Category: Blog

Monday

Cut my toenails this morning, that’s something else I need to build my own daily schedule for. Warmed up my radio and checked in on WW and my uncle. I’m sweating like I have hot flashes this morning. I moved the All.txt file from WSJTX log directory to the desktop in case I have to look up an old call. I left the radio running last night and it logged everyone for about 10 hours. I changed the attenuation of the USB audio interface on the radio to prevent the radio from transmitting a lot of power while it is running autonomously. (Windows randomly reboots while running the radio software and then the transmit key gets locked in TX.) 15M is dead this morning on WSPR, moved up to 12M.

We both have gotten these very small bites on our bodies in the last couple of weeks. I think we need to inventory our bodies and figure out if we’re getting bit at night or during the day. The bites are very tiny, they don’t swell like a mosquito bite. We don’t have the allergic reactions that we get with Ant or Bed bug bites either. (That’s why I think it’s fleas, we’ve had a very wet month or so.)

It’s almost 11AM and I’ve not really got anything substantial done. Nothing new from our sponsored children, we did get a letter in the mailbox the other day. Pulled some more weeds from the back yard, they were going to seed, and I didn’t want any more of them.

We ended up going to Longhorn’s for lunch since the time to make the beef stew was going to push us to 15:30. We took a nap after getting home and I spent a good part of the afternoon wasting my time reading the news. I submitted a review about our meal at Longhorn and checked on the solar charger replenishing the batteries on our two stationary cars. (There are four 10W solar panels on three sides of our fence.)

The Eve temp shows which way the air is flowing, out or in.
The first fans blow air out of the attic, the second blows air into the attic.

I checked the lawn, it can be mowed tomorrow. I also pulled back the solar charger cord from the middle of the yard. It now terminates at the solar panel on the East fence. The plan is to extend that wire to the gate and run the wire from the gate to the cars from here on out.

Found out what happened to LOTW, they had a network intrusion and they are in recovery mode. For now, we’ll have to stick with QRZ to record our QSO’s.

Soup and crackers for dinner while we watched “Aurora Teagarden Mystery: Three Bedrooms, One Corpse (1994)”

Tuesday

Talked to Paul on CW, well sort of. I am horrible at it. Two months ago I could have made at least an attempt, but this morning I just didn’t remember much. Paul said I need to Practice, Practice, Practice.

I pulled a temporary wire from the four solar panels on the fence and made one wire more permanent. I do think I got bit by a spider hiding on the wires. My hand is a little numb and my two of my fingers are a bit sensitive. I’ll know later today if I got bit and where the bite is. That reminds me, I need to take pictures of the sensitive spots to give to the DOC. It’s awfully hard these days to remember protective equipment like GLOVES!

This is the one between my thumb and first finger.

This is the one at the end of my finger, you can almost see the change in color.

Updated our grocery template for Wally World, it contains the isles the items are found in. (In OUR store.)

An Example of a section of the grocery template. We created this template because we were walking back-n-forth working from the recipes to the store layout and spending all morning doing it. Now we glide through the isles and have a full cart in less than 30 minutes. Not to mention that the sundries are all the way across the store! (Now we get those first!)

We ate a full lunch at 2PM and then went home for several hours to take a nap. We came back about 6PM to eat our dessert and celebrate our anniversary.

We celebrated our anniversary at Longhorn’s, friends there provided the flowers.

Headed home and the sun was still amazingly high in the sky for me to work on the lawn. I mowed the lawn that was quite overgrown and managed to lay down some weed & Feed for a section that needed it. I cleaned the underside of the lawn mower and put the batteries on the charger before closing the door.

Watched “Aurora Teagarden Mystery: The Julius House (1995)”

Watched “Aurora Teagarden Mystery: Dead over Heels (1996)”

Wednesday

Got up and quickly checked the news while sipping on my coffee. Dialed up the guys on 2M repeater they were talking about the usual banter. WW is warming up, so I may check-in with them later.

I bought a power supply that is supposed to be Efficiency Level VI and it gets very warm!

Probably a Counterfeit, the company names don’t match and ETL doesn’t have this product in its database. Another fake product on Amazon. I bought a replacement UpBright power supply that wasn’t efficiency level VI, but it had the right voltage and remained cool. I posted a negative review on Amazon, I am NOT surprised it was never published.

Long day today, went to dentist because they were sending me a overdue notice to my E-Mail. The office was locked, but they eventually came to the door and told me that it was a right off. (I didn’t owe them anything). We went to Wally World for groceries, albeit an hour later than we’d planned. Took a nap but then it was 2:30 before we got up and no one thought of what we’re going to do for lunch. Had soup, but then we both realized that we were too full for a large salad at our friend’s house. Church went ok, but I had a terrible time trying to get to sleep.

Watched “Aurora Teagarden Mystery: Bundle of Trouble (2017)”

Thursday

Still groggy, I’ll probably take a nap before going to Longhorn’s for lunch. Sent Jon’s kids their weekend tip a day early since it’s a holiday weekend. Signed up onto LCWO.Net to practice CW, eventually. LOL

We went to Longhorn’s for lunch, they got pretty busy near the end of our meal with all the graduations happening.

Looked into the counterfeit power supply a little more today. The seller’s pictures of the item are NOT of the actual item! The manufacturer in the picture is CHINA YYWW, really! The other thing I noticed is that there is no manufacturer’s part number listed. Just the ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) which is an internal number Amazon uses to identify the item. (Since Amazon started out to be a book company.) I wonder if I can weed out these counterfeit products by looking for the part number. Amazon often lists the seller as the manufacturer, which is probably almost never the case. Further any research to verify certifications will require clear identification of the actual manufacturer and their part number. (I have found several items claiming UL/ETL and they were not.) In the end it required purchasing the item and researching the information on the item.

Started watching “Aurora Teagarden Mystery: Last Scene Alive (2018)”

Friday

Mixed morning, spent a good part of the morning checking the news and taking a nap. I didn’t sleep much at all last night. No radio, texted back n forth with my buddies at work. Not much from Paul either. Nice day, I thought it was going to rain last night, but that didn’t happen. We ended up going to Longhorn’s for lunch and then took another nap after we got home.

