Horse Pens

Tomorrow morning my brother, Milt, and I are going to Robbers Cave State Park to set up some horse pens. He is President of the Oklahoma Equestrian Trail Riding Association and the club bought a bunch of panels to put up at the Park.

I'm gonna take the tractor down and do some levelling and gravel moving for the pens. It's about a three hour drive from here to Robbers Cave so we'll probably get down there about noon.

Joplin Hamfest

I just returned from the Hamfest in Joplin, MO. I rode up there yesterday afternoon on the motorcycle and returned this morning.

I'm really surprised that the weather is so cool. On the way up yesterday, I began to wish that I had more clothes on. It was downright cold on that motorcycle! It didn't get any warmer this morning on the way back to Tulsa. I didn't spend a lot of money at the Hamfest but did purchase several items which I had been wanting (antenna for the HT, speaker for the desk, and a Rigrunner). I did manage to avoid buying a new radio, which surprised me a little bit.

Tomorrow, I'm gonna chill out and do nothing for a day.

Dust to Dust

I was thinking yesterday that very little has changed in what I know or what I do in the past 40 years. I jokingly stated that, 40 years ago, I was soldering PL-259's onto coax and today I'm soldering PL-259's on to coax again.

A lot has happened in my life between these two episodes but it is ironic that we return to what we have done in the past. I would be remiss if I didn't include a picture of me from 40 years ago. I'm sitting in front of a radio and amplifier that I made myself from a kit. In spite of my lack of skills, both of these units worked fine and I would love to have them back today.

One other story about this radio setup: I was living in Stillwater and, one night, I was talking on the radio to someone, I don't remember who. All of a sudden, the signal meter went beserk! I went outside and discovered that someone had walked up to my garage apartment and cut the coax to the antenna with a pair of wire cutters. Apparently, my signal was not as clean as I thought it was. As Stan would say, "Oh, Well!".

Concrete Finishing

I found out today that I am not a concrete finisher. I got by but it was not a spectacular job. My "pooter" is dragging the ground and I'm not going to do another thing today.

Tomorrow is laser surgery on the lenses I had put in when I had cataracts about five years ago. They are going to go in and "zap" the lenses to remove clouding. The opthamologist says that this is a common occurance with new lenses and that they only have to do it once. We'll see!

I spent most of last night listening to 20 and 40 meters. There were some very strong signals on and I'll spend most of the evening tonight on those frequencies as well.

Motorcycle Ride

Well, I went for the motorcycle ride yesterday, about 200 miles, but didn't make it to Wapanucka. It's probably just as well since the last time I rode through there I got a ticket. I finished up the hole for the tower and ordered the concrete. It's supposed to be delivered at 9:00 am tomorrow. According to my calculations, it should require about 3.6 cu. yds. I'll post the actuals tomorrow after the delivery.

I'm sitting here listening to the Broken Arrow Amateur Radio Club net on 146.91, being hosted tonight by Scott Haley, KD5NJR. I don't think I've heard him before but I don't listen to evening nets that much. That's one thing about ham radio; you can always find something interesting that you haven't heard before.

I'm looking forward to the Joplin Hamfest this weekend; I'm planning to ride the BMW up there on Friday and stay the night, returning to Mannford on Saturday afternoon. Next Monday, Milt, my brother, and I are going to go to Robber's Cave State Park and do some work on the corrals down there.

A Big Hole

Yesterday I accomplished most of what I set out to do, that is get the tower base ready to pour. Today being Sunday, I'll have to wait until tomorrow to call the concrete company which means that they probably won't deliver until Tuesday or Wednesday. Thats ok because I'm not in a terrible hurry anyway.

Since I don't have anything pressing today at the house, I think I'll go for a motorcycle ride. I'll take the BMW and go south to, perhaps Wapanucka, then over to Sulphur and then back to the Cromwell area. That ought to make it about a six hour loop.

Blogs vs. Facebook

I have dabbled around a little bit in Facebook but never really got into it. I've decided that blogs like this one are a lot better, at least for me, than social websites for the reason that this mode of communication doesn't carry much social pressure with it.

In Facebook, I'm always being asked to join this or play that or be this person's friend, most of which I have absolutely no interest in, probably because of my narcissistic tendencies. Or maybe I'm just a really unsociable person.

My son, Dan, and his wife, Dorinda, closed on their house in Atlanta yesterday and I'm very happy for them. They've lived in a basement flat for the past year and this will give them more room and give Dan a garage to play in. The bad news is that this means they will be in Atlanta longer than Louise and I wanted them to be. I think, however, that they really do enjoy living there.

My plans for the day include building a rebar cage for the hole I dug yesterday. By the way, the hole wound up being 4 ft. by 4 ft. by 6 ft. deep. According to my "expert" calculations, that's about 3.5 cubic yards of concrete. I'll post a picture showing it later today.

Digging Ditches

Well, today will be exciting. I'm gonna finish digging the ditch for the new antenna tower base. The hole is 4 feet square and 5 feet deep. It will take 3 1/2 yards of concrete to fill it. If I get the hole finished, I'm gonna start working on the rebar "cage" which will go into the hole.

At 63, I should be done with hard physical labor. If this wasn't for a hobby, I wouldn't be doing it! Believe it or not, I am digging the hole by hand. I'm just using the backhoe to clean out the dirt. You can't use one of these in a very small hole.

Intro

Well, I'm gonna try this and see how dedicated I am. We do a lot of different things including travel, riding motorcycles, ham radio, hunting, fishing, etc., etc.

I've never been particularly good at any one thing but I know a little bit about a whole lot of things. I admire people who dedicate their lives to one avocation (or vocation) because they are usually very good at what they do. That's just not me. As my Dad used to say (and yours may have said it too, "jack of all trades, master of none".