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.