3PM and its sprinkling outside, I googled war movies considering it’s Memorial Day and I was surprised at how many recommended movies I hadn’t seen. Of course, Saving Private Ryan, but neither the battle of the bulge or the German battleship Bismark were recommended. (And I love both movies.)

Watched War of The Worlds for a little while she cleaned the bathrooms.

Saturday

Slept a little better last night, but I didn’t get to sleep until midnight. Bands are not propagating very well this morning and I can barely hear some of the stations. We heard from CS yesterday! That is a soul we’ve not talked to since September 2023. I’ve gotten to where I take a bath when my “Flight or Fight” is up, I used to take a shot of whisky.

A pretty good thunderstorm came through and I turned off the Air Conditioner. I was looking at the drain in the lawn through the cameras and noticed one of them had moved?

When I chased it down on the DVR a squirrel had jumped onto the camera moving it. I saw the squirrel testing the eves trying to get into the attic. There is a small hole on the East side of my home that I damaged when I put on the siding years ago. I blocked that hole and nailed it shut today. (Hopefully the squirrels are NOT in the attic, if they are I put a bundle of wire behind the hole to prevent it from eating its way out. In hindsight, I should have done a better job sealing the attic from rodents. I did check the attic at the opening and the attic for signs of occupation and didn’t see anything yesterday.

Sunday

Slept reasonably well, I did get up twice and had a bit of cereal for breakfast. The wife had some scabbed over bites on her leg this morning. I thoroughly checked the bedding, and I didn’t find any rust stains. I know she’s getting bit, but I haven’t pinned down whether it’s happening inside our home.

Turned on all three of my tablets for this morning’s service and I updating the laptops to make sure they’re ready. I’ll bring two laptops, but I doubt I’ll need them.

I have six tablets each one with a corresponding E-Mail address. What I haven’t figured out is to use 16 or create a new one for 24. 11 is now 13 years old.

MGTOW is exploding in the western world. (*Men Going Their Own Way)
Level one MGTOWs chooses to get involved with women knowing the consequences.
Level two MGTOWs date women, but with no intention of ever marrying them.
Level three MGTOWs won’t go out on a date with women.
Level four MGTOWs avoid women altogether.
Ref:www.westernjournal.com/men-still-need-women-part-one-rise-mgtow-movement/

Monday

We both are still having trouble sleeping. She runs from being cold to sweating even with no covers on. I wake every 90 minutes or so having stopped breathing for 30 seconds to a minute. My mouth is usually very dry and so are my eyes for some reason. I just could not get a head of steam this morning, maybe it’s because I didn’t have breakfast. I am a little tired.

I read (And will re-read) an article published on the Western Journal about Trump’s MEGA platform. It talks about the late 1700’s Cato’s letters laying out where England was headed which is similar to our current path. MAGA’s Intellectual Roots: A Movement 300 Years in the Making (westernjournal.com)

I looked at the air filter on our De-Humidifier, it was severely clogged. (Which is unusual) It has been a while since I checked it, but I’ve never seen it that bad? The coils had also collected a large amount of debris. I took the de-humidifier apart and almost hurt my eye with flying debris. I don’t know what broke, but it hit my face just to the right side of my right eye. I tried a vacuum, but ended up using my hair brush to remove the wet debris. About an hour later the unit was up and running and smelling MUCH better with no mold smell at all.

My eyes didn’t like the ordeal, they were red and puffy. The assumption is the mold growing on the coils ended up getting into my eyes/nose.

We’ve watched all of the “Good Witch” movies, so we’ve moved back onto the “Wedding Veil” movies with Alison Sweeney her favorite Soap Actor.

1. The Wedding Veil – Watched
2. “Unveiled” – Watched
3. “Legacy”
4. “Journey”
5. “Inspiration”
6. “Expectations”

Tuesday

Another night of not sleeping very well, this time I think the cleaning of the de-humidifier was the major contributor. Checked the HAM radio for a little while and the guys were still having trouble hearing each other. Groceries were on tap for this morning, but I found out that no meals were planned. (Just staples) We were going to Zaxby’s, but the salads are not enough to carry us through 5:30. The current plan is to have heavier meals with fixed mealtimes for her braces. Breakfast needs to be pushed back towards 8 from 7, Lunch is also a little earlier at 12 Noon *Versus 13:30. Supper Soup should still be at 17:30. We might need to add a snack at 9PM to help her carry through the night. If that doesn’t work we’ll add Midrats The two days we have to modify those times are Sunday (Lunch at 13:00) and Wednesday’s Supper at 18:30. We are on Week 3 of the Invisalign braces and still figuring things out. They can’t be in when we’re eating or drinking anything but water. We are both used to munching a little between meals so it’s a HUGE change for us.

We went to Longhorns for lunch, I had salmon and she had crusted chicken. We can sort of afford an occasional trip to Longhorn, but it’s about $100 between the meal and tips. I took a nap when I got home, but awoke with my body suffering from lack of oxygen. I have revived the desire to wear a Oxygen sensor and use my cell phone as an alarm to wake me. I also have a recorder to record my breathing on my CPAP. I don’t know of a quick way of catching the central obstruction without a breathing monitor. (The O2 levels will drop AFTER my body has held my breath for about 45 seconds and my heart rate has increased trying to compensate for the depleting O2 supply in the bloodstream. Eventually the heart loses its ability to compensate, and the 02 levels fall sharply afterwards. (Even below 85%)

Supper is soup and crackers and a movie Hallmark channel The Wedding Veil, Expectations. My feet are a little swollen and the undersides are a little on the dark side. I need to start taking pictures and see if they are changing… ? It does feel like I am walking with socks on, even though I am not.

Wednesday

Listened to the WW Net, Uncle Paul is also listening. They don’t seem to have the issue reaching each other this morning. I had a dickens of a time getting to sleep last night. I had general pain everywhere… I took a bath and a couple Tylenol and finally got to sleep about four this morning. According to the O2 sensor, I slept pretty good after that. My tinnitus tells me that I did go low on oxygen, but it wasn’t on the graphs.

