Jun 28

Wet Windy Home Bound 72nd Birthday Celebration Today

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Didn’t do anything particularly special. Trimmed back the rose bushes and other plants around the house. Fed the Missionaries (re hydrated pulled BBQ Chicken sandwiches & potato salad. Freeze dried ice cream sandwiches for desert). NMARES (Ham Club) meeting was cancelled so I didn’t have to get out for even that.

Have been out “playing” with my new land plane the past couple of days. Nice! There’s actually some gravel on my driveways. I think this thing will actually be worth the price over the next 20 years or so.

SWMBO’s new door is looking fantastic. Stops me cause it looks like a giant hole where the old door used to be. No mullions or frosty glass in the way of the view.

Jun 21

The First Movie I Ever Watched On HBO was …

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1977? We (the Ex- and I) were stationed at the Naval Radio Transmitting Facility just outside Dixon, Calif, (just west of Sacramento and out in the landing pattern for Travis AFB sorta), living on base, and a friend that lived “in town” invited us over to watch “The Car.” James Brolin faces off against Satan’s car from Hell. Still one of my go-to Saturday movies.

I know; HBO started out in 1972, but things worked out such that the above was the first time we saw it. Sucks being a (poor poor) HM3 (E-4) married with children. And all our friends were in the same boat; as it were.

What was yours?

Took all those old cabinets to Habitat today. Brought all of them back. They wouldn’t take them because of “mold” on the outside. I didn’t see it until the guy pointed to several really teeny tiny ‘spots’ on the tops of the cabinets. Sure. Little bit of chlorine mixed in a gallon of water and soaked up in a rag and ran across the tops would have taken care of that problem. But, NOoooooooo. We Can’t Accept That!

So, they’re going to the dump tomorrow. And that’s almost okay with me as long as they leave my house. So I’m chucking a lot of other things I’ve been meaning to get rid of in the trailer also. Might as well be as thorough as I can. Make one trip.

Hate dumping some of this stuff but it’s been laying around the house for ‘just in case I neeeeeed it’ for 15 years in some cases. Time to let it go.

It’s Thursday now and: speaking of movies. Jaws was released this day way back in 1975. I was going to SAR Wetcrewman’s School in Jax, Florida (where they were teaching us to jump out of helicopters into the ocean to rescue folks) and the class advisor advised us NOT to go see it. So we all went and saw it. And wished we hadn’t. Scared the beezeebers outta us!

We got over it, but, daym!

Went and visited the only other Ham in our club that was going to actually do Field Day this year. We decided that since it would be only the two of us we’re not going to do Field Day this year. Especially over at the other Ham’s house when he isn’t even going to be home. So, I’ll tune in from home. Probably drive over to Shelton and visit the South Club’s Field Day and take some pictures for the web site.

Dump sun went well. Dump trailer worked just fine after charging the battery for a couple of hours. Man, that dump trailer makes a dump run easy. I picked the busiest time of the year to go to the dump though. Cars backed up in both the manual unload and dump trailer lines. About 15 cars/trucks in each. Was there about 30 minutes before it was my turn.

Anywho: things to do before hitting the rack!

Jun 17

Headline Said: “Use Our Telescope To See Things Near!” And I’m Thinking …

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I don’t need a telescope to see things near. I need a telescope to see things that are far.

But maybe that’s just me. And don’t even get me started about having two pair of glasses: One to see things near, and one to see things far …

There Is Absolutely Nothing Going On Around Here!

Wx has been windy with the pinnacle of windy last (Friday?). Great gusts with wind howling around the house. Lost two (2) old trees out on the back 40.

Garden doing good. Started picking radishes today. First time growing radishes. There are more grapes (teeny tiny green) on the grape plant (where else?) this year than all previous. About the same with the blue berries. (I gotta get some chicken wire to keep the birds off both1)

Finally getting all the old cabinets from the MILA and some other “stuff” onto the utility trailer to take to Habitat and let them keep what they want. The rest will go straight to the dump.

Crap! I’m getting old. Loading that trailer ain’t as easy as it used to be.

Preparations for ARRL Field Day begins tomorrow.

What do you call a lesbian on fire? An LGBBQ.

Stopped by Haselwood to get set up for an oil change and tune-up. Truck’s started making that ‘bump’ thing going uphill like one of the spark plugs is fouled. Probably.

The guy looked me in the face and told me labor would be $599. For a tune-up. Nope. Not happening. Pretty sure I can look up the specs and change a spark plug still.

Then I asked how many pre-paid oil changes I had left and wanted to use one. He never did give me a number but DID tell me that they all expire in July. Excuse me? If I paid for the things how can they expire? Sounds like one of the Managers and I will be having a conversation next Saturday when my oil’s getting changed. Then they can read my review of Haselwood on Yelp.

Crap! Just realized I need to change that appointment unless I want to miss Field Day.

And should probably register the RV since I’ll be getting it on the road for Field Day also….

Jun 05

Starlink Died. No Internet For 5 days. It Was The End Of The Fookin’ World!

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Well, I guess part of that is a lie. We could only get Internet on our phones. I live 3 miles outside town on the edge of a forest where we usually get only 1/2 bar. IF we’re lucky. So, even though I can see e-mail on my phone, answering an e-mail takes so long the thing times out. So, yes, basically 5 days without Internet.

OMG, it was rough!

SWMBO kept wanting to ‘talk’ to me.

😛

Starlink was pretty good about shooting us a replacement cable fairly quickly and that fixed the problem. Now I get to climb back on the roof and put the antenna back up. OR I could just leave it on the deck railing (since it’s working there as we speak). The two climbs I made to the roof the other day proved to me that I’m not as comfortable being up there as I once was. At least not until my left leg gets a bit stronger.

SWMBO keeps telling me I’m almost 72 (believe me, I know!) and should maybe hire someone to do my climbing …

Wx the past week has been windy or rainy or windy and raining. Today its sunny, 65 degrees, and nice so I got out and mowed the lower front and back yards. Weed whacked. About to move some boards from under the deck to get them out of the way.

New plastic decking came in. Home Depot driver bitched about not being able to back his semi down the driveway/hill and he had trouble navigating those 22 16ft “boards” to the lower driveway with his forklift thingie. Said something about we should have requested a ‘short bed’ truck; an option that was never mentioned to us when we bought the things. All in all an unpleasant individual.

Anywho, gotta get on those boards. Will catch up more later.