Things have been rather busy around here the last week. The lawn is demanding a twice a week cutting right now and I’ve been obliging it. The weather has remained remarkably cool and comfortable. I’m certain that will change soon enough.

This is Hamvention week and my plans are to go over Friday morning to stumble about the hog barns. I’ll leave about 3pm and retire to the Dayton Marriott in preparation for the DX Dinner Friday night. It’s nothing like the good old days when I used to spend four entire days in Dayton. I don’t enjoy it as much as I used to, but having gone more than 40 times in my lifetime, maybe I’ve just grown bored?

Besides, when it comes to Hamvention, my heart still belongs to Hara Arena. Whenever I say that someone always brings up the shitstorm incident when the sewers blew out in the Hara Arena parking lot. I was there. The old place had seen much better days and I was there for those too. You should have seen the place in the 70s when it was younger and much more functional. Xenia couldn’t hold a candle to Hara during its golden years. See how any of us look near the end of our lives.

Hara was a concert and sporting venue and a decent convention center. The perfect place to host 25,000 ham radio enthusiasts for a weekend. It had become dilapidated in the 21st century and Hamvention organizers had to move it, no question about that. Xenia kinda saved the day.

Still, I wish I was going to a 1980 Hara Arena this weekend…