Thursday

Slept better last night, I didn’t get to sleep for several hours but I did manage to sleep soundly after 02:00. The O2 sensor did yield an improvement over earlier this week.

You probably cannot tell from the picture, but I am laying on a pillow that’s pushed up above my shoulder. The pillow is on a “Wedge” raising my head well above the bed plane. My head is held back from falling forward by that brown couch pillow. Keeping my head from falling forward is a HUGE factor in preventing my central obstructions while sleeping.

Friday

We’re still working on our Invisalign braces procedures, we have two days that need a different schedule. Gym days and Wednesdays shuffle the times we eat dramatically. We had to come up with a schedule that kept the braces in as long as possible.

Spread Weed and Feed on the back yard to roll back the tall weeds today. It’s going to rain for the next three days. No letters on the CF website today. Pulled a copy of the pictures on my phone onto the network NAS. We cleaned eight of my Wife’s masks and four tanks for our CPAP machines tonight.

We watched “Aurora Teagarden Mystery: A Bone to Pick” which is the first film in a long series of movies on the Hallmark Channel.

Saturday

Listened to the WW Net while I glanced over the news. I made a couple of contacts on my radio before turning off my radio. Log of the World is still down, and it’s been a week! Breakfast was 2 hard boiled eggs and about six breakfast sausages. I need to get onto cleaning our CPAP stuff we are short of hoses. I cleaned four more tanks and one hose for my machine. We’re down to one remaining clean hose and four new ones. Pulled a backup copy of the wife’s pictures on her phone onto the NAS.

We worked on a schedule for Sundays, balancing eating with our gym/church schedule is becoming a challenge. She cannot go four hours without eating and they want us to keep the aligners in for 22 hours a day.

Drying the inside of the CPAP hoses using the dehumidifier!

We did four of the 20 hoses tonight. I’ll try and do another four hoses this week. Took another nap and we watched another Teagarden mystery before spending a minute planning our meals for next week.

I got my DMV plate renewal for the van. I’ll need to do emissions test soon since my birthday is early in July. I got lucky with the blue Focus, it ran good enough to pass emissions testing. (They didn’t even check the gas caps last time, that was the major failure.)

We watched “Aurora Teagarden Mystery: A Bone to Pick” which is the first film in a long series of movies on the Hallmark Channel for the second time LOL.

Sunday

Had a bowl of cereal for breakfast this morning. We are trying a new schedule for Sundays with her Invisalign aligners.

We had to change the time of driving to church, we arrived too early.

We watched “Real Murders: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery” which is the second film in a long series of movies on the Hallmark Channel.

We spent the evening working on planning our meals for next week. Once the meals are chosen, we build a grocery list for Tuesday’s run to Wally World.

Monday

I’ve decided not to put the huge list of items on this page from last week. I’ll go back and reach for things I can accomplish this week and post just them.

I didn’t sleep well last night, and I stopped breathing several times which resulted in me being rather tired this morning. I did have a couple boiled eggs and breakfast sausages about 4 this morning. My eyes are puffy which may explain why my nose is stuffy. I need to get some more rest if I am going to get anything accomplished today. I called Coast Dental; they are only taking emergency appointments. It may be necessary to drive there. My weight is 210, which is headed in the right direction. (It also means that I will have increasing issues with my CPAP.) K will be going to the Gym at 9:10 and she has not made a grocery list for tomorrow. I did manage to replace the memory card in the silver dash camera before K left for the gym.

I did manage to make an improvement to my sleep therapy with my O2 sensors. I can connect my phone to the sensor and it will alarm if the O2 drops below the threshold. (It also wiggles my finger, but that doesn’t always wake me.) The Delema is that my heart will compensate for the breathing FIRST. Then my O2 levels will drop, I almost need a heart rate monitor too. The O2 device does not alarm on heart rate. BOO

Well, I am awake enough to make progress with my teeth situation. But I need a shower and get dressed before I head out to their office. K is home and we have a little time to go to the Dentist office and get our lunches. We received two letters from Dahabo and one of the letters was written by her!

Drove to the dentist office and they were closed, lights off! The office hours didn’t say anything about being closed on Mondays. I called another office and they said the office was still open for business, but might be closed for today. The plan is to go there tomorrow morning. The phone number said “Thank You, Good Bye!” when I called it twice today.

We cleaned K’s Invisalign braces again today, it’s a bit of a process that we’ve decided to do on our evening meal. I created a page in her procedure book for the entire process of cleaning them.

Dinner tonight is Progresso Soup and crackers, then another Good Witch movie before bed.

Tuesday

Slept horribly last night because I decided to have a cup of coffee around 9PM. (Really BAD idea.) Slept in this morning until K woke me before going to her Dr. Apt at 9:15. I created one more page for her Invisalign braces for the morning / afternoon and sent a copy to T. I called the dentist and got an apt Thursday morning for a filling and K has an apt this afternoon for her crown that fell out.

Eggs for breakfast, I am out of breakfast sausages. I had a bowl of SMW to supplement my diet with a little fiber.

Picked up Zaxby’s salads for lunch. There’s not enough time to get much done after we eat our lunch. We put the tubs in the trunk in the hope of getting groceries, but that ended up being pushed back another day.

We went to the dentist, but we waited over an hour to have them put her crown back on. We’ll not put the Invisalign braces back on until we’re sure that the cement has hardened. She enjoyed the popsicles and ice creme bars while she can have them.

Spent a few minutes organizing her procedure book, we’ve added so many pages that they need to be divided into sections. There are plenty of tabs available, we might have to rename a couple of them.

Watched the “The Good Witch Destiny” and setup the next one which is “Halloween”. It’s strange on Amazon, if you look for a movie with the complete name it still takes several pages of scrolling before finding the correct movie. I have to believe that is done on purpose to promote movies they want us to watch.

Wednesday

Making a backup copy of my mailboxes onto a USB drive, they are terribly LARGE! I may try to compress them, it’s mostly text that should compress well. I tried playing back my DVR, as usual it refuses to play a video that was recorded. I think the playback fails because there is so much UDP traffic on the switch. Checked in with Jeanie on the WW Net this morning, the band conditions are not very good. They’ve been inconsistent all week this week. Took a shower and we need to get groceries this morning.

