8/9/09

Whew, is it hot out! Summer has finally arrived to SE Michigan! It's barely been in the low 80s all summer, then a warm front brought us 3-4 inches of rain yesterday and now it's like 91+ degrees and it says only 59% humidity. Whew! And I just looked and the forecast for beginning of next week has changed, too. 97 degrees tomorrow & 93 Tuesday! Thank God for A/C !

Anyway....I went and helped out on the K8M Special Event Station for Saint Kolbe again yesterday. We didn't get a lot done in the first couple hours, because of the dumping rain. Then we went out and got the G5-RV strung up (while random people came out of church after mass and looked at us like we were nuts). Oh yeah - I didn't mention it before, we were in this huge, gorgeous fancy Catholic Church in snobby West Bloomfield. www.qrz.com/KA8O So about 9 PM we finally messed around with the radio enough to make some digital contacts, which is basically IMing (don't tell Randy I said that, but it's the best way to explain!) except you can see on this grid thing where you're most likely to make a contact. And it's all over the computer, in fact, all you had to do was create messages and save them, then click the appropriate button to make it type out what you want to say. It's kind of neat. We were making back to back contacts for over an hour - that sounds like a lot, but there was I think 15.

It was fun. I enjoyed getting out there and helping hang the antenna and it still amazes me that a simple length of wire hanging in the air has the power to pick up signals from a thousand or more miles away. As Jim put it - it's part of the magic of ham radio.

So anyway, I'm supposed to be straightening up the house. You can see how well that's going - LOL. I actually have to say that the FlyLady site really works. http://www.flylady.net/ I made a list of stuff I wanted to get done today and I will work on it 15 minutes at a time. Using a timer and a short block of time, it really forces me to concentrate on what needs to be done in one area, instead of getting distracted and working in the kitchen for a bit, then taking something to the living room and doing a little there. Nothing gets done that way and it makes me feel overwhelmed. I have my list broken down into manageable portions, too. My bathroom, the hall bathroom, the kitchen table, the counter next to the fridge, etc. Little things, but once they're done - they make a difference. I was happy last weekend when Ted and his family came over, I had worked for about 15 minutes in the kitchen before they came over and I totally wasn't embarrassed when Annette came in to get a drink of water.

We went to go see Dad yesterday, too. He managed to come home for a couple days, then went back in because he was coughing up blood and it really scared Mom. Guess it was because he was getting dry down in his lungs. He's up and down and wandering all over, so he;s not near the humidifier. So they scoped his lungs again Friday and thankfully didn't see anything. But he's still in and is being a belligerent ass to Mom. She broke down while we were there. Dad's roomie got to go home, so he thought he should, too. So he's copping an attitude at Mom, like she's forcing him to stay there and it's all her fault that he went in this time. Uhhh, no! The doctor's told her that he's not going to get better, they're just trying to keep him comfortable until the inevitable happens. It's sad, but I'm glad they let us know, so we can mentally prepare ourselves. It probably won't help, but at least it won't be a surprise.

Wow, I just realized that I'm totally rambling. Guess I should go get busy, so I can have my "chores" done fore Randy gets home and we have to start dinner. Hope they're making lots of contacts today!