! I’m getting old.

Oh, part two: got a phone call from the New York office of the Internal Revenue Service. Seems I’m SERIOUSLY behind in my tax payments (to the tune of $93,000.00) and they’d sure like to talk to me. I am to please call during normal business hours to rectify the situation. 1-929-800-4786 if anyone would like to make that call for me.

What a NICE day! About 85 and sunny all day. (Well, not early morning. It was only 50 degrees then. It got warmer though. Anywho…) Dog and I spent as much time outside as we could. He’s NOT a warm Wx Dog! Nope. I went on one of my many walks around the back 40 today, told him he could stay behind if he wanted, and he did! Dork!

Started taking out the Doors leading to the deck to clean and repaint them. Not going to be able to separate the layers of glass and clean the inside like I was hoping I could. Would be too hard to get them back together. Ah well. At least everything else will look good. SWMBO may still decide to get new doors though so I’m waiting until she gets home to make the final decision as to painting them or not. Cause I’m smart that way.

Not a whole Hell of a lot gonig on around here. Just being outside and doing things there while the great Wx lasts. Supposed to be 10 degrees cooler tomorrow. Figures.

My Ex-Renter just called. Again. He pretty much lost me this time. He thought I was a pretty decent person until I evected him for getting arrested for kidnapping/assault. I heard him slam Her against the wall and yell “Fuck You” several times. I heard that. Now he wants his cleaning deposit (after paying half the rent a month for a year when his last girl walked out on him) and bringing this much drama (and the police) into my life. He’ll get it back: minus whatever it costs me to get rid of those heavy assed shelves and whatever junk he leaves here once he’s got “his stuff” out. I quit following him on FB cause I just got tired of the drama and pity party posts. Fuck! I hate being pulled into other people’s drama.

He also wants me to pay for a couple months of electricity. Not happening. He should have gone down and cancelled service way back when instead of letting it build up. Not my fault. Not my job to fix. Not my responsibility to pay it off.

I did get the electric put in my name. Turns out the power was shut off last week sometime. So we’ve been slowly filling the septic since the power for it comes from the MILA. Shit. So I made a run to the electric office and did that. At least we can shit again without worrying the toilet will back up. Just hope I don’t get stiffed for the payment every month.

And that’s pretty much it. NMARES Monday evening Net went well. SWMBO is home and fed and settled in for the evening. Think I’ll go lay down and read a bit.

God, I love Summer!