Went to Longhorn for lunch, we had Salmon meals this time instead of salads. Sent a friend $200 for his kids that are going overseas, and we picked up groceries at Wally-World.

We took a nap and then read the scriptures for service tonight. We picked up salads at Publix and had our dinner at a friend’s house before participating in Wednesday’s service. Watched the Good Witch Halloween for our evening after church.

Thursday

Didn’t eat breakfast, headed off to the dentist to get some teeth looked at. I am not totally convinced that my teeth are fine. But the cleaning went really quickly and no warnings from the dentist. Next apt is in 3 months, the 8th of August.

Had dinner at Longhorn, meals this time I had Salmon, and she had a steak. The long story about our meals is that with the Invisalign appliances they are not easy to remove, and you have to wait 30 minutes after eating to put them back in. We’re thinking of increasing our meal size and having just 3 meals a day again. (Which changes everything about how we’ve been eating.) A salad for lunch is not enough to carry us until supper without some starch in the meal. (We’ve been getting Zaxby’s salads every day for $22/day). We’d also like to manage the number of calories, eating a meal with an entire bottle of catchup is also not desirable. Being seniors, we don’t want to spend a great deal of time throwing 20 ingredients together to make a meal either.

We came home and took a good long nap. Moved the cars so we can take the garbage can out.

We LOVE our new dual zone electric blanket, but it needed a few changes. The controls are difficult to adjust in the middle of the night. We learned several lessons from the heated throws, a gentle warmth is all that’s needed. The heated throws were about 110 Watts (High) and constantly turned themselves off. That was WAAY too much heat and we’d get cold about 4 in the morning especially if the power went off. I started with powering the throws with 24Volts Battery power (5W) and that was not enough to offset the heat dissipated through the material. I bought 28V power supply that actually put out 29V (7W) and that worked quite well. The new electric blanket has two sections, each section is about 120 Ohms (100W) max. (One for him/One for her) The 29V (7W) was enough for me, but not enough for her. I ended up putting a 7W throw on top of the blanket so she could vary the amount of heat. In the end that caused her to be chilled when it was just the blanket and sweating with the throw and the blanket. I bought another power supply that was supposed to be 36V and it was actually only 34V (10W) for her side. So tonight, I have 7W on my side and she has 10W on her side, hopefully that will keep both of us comfy! I added one more feature to our electric blanket, it automatically turns itself off during the day.

Watched two “The Good Witch” movies Secrets of Grey House and Spellbound.

• The Good Witch premiere 2008, Hallmark, Watched
• The Good Witch Garden, 2009, Hallmark, Watched
• The Good Witch Gift, 2010, Hallmark, Watched
• The Good Witch Family, 2011, Hallmark, Watched
• The Good Witch Charm, 2012, Hallmark, Watched
• The Good Witch Destiny, 2013, Hallmark, Watched
• The Good Witch Wonder, 2014, Hallmark, Watched
• The Good Witch Halloween, 2015 Hallmark, Watched
• The Good Witch Secrets of Grey House, 2016, Hallmark, Watched
• The Good Witch Spellbound, 2017, Hallmark, Watched
• The Good Witch Tale of Two Hearts, 2018, Hallmark
• The Good Witch Curse from a rose, 2019, Hallmark

Put my nose device on and we headed to bed. My feet need some TLC and my muscles are hurting for some reason.

Friday

Didn’t get a lot of rest last night, but I should be able to get in a nap today. Had two boiled eggs for breakfast while I read the news. I took a nap while she went to the gym this morning. We both took a quick shower before heading out to Longhorn’s for lunch. I got my CAT scan accomplished then worked on the back lawn for a little while. (I should have worn sunscreen!)

Had soup for dinner and spent a good while looking at the solar storm hitting the earth this weekend. Band propagation wasn’t too bad this evening. Watched Good Witch Tale of Two hearts, there’s only one movie left.

Saturday

Heard WW try and get onto the band this morning, but apparently, they abandoned the net today. Talked with my uncle for a good bit, he couldn’t get anything on his radio. I was able to make some local contacts KY and NC, but the longer-range ones were collapsing very quickly. Worked on cleaning off the kitchen table, it gets cluttered pretty quickly. I am getting tired of logging in these Longhorn surveys.

Need to get some more socks, she’s at Target and they should have them. I need a nap, I’m too undecided this morning.

She’s back home frustrated about not being able to find the clothes she wanted at Target. We went to Longhorn’s for Lunch and back home to put her aligners back in. Then back to Lawrenceville to work out the 2nd of June service, then back home to rest. We really need a schedule for these aligners, she cannot go without eating during the day more than four hours. Best thing we’ve come up with is about four hours between the four meals. 7AM, 11AM, 3:30PM, 7:30PM. If we take a little off the 30 minutes after a meal it just might work.

Sunday is going to be interesting. Morning service starts at 11AM so we’ll have to postpone lunch until 12:30 and our snack at 3:30 will probably be more like 4PM.

Sunday, Mother’s Day

No Longhorn’s today, it’s going to be PACKED. I’ll try and talk to mom this morning. My phone is currently on the charger, it was down to 13%. I sent mom a text wishing her a happy Mother’s Day already. I didn’t sleep well last night. We’re still trying to figure out the sleeping and eating arrangements with the Invisalign devices. I think we’ll need to eat four times a day, but she’s thinking only three. Church this morning is at 11, we’ll drive there about 10:30. I’ve already cut up the sweet potatoes for lunch, we’ll add ham and frozen veggies. (I should be able to heat the veggies and cook the sweet potatoes at the same time.) Jessica and Jeff are at a baby shower, so we’ll likely be sitting alone today. WW Net was a bust as the propagation is still bad.

We’re now three weeks waiting for the Estate Taxes to be done. We could owe as much as 7K and as little as $100, I just don’t know. The risky part is that the Estate Lawyers took their fees out of the pre-tax dollars and then didn’t take the taxes out of the IOLTA before giving the remainder to the heirs. (I should have been able to hold it and distribute it myself.)

