I’d say that it is about as SSDD around here as SSDD ever gets. Wx is holding out; mostly. Is a LOT cooler but, so far, hasn’t been too bad. The Tree-of-Winter-Doom is starting to change colors though.

Had to take my truck to Les Swab’s to get the driver’s side rear tire patched. Picked up another screw somwwhere. That’s three. Three times that tire has been literally screwed.

Still haven’t gotten my tower up. Couldn’t tell you why except that I haven’t really felt like delving into that yet.

Dog and I still go for our daily walk. Getting harder though. Used to walk 4 or 5 miles a day. Lucky if I make 1.5 now. Just get tired, achey, and dizzy and can’t make it as far. Think I ought to go get checked out. Heck, I’m only a 65 year old ex-smoker ex-drunk who hasn’t done a lick of exercise since retireing from the Navy. (Fuck Me! That was 26 years ago!) Do like my walks though.

Baked a couple dozen peanut butter cookies today. Made them a bit overdone like SWMBO likes them. They’s good.

SWMBO is home and fed. The MCARC 10-meter Tuesday Evening Chat Net went well. (My antenna actually tuned tonight!)

Think I’m gonna go lay down and read a bit.

Had to go and see when the last time I posted was. A Week Ago! Damn! What the Hell have I been doing?

Well, Saturday Date with SWMBO. Who knows for the rest. Things around the house. Put the rebar cage together in the tower hole. Ordered Concrete. Ate a butt-ton of ripe black berries.

Wx has been hot and humid. Last couple of days the air has been smokey smelling, the sun has had a reddish cast, and the moon is almost blood colored at night. Fires in Eastern Washington and Oregon trying to burn us off the map. People with breathing difficulties having a hard time with it around here.

Got my concrete placed today at about 1430. Nice! Bubble stayed plumb on the bottom tower section. Nice! Didn’t have to adjust it any at the end of the pour. Nice!

And that’s it. I just haven’t been doing anything but enjoying these last few days of summer, eating a lot of black berries, and going for walks around the back 40 while we can.

One of their Manager’s called me in response to my return e-mail (basically a copy of my last post). To boil it down: Yes, I’ve just been fucked out of $90 for those coupons, and, No, I didn’t get double charged for an oil change. So, I still have 9 oil changes, 9 tire rotations, and (?#) of windshield wiper changes to go. Thanks for your business and have a nice day.

Not a whole hell of a lot been gong on around here. Really nice days so the Dog and I have been outside as much as possible. Making our usual daily mile or two.

I’ve been getting more and more dizzy and tired when we do get out and walk. Legs get really tired. Not short of breath or anything; just dizzy and tired. It’s like my get up and go got up and went. Maybe I shouldn’t have quit smoking.

Sometimes the depression really kicks in for a few minutes during the day. That’s when I really have to get off my ass and go for a walk. I’m about black berried out from all the black berry’s I eat on my walks out back! The sweet berries make me feel good. The sour berries make me want to kill the whole world and shit on it’s grave.

Well, maybe not that bad.

But I sure ain’t looking forward to Winter.

MCARC 2-meter Wednesday Chat Net went well. Repeater seems to be working pretty good!

I’m going to bed.

Been kinda sorta mostly busy doing the things around the house I been meaning to do. Working on the front steps (man! Tired of shoveling dirt and moving manor stones!) until it gets too warm.

Gardening (things are growing great!). Yesterday I mowed all the lawns. Today I whack-weeded most of them. Also got out the tri-blade whack-weeder and went after some of those black berry bushes trying to take over the back yards. Took out a lot of those! (Not as many as I need to, but, hey, some at least.)

Picked about 5 lbs of blackberries and boiled them down. Strained most of the pulp out and have about a half-gallon of blackberry juice I can do stuff with now. I may pick some more.

MAY have a space in a RV park in Scio, Oregon to watch the eclipse from. Gotta call tomorrow to make sure of it. If not, for some reason, I’ll probably just get up at zero-dark-thirty that morning and drive to John Day and watch it from the side of the road. Bout tempted to do that anyway. Would be easier.

Been mostly hot around here Wx wise. Had some rain last Saturday night-Sunday morning. We needed it but I sure wouldn’t want to get in the habit of having it around a lot. (Dreading this winter. Really dreading it.)

Speaking of which; the salmon-counting station has been set up down by the river so summer is just about over. Now I check the tree-of-winter-doom for color changes every day. Once that process starts summer will really be over.