Saturday Bloggin’
It’s 58 degrees in the heartland this morning — and no movements of the earth noted today. Me and the cat are the only things stirring at this hour. Got Starbucks Breakfast Blend in a big horkin’ cup and just loaded the pipe with some Dunhill Light Flake but then it just started raining and the pipe is an outside activity.
I’m back home for a rapid one-day visit with the family before heading for Jackson, Tennessee tomorrow where I’ll be working for the next month. Jackson’s okay though I don’t care for the drive. I’ll be perfectly content when the oil is all gone and the automobile a relic of the past…
I finally broke down and ordered a Kindle a few days ago. It’s been available for almost six months and yet they are perpetually sold out. Long waits for the things we really want (think K3) must be the new reality in the US. But if our friends in Russia survived waiting all day for bread, I suppose I can put up with a long wait for an electronic gadget that I don’t really need.
So I ordered it, and the next day got a note saying it would ship in a couple of weeks. That was a surprise as I expected a much longer wait. The bad part though, it will show up here at the house while I’m in Tennessee where I could really use a few dozen new books in a 10 ounce device.
I’ve been avoiding the national news this week since the confluence of the Pennsylvania primary and a papal visit will no doubt yield silliness squared.
In the ham radio world, I enjoyed reading KA3DRR’s interview with Scott Robbins, W4PA this week but was bummed to learn that ON5ZO would NOT be going to Curacao for the IARU contest.
I think high fuel costs and the every other day bankruptcy filings by the airlines is going to put the kibosh on most jet-setting hamcations — until the government coughs up the secret of anti-gravity wrestled from the aliens in Roswell.
Jarvis Hearn, W4RGN is a hundred years old. There’s a brief little story about his life and love of ham radio titled, Life in a century of change that makes for fine early morning reading on the ‘puter. Don’t miss it.
Got this sad note from Nancy, WZ8C on the FISTS mail list:
Another one of our "Founding" FISTS group is now a Silent Key - Jiggs Mower, WA0FGV #1286. He was diagnosed with leukemia a couple weeks ago. Jiggs was a long-time CW man; his family said one of the last things he did was try to read the latest Keynote.
Since I’m going to be gone for a month, I’ve decided to ship my old K2 off, to someone with better eyes than mine, to be updated and realigned. I built #524 way back in 1999. It’s low-power and CW-only as I never built the SSB board. But I also have not kept it updated with all the latest improvements and mods and after almost a decade of spectacular service it could use a little TLC.
73 de Jeff