Monday

During the night I removed the hard drives from five of six of my “Puppies” which are the Gateway/Acer Netbooks that carried me through all the trips to South America. It was MUCH easier to carry two netbooks than a full-size laptop. There are two left, my trusty “Perl” and the netbook that I’ve been using for Home Assistant programming. (Which I don’t do anymore.)

Made Eggs and Sausage links for breakfast.

Charged the three large tablets and let them update on the Internet. Working on the three small tablets and getting them updated, they were still charged even after sitting for a month. Looks like I have one lone ranger that’s too old to be updated.

Updating the 2nd Dell Latitude, it’s the one I loaned out for a while. These are Awesome laptops!

My IT microprocessor exposure is 2 phones, 1 Toshiba Laptop, 3 Dell Latitude laptops, 2 Intel NUC’s, 6 Tablets and one Acer Netbook. I shed 5 netbooks today.

Going to rain tomorrow, but it’s clear to keep my radio antenna connected today for WSPR.

Zaxby’s salads for lunch, it costs $22.24 for two salads which is less than roughly $45 at Longhorn’s, and you have to add the $15 Tip.

Worked on our Day Timers for several hours this afternoon after our nap.

Tacarta bible app has changed it’s name to Life Bible. I also realized that they changed the way to purchase bibles. If you want a offline bible you have to purchase the translation and the bible comes with it. If you purchase the bible app, it refuses to allow you to purchase the bible within the app. (Forcing you to subscribe to their service.)

1. Mark Phone Purchased ESV and KJV
2. Kathy’s Phone Purchased NIV
3. Teal vogtm11 subscription
4. Blue Downloaded NIV
5. Black Downloaded NIV
6. vogtma12 Downloaded NIV
7. vogtm13 Downloaded KJV
8. vogtm16 Downloaded NIV ASV

Tuesday

Tuned in my radio and I had a QSO with some one that I didn’t get their callsign or location. ARG… So, I setup a recorder today so that I can backtrack a contact to get it into the log.

We went to Longhorn’s for the first time in a month! They were all worried & wondering if we were ok. They seemed genuinely relieved to see us. We didn’t tip the entire staff like we’d done for the last three months. I think that bewildered them a little. On my side of the fence, I was trying to offload the Christmas spending while I had the ability. Now that I am paying taxes, that’s just out of my reach for now. We left the women with the Wife’s phone number so they can reach out to us if they need to.

Saw the Pee doc, he ordered a CAT Scan of my lower abdomen (Kidneys & Bladder)

Watched another Hallmark episode of the good witch and we realized that we were not watching them in order. (Even though I made a list for that purpose.)

Wednesday

Jeanie had the net this morning and no one was answering her call so I checked in on the WW Net this morning. It was a difficult net because of the propagation was bad.

Had two boiled eggs and sausage links for breakfast. I even remembered to take my morning pills!

The wife cleared the bed and did linens this morning, we spent about an hour looking over how our mattress is laid out. We ended up with this combination.

1. mattress
2. exercize pads
3. mattress topper
4. mattress pad
5. fitted sheet
6. top sheet
7. heated throws.

We eliminated the comforter, it’s too thick to dissipate the heat if we get too warm. The thin heated throws and the ceiling fans to cool us when we throw off the blankets seem to be very comfy at night.

Took a light nap and we’re having soup for lunch today, Longhorn salads for dinner with some friends.

Thursday

Tuned my radio onto Waterway this morning, 40M band is pretty bad this morning. My uncle didn’t hear my call.

We managed to misplace my Wife’s procedure book this morning, it took more than an hour to find it in the glove compartment of the car.

Combined all the pages for our two mini Day Timer books onto my laptop and started organizing them. It’s a great resource, but now there’s so many pages to keep track of.

Ordered a Queen size blanket to replace the three throws, they are just too short for a bed.

Went to Zaxby’s for lunch after our Nap. We worked on looking for the cleaning instructions for the Wife’s Invisalign braces. We spent a good deal of time cleaning her Invisalign braces today. We also ordered the crystals to sanitize them.

Friday

Still updating all the VPN routers with current firmware, I have 14 GL-iNet travel routers on my network. I also updated my two Raspi’s that are running Linux. I still cannot connect to a RASPI using RealVNC from Windows. (It works from other Raspi’s) I updated RealVNC viewer and it still couldn’t talk to the updated Raspi’s.

We received our new queen size electric blanket.

I converted my side to 9W DC power and I was comfy, it’s a little cooler than the throws were because the blanket is bigger.

Researched all the Hallmark “the good witch” movies and we’ve started watching them in order.

1. The Good Witch 2008, VUDU, Watched Friday 4 May
2. Garden, 2009, VUDU, Watched Friday 4 May
3. Gift, 2010, VUDU
4. Family, 2011, VUDU
5. Charm, 2012, VUDU
6. Destiny, 2013, VUDU
7. Wonder, 2014, VUDU
8. Halloween, 2015 Oct, Hallmark
9. Secrets of Grey House, 2016, Hallmark
10. Spellbound, 2017, Hallmark
11. Tale of Two Hearts, 2018, Hallmark
12. Curse from a rose, 2019, Hallmark

Saturday

MFJ is closing its manufacturing May 17 2024!

A little scatterbrained this morning, it’s 10:30 and I’ve spent most of the morning talking to my uncle and researching the closing of MFJ.

Made a list of my wireless routers to upgrade the passwords.

1. Slate 04
2. Mango 04
3. Opal 22
4. Mango 22
5. Creta 30
6. Slate AP
7. Mango AP

Set my WSPR TX power to 1W. (0.1W is received by only a couple stations and 2W is received by more than 10 stations.)

Zaxby’s for lunch and I’m needing another nap. My skin is tingling and my teeth are complaining that I haven’t brushed them.

Dropped off Lily’s BDay present and we headed back home. I rinsed with Hydrogen peroxide then mouthwash several times until the sensation calmed down.

