Got off my lazy, fat, old, ass, mixed some cement and set those posts I’ve been meaning to set. Then spent the greater part of the early afternoon painting that brand new picket fence I put around the animal’s Poop Yard. Oh, the joy. Too bad the neighbors think you have to be wearing clothes to paint the fence. (I’d bet they’re fully clothed to procreate.)

Luckily it’s been a pretty nice day out. Not as hot as yesterday, when I got out and ran the rider-mower around all the yards just to stay outside, but nice enough. Somewhat of a breeze occasionally.

Also climbed up on the roof and re-strung the wires on my multi-band fan dipole. I think it’s about time to replace/rebuild it as all the wires are losing their outer plastic coating. It really has been a great antenna.

MCARC 2-meter Wednesday Chat Net went well. Not as many check-ins tonight, but it was interesting all the same.

And that’s pretty much it. Getting late.

Had to go to the Good-To-Go place in Gig Harbor. Asked them why, since I’ve been signed up for Good-To-Go since <forever> I’m getting toll bills, two of which have escalated to FINED status? Isn’t the Toll supposed to be automatically deducted from my GTG account? (Which has $30 still in it.)

Took the very nice lady helping me a long time, half an hour of which I could swear she had me have a seat and wait so she could get something to eat, to get it all straightened out. Sort of. Seems their computer isn’t recognizing my Special Plate (my Call Sign) as a passenger vehicle so it sends me a bill automatically.

So that’s all straightened out. Except I still have to go to Fife (or Seattle) Court for the fines. The GTG office can’t “fix” those since they’ve escalated to Fines. Still, other than the hassle of going to Fife (or Seattle)(oh, btw, paying a Toll along the way) the “charges” should be dropped. I wouldn’t bet on that it being this State though. This is the most Fucked Up State in the Country.

Other than that not much going on. Hot as yesterday was today. Which I like. Didn’t do much of anything yesterday, it being Sunday and all. MCARC 2-meter Sunday Evening Chat Net went well but not as many check-ins as the previous week. Wx was too nice.

Got out and mowed the back yard and am thinking of doing same to the front-lower yard; but think I’ll wait until the trees are blocking the afternoon sun. It is rather warm out there today. (Which I really do like. I’d much rather be too hot than too cold any day!) Later I went out and mowed the front-lower yard and the Poop Yard.

I should be at the Beach.

Yesterday, my lovely-young-bride, when she got home after Church, suggested that we go over and mow our neighbors yard. He’s been gone a couple of months and his yard is a bit overgrown. So we did until her weed-whacker mower quit working. I still rode the rider-mower around until it got in to grass too deep for it to cut. So, that was fun. It was the hottest part of the afternoon too. (It got up near 100 degrees here yesterday!)

Y’all have a nice night!

Got out and started my little generator shortly after SWMBO left for the Genealogy Library, and just let it run until it started chugging. Took 3.5 hours. So this thing ran on one tank of gas for 5.5 hours. Not bad. Had it hooked into the Caravan. Had my radio and laptop set up and running. Even transmitted some (25 watts on 14.070 PSK31) which only slightly slowed the generator down. So, it’ll work just fine for Field Day (I think). Nothing like empirical data to figure things out. (Climate Scientists Take Note!)

SWMBO got home and took me straight out to KFC in Gig Harbor for dinner. Then a quick stop at Home Depot for a couple of things. Our usual stop at Safeway, and we’re home. Everything’s unloaded and we’re settling in.

I may reload the generator and run it some more since it is kind of early. Or, since I know it works, I could just bring everything back in the house and set it back up well before our Sunday Evening Chat Net. Helps to be prepared.

Decided to just go with a 2m/70cm radio for my truck. I can’t think of a time I’d be trying to make world wide contacts while driving down the road. Not even for the noon-time net on 7268.5. But I can see pre-programming for 2-meters/440 before a trip and talking on those. So, I’ve been looking at dual band radios most of the day and am thinking of the Wouxun KG-UV920P. Most of the reviews (actual users) have been good. Butt-ton of video’s on YouTube about them. Sure, some folks have had problems; but what consumer item doesn’t have some trouble for some folks? And it’s not too spendy.

And for actual trips (camping trips) I’ll mount my 857D in the Caravan. If I got  one of those Alpha EzMilitary antenna’s, I should be able to get on-air easily.

I won’t mention that it was over 80 degrees today.

So I worked outside as much as possible today. Naturally. Mowed the back yard. Wired the Caravan for my radio and got that working. Ran my new little generator for a couple of hours to see how much fuel it would use (hardly any).

Had to drop SWMBO off at the Ferry Landing this morning. We left at her usual time only to find traffic backed up (Big time!) in Belfair due to construction. So we took Old Belfair Highway. Slower but at least we were moving. She barely made the Ferry. (She says she was the last person to get on it.) She e-mailed me that she was going to leave at 0530 from now on. Yeah. Sure. That’ll happen about the same time as pigs learn to fly. (But you didn’t hear that from me!)

Picked her up at the Bus stop here in Belfair and took her to dinner at Taco Bell. We be home now and starting to wind down…

Radio is working fine in the Caravan and I got no SWR on 20-meters at all. Generator is a little electronically noisy (spits out static) but that pretty much stopped when I moved it 20 feet from the Caravan/Antenna. Seemed to work okay. I’ll give it an all day test Sunday into Monday just to be sure. This is the most I’ve ever prepped for Field Day.