1. The Good Witch 2008, VUDU, Watched Friday 4 May
2. The Good Witch Garden, 2009, VUDU, Watched Friday 4 May
3. The Good Witch Gift, 2010, VUDU, Watched Saturday
4. The Good Witch Family, 2011, VUDU, Started Saturday
5. The Good Witch Charm, 2012, VUDU
6. The Good Witch Destiny, 2013, VUDU
7. The Good Witch Wonder, 2014, VUDU
8. The Good Witch Halloween, 2015 Oct, Hallmark
9. The Good Witch Secrets of Grey House, 2016, Hallmark
10. The Good Witch Spellbound, 2017, Hallmark
11. The Good Witch Tale of Two Hearts, 2018, Hallmark
12. The Good Witch Curse from a rose, 2019, Hallmark

Sunday

I drank most of my cup of coffee before I realized that the coffee had sugar in it. My two teeth hadn’t been bothering me, but now they are sending me warnings. I flossed, brushed and rinsed with Hydrogen peroxide followed by mouthwash.

I have got to figure out how to divide the day into scriptable segments, what usually happens is that I chain one event right after another and forget what happened.

We went to Longhorn’s for lunch then took an hour nap. We’ve been working on the pill inventory since then. It started storming and the power flickered resetting some things like the stove clock.

Monday

Our bed with the 9W heated throws.

Checked in on WW and put a call out to Pacific Tax service in Las Vegas. I sent him all the information to his E-Mail address to do the final tax return. As far as I know the return does not need to be filed because we didn’t have any income produced during probate.

Tuesday

Nothing heard from Pacific Tax yet. I did get a question about a retirement celebration from doing the audio at church. That’s a terribly complicated story and I don’t feel I deserve more than others that have worked by my side.

Went to Wally World with groceries listed in our new shopping organizer.

We updated our house Day Timer and started on creating a list of homemaking chores for her procedure book. We’ve ended up with three binders to help organize our home. We have a desktop sized day Timer that we annotate daily tasks like appointments and such. We have two smaller 1/4 page binders that have procedures and the other one is a diary for the doctors.

Watched another “Murder She Baked” for our evening entertainment. There’s about six of them Alison Sweeney is one of her favorite actors from her soap opera’s.

Wednesday

Made a trip to get a CAT Scan done this morning, WW had closed down before I got back to the radio.

Took several cat naps as I am still nervous about the final estate return. (I still have not found their tax return from 2019.)

I did locate the refund from 2020 return that was deposited last year 2023. I can use that money to pay for the final estate tax return.

Audio talking points.

1. Others that have served as much or more than I have.
2. Others that are still serving.
3. Previous celebrations/accolades for servants.
4. Time spent serving like missed marriage retreats.
5. Setting up without help and no remorse.
6. Handicapped parking.
7. Setup in a new venue.
8. Setup every Sunday.
9. Running service.
10. Managing the contents of Public Storage.
11. Scripture on Giving, Serving for recognition.
    Mat 6:1  “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. Mat 6:2  “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. Mat 6:3  But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, Mat 6:4  so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 
12. Scripture on Serving, Gifts of Grace
    1Pe 4:10  Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 
    Rom 12:3  For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. Rom 12:4  For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, Rom 12:5  so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Rom 12:6  We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; Rom 12:7  if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; Rom 12:8  if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. 
13. Scripture on it’s God’s money.
    Mat 6:19  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. Mat 6:20  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Mat 6:22  “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. Mat 6:23  But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! Mat 6:24  “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. 

Thursday

Got onto WW this morning and checked in. Talked to my uncle for a good minute as well. I was unable to check the news this morning because it seems that OANN’s certificate is being denied by my browser.

I’ve checked two computers from two networks, and I got the same results.

Mailed the paperwork for our parents 2019 return, it can go three ways and I don’t have a clue how to fill out the forms. No word from Pacific Tax service, we’re on Day 4 and it’s 4PM in Vegas.

Spent the evening clearing the house for our morning guest tomorrow.

Friday

Made a few contacts on FT8 today at 5 in the morning, headed back to bed.

Checked in with Water Way this is the second time it didn’t go well and this time I was chastised for not listening before keying. I think that is the last call to the net.

Moved the cars so the guest can park in the driveway. Had a good long talk with the guest, it was very interesting to discuss African communities.

Saturday

We made a quick run to the Wally World to get a few things, normal shopping day is Tuesdays. I built some pages for the wife’s procedure book for her CPAP mask. Watched Hallmark Chronicle Mysteries with Alison

1. Recovered (Watched)
2. Wrong Man (Watched)
3. Vines that bind
4. The Deep end
5. Heliport to death
6. Series season 1&2 

Sunday

Got ready to go to church at a friend’s house. We made egg salad for lunch and brought seeded rye bread to put it on. I saved the remainder of the coffee, but didn’t drink it. Church service didn’t go well, and I didn’t like some of the decisions that were made. Home for our nap, dinner was soup and a movie.

Monday

Filed extension for our Fed Taxes, I didn’t have any information to file an extension to the estate taxes. Talked to our financial advisor about our finances and the estate taxes. Did some research on filing a final estate tax return which I was asked to do by the lawyers.

Tuesday (Day of rest)

I installed a doorbell on the house for the first time in almost 40 years.

We didn’t do much of anything during the day. I did manage to mow the lawn at sunset.

Wednesday

Back in the saddle again, Got onto WW Net this morning and I heard my Uncle check into the net. Had a cup of coffee while researching estate taxes.

Took a shower and gathered my thoughts on how to proceed. My O2 levels are not very good from last night.

I seem to have held my breath for about 45 seconds….

Converted the throws on our bed to low voltage so they constantly stay a little warm.

Thursday

Could not check in with WW this morning, they called me and then others broke in and NCC never came back to me. That kinda ends the time spent at 8AM on this net.

Zaxby’s for lunch most of the week, it’s healthy and we don’t have to expose them to our illness. (What ever that is, we know it makes us tired and prone to coughing.)

Had a long talk with my Cousin in Elgin, they were not affected by the tornadoes or inclement weather rolling through the area.

I have searched and cannot find the scanner or encrypted USB cards. I don’t know where either of them is. I wanted them to keep track of the estate letters from the IRS.

Have to change the wiring to the garage light, the IDC connection was quite warm this evening and I need to put the dehumidifier back on a timer so it doesn’t run during the heat of the day.

Checked Child Fund this morning and picked up two letters from Josephine.

Friday

Got up around 8AM and sent T some money for coffee. Checked in on WW, I wasn’t awake and did a terrible job. I really need to focus on other things for a while.

I put the timer on the dehumidifier so that it doesn’t add to the heat from the summertime weather during the day. I also changed out the IDC connector for a Power Pole connector on the LED light in the garage. (It’s good for 15 Amps which is considerably more than 1.5A.)

I connected the back yard solar panels to the van to charge up the battery. We haven’t driven either of the cars very much over the last couple weeks. I have considered tying the two unused vehicles batteries together so that they both stay charged.

Boxed up all the newspapers today. I really need to go through them to make sure that there’s not any mail folded up in them.

Research on the 1041 has yielded a possibility that the pretax money collected by the lawyers in the IOLTA may have to have taxes paid on them. As far as I know at the moment the year for the estate starts December 2nd and ends December 2nd. That means there are three years that have to be divided up.

Saturday

Checked in with WW, again it was awkward because NCC lost his radio during my check-in. It was noisy on the radio this morning and we doubled.

Started a laundry load of whites to replenish my socks.

We went over the day timer tasks for the day and looked for items that we needed to have before next Tuesday. (Assumed next grocery day.) We didn’t want to go into the grocery store on a busy day like to today with us being ill. (And possibly contagious)

Put the back yard solar panels on the Blue Focus, the battery was 12.4V. (Not too bad.)

It’s possible that we’d owe 7K in taxes for the estate if the expenses don’t offset that.

Looked for the Computer Share documentation all afternoon just to find out they were just where they were supposed to be! Scanned the papers that I think I’ll need then I’ll upload them to the estate website.

Watched a Hallmark movie before bed.

Sunday

Got onto WW this morning and there was no hiccups today, I did not hear my uncle this morning. Spent a couple of hours changing the names of the scanned Compuserve letter files from last night.

Attended church services over Zoom because we are still ill and should isolate for another week. Zaxby’s for lunch after a nap.

Called my cousin and we talked about a lot of things. RSV, we’re pretty sure we have it. Sweating in bed requires light bedding, loose clothing and always a fan. Canker sores might be solved with tums, which we don’t have.

1. Go through newspapers for mail.
2. Put the front yard light back onto the relay module.

Monday *Taxes 7 Days

Tuned up my radio and joined Paul on WW Net first thing this morning. Read some news and checked my E-Mail. We spent some time talking about ending my audio responsibilities and what had transpired last week. We were surprised that GCS is actually in school and providing the UV glasses for the solar eclipse.

Took a bit of a nap and got Zaxby’s salad for lunch. Checked out the Internet to see when the Eclipse will arrive and made some loose plans.

This is a pin hole projected onto a white piece of paper.

Under a tree during an Eclipse, you see these dancing crescents of the Eclipse.

You can see when the solar irradiance dropped from the moon’s shadow.

We had soup for dinner and watched Hallmark movies until bedtime.

Tuesday *Taxes 6 Days

Got onto the radio early this morning and took another long nap. We got up around lunch to go to the pharmacy and Zaxby’s for our lunch. Then another nap before turning on Hallmark for another night of movies while we recover.

Wednesday *Taxes 5 Days

Went to the hospital Early to get a CAT scan, but the appt is not until next week.
Got onto the HF radio and checked in on WW Net. Took a nap, just too tired and walking around like a zombie. We went to Zaxby’s for our lunch salads and the drug store for more meds. The weather is not looking very bad. (I thought we’d be getting thunderstorms.) Took off the cover of our old doorbell which is now a switch for the attic lights. The doorbell white wire insulation has totally disintegrated and will need to be reinforced/replaced before connecting power to it. I did find an electronic door chime that will eliminate the transformer part. I should be able to put this into the double gang box that the original chime was in. I need to move the doorbell wire to the other side of the electrical box to comply with low voltage spacing. It should be pretty easy to withdraw the 28AWG wire and pull it in on the other side.

Watched a video from Jacoby about Once Saved, Always Saved…
Badly need a nap before service starts at 7:30…

Thursday *Taxes 4 days

Checked in on WW and had two eggs and sausage for breakfast. Looked over our bank accounts and I’m holding back on payments until we get our taxes done.
We did get out and get some groceries with a quick run to Wally World. We had turkey chili for lunch and then worked on writing to the girls then another nap. We watched a couple movies and headed to bed.

Friday *Taxes 3 days

Didn’t get onto taxes today, I did not feel very good. We had Zaxby’s for lunch and then another nap. We wrote a couple letters to the girls, the only letter we didn’t get sent was to Africa. Hallmark movies was about all we could manage until we went to bed.

Saturday

Got onto my HF radio, but conditions were difficult for the net this morning.

Sunday *I am in trouble…

There is an issue with the distribution of the estate and the IRS that will have to be worked through.

Week of 25 March

Crazy busy week, didn’t blog much. We had a routine doctor’s appointment on Monday and they blew out my vein in my arm

I had volunteered to do parking lot duty and that required preparation and 4 long hard day’s work starting at 05:15 in the mornings. The task was to monitor a gate to the field where the dog show was and check for passes to the show.

Sunday was Easter and I’ve decided that it’s time for me to let go of the audio duties for the church. It’s too hard for me to continue getting up at 6:30 in the morning every Sunday and running flat out until 2PM.

Monday 1 Apr

My arm is still waay too black and blue from going to the doctor last week.

We went to the doctor and the nurse just said “It Happens” and to put cold compresses on it. We went to Longhorn’s for lunch and returned home for a nap. We shopped for groceries and returned home for another nap.

We watched “The Robe” for our evening entertainment.

Tuesday

Got onto the Waterway net and had trouble copying Uncle Paul from SC. 2 Eggs and sausage for breakfast and trying to get organized for the week. We both wrote up all that we knew of for the month of April in our Day Timers.

I put away all the stuff from my GARS Dog Show volunteer duties.

Severe weather predicted for Tuesday evening, but it didn’t affect us at all.

Wednesday

Got onto Waterway and “Checked-In”, Paul was at a doctor’s appointment.

Put Anti-Freeze in Blue Focus and took it in to get the Emissions done. Paid online for both tags, so that’s done for the year. Put about half a tank of fuel in Blue and rotated vehicles to put the van up next to the garage.

Zaxby’s for lunch at 13:00.

Initiated the replacement and responsibilities for the handicapped parking.

Thursday

Sent a message to the team asking who would take care of the cones and signs.

Friday

Nobody answered my question by 10PM today so I sent a message to the team that I would NOT be buying replacement cones for the ones that the school took.

Sunday

Drove to the school and set out the handicapped signs on the MHS cones that were there.

1. Clean disposable filters.
2. Pay for Air Filter
3. Social Security (Survivor plans)
4. Mark’s retirement (Survivor plans)
5. Baxter retirement (Survivor plans)
6. Solar Charge Controller 30A.
7. Return equipment to storage.
8. Listen to the sermon.
9. Costco
10. 25′ microphone cords
11. Take stuff to storage.
12. Repair the brakes on Blue.
13. Repair radiator on Blue.
14. Research new smoke/fire/CO detectors.
    Draw fire detector wiring diagram.
15. Insurance rebate check
16. Solar attic fan box.
17. Termite inspection date.
18. Make Dentist Appointment
19. Fill batteries in cave.
20. remove Heat2 Temp and Humidity.
21. PCC on forehead needs to be looked at.
22. Replace dryer vent with one that closes off the outside air
23. Power supply for audio recording on Sundays
    Get battery packs from storage.
    Buy mini USB DC converter and check for noise?
24. Look for another Subpoena.
    (They may not ask us anymore because of a chain of custody issue.)
25. Add relay to refrigerator UPS to charge from Solar.
26. Check on Home Owners insurance for storage.
    They won’t insure ACOC stuff.
27. Fix Jacoby account
28. TurboTax 2024.
    Signed in and started my 2023 taxes.
29. Buy more solar panels in case of NATO WAR.
    Sweden is seeking to join NATO.
30. Change owner of church Public Storage locker.
31. rebuild Attic fan power switchbox.
32. Wells Fargo Advisors
33. Good Will
34. Hand truck
35. Fertilize the lawn
36. Repair the eves on our home
37. Replace back door of garage
38. Repair window in garage
39. Replace seal under garage door
    • Locate part number for Door seal.
40. Two 8GB Raspberry Pi’s are ordered from Newark Electronics.
41. Register with IRS as an administrator of an estate.
    File estate taxes.
42. Put tape over door seals on Blue.
43. Research Lawyer for Arizona

Monday

Checked into the Waterway Net, but messed it up because I was the last person. (I won’t do that again.) I was worried that I hadn’t tuned the radio before the net started, it turns out I had nothing to worry about. My SWR was about 1.4 and that represents over 90% efficiency! I checked my current antenna length and it’s about center of the band, which is excellent for voice and digital. The other two bands are more to the digital end of the band.

Made some hard boiled eggs and downloaded my O2 readings from my finger attachment. We had tacos for lunch and we worked on our piles that have accumulated on the table.

Listened to the sermon and forwarded to the team. Talked about last Sunday just a bit and maybe about someone to take this over, Larry and I are not getting any younger.

Friday, where has the week gone?

This week has been a blur… Monday/Tuesday it was just beautiful outside. We’ve been to Longhorn’s Tue/Wed/Thur this week. We had Chili Mac on Monday and I wasn’t too enthused about eating it two more days. I’ve been on the radio every morning and i made big progress with the digital modes other than FT last night. As though I needed to spend more time on the radio than I have already. Got a message from one of the grandchildren, he’s not really happy with the distribution of my father’s estate. He probably doesn’t have a clue of the sheer difficulty of having the court in charge of the probate. Dog Show is next week, but I’ve not seen any E-Mails but it warns some about the weather.

1. Clean disposable filters.
2. ACOCG SURVEY
3. Buy air filters 16x25x1
4. Buy a water hose
5. Buy parts for bass drum
6. Costco
7. 25′ microphone cords
8. Take stuff to storage.
9. Repair the brakes on Blue.
10. Repair radiator on Blue.
11. Check silver spare tire.
12. Research new smoke/fire/CO detectors.
    Draw fire detector wiring diagram.
13. Insurance rebate check
14. Travelers March 1st $1800.00
15. Solar attic fan box.
16. Termite inspection date.
17. Make Dentist Appointment
18. Fill batteries in cave.
19. remove Heat2 Temp and Humidity.
20. PCC on forehead needs to be looked at.
21. Replace dryer vent with one that closes off the outside air
22. Power supply for audio recording on Sundays
    Get battery packs from storage.
    Buy mini USB DC converter and check for noise?
23. Recycle Batteries #3
24. Look for another Subpoena.
    (They may not ask us anymore because of a chain of custody issue.)
25. Add relay to refrigerator UPS to charge from Solar.
26. Check on Home Owners insurance for storage.
27. Fix Jacoby account
28. TurboTax 2024.
    Signed in and started my 2023 taxes.
29. Buy more solar panels in case of NATO WAR.
    Sweden is seeking to join NATO.
30. Change owner of church Public Storage locker.
31. rebuild Attic fan power switchbox.
32. Wells Fargo Advisors
33. Good Will
34. Hand truck
35. Fertilize the lawn
36. Repair the eves on our home
37. Replace back door of garage
38. Repair window in garage
39. Replace seal under garage door
    • Locate part number for Door seal.
40. Two 8GB Raspberry Pi’s are ordered from Newark Electronics.
41. Register with IRS as an administrator of an estate.
    File estate taxes.
42. Put tape over door seals on Blue.
43. Research Lawyer for Arizona

Monday

Joined Paul on WW this morning, the bands are not open at the beginning of the net with the time change. I could not hear the net control station until about 8AM. Paul did come back and we chatted for a few minutes after the net closed.

Checked Sunday’s recording, good to go. Forwarded the links to the team. My Lisinopril medication is on hold, the pharmacy ran out of it.