Dale's blog. Why would you care?
OK, so I haven’t posted in a while. Who cares? It’s not like anyone but me reads it anyway. In fact, *I* don’t read it either.
Lisa and I went out for a ride on our shiny new bikes from The Bike Way today. One lap around the eastern half of Zorinsky — the part with the dam. Not bad, for not having been on a bike for any distance in a couple of decades. I’m sure I’ll be feeling this tomorrow, and not in a good way… but it was fun and I’m glad we got the bikes.
Wow. What beautiful snow we have. It’s one of those where every tree branch carried a thick, white frosting, makes the entire neighborhood look absolutely beautiful. Of course now I have to go out, fix the snow blower and clear it all off of the driveway and sidewalks!
That’s OK. Sunday afternoon when we land in San Juan it will all be forgotten. 🙂
Finally got the new office / ham shack pretty much finished, cleaned up and took a few pics..
More to come later on.
We had a drywall guy come by about a week or so ago and do some patching and cosmetic work. We had a couple spots of old water damage, some corners needed attention, the new skylight needed finishing off and the patch job I did when we remodeled the downstairs bathroom was less than perfect. I managed to get most of the spots painted OK, though I don’t think there was a spot other than my office where I picked the right paint color on the first try. The damn bathroom, though, has been a real pain in the ass. For whatever reason we don’t have any left over paint, and so far I think we’ve tried four different shades of tan/khaki. All of them are close, but none are right on the money. I’m hoping the latest is good to go, but quite frankly I’m not expecting it to be. I won’t be the least bit surprised if I end up re-painting the entire room by the time I’m finished.
We’ve got a drywall guy here doing some repair work on a few spots that need it. One of them was a patch I did, and it was pretty obvious where it was. This guy’s been doing drywall for 27 years, he says… and it shows. He’s done a better job in a few hours than I am able to do in a few days.
I don’t mind, though. There’s stuff I have been doing for 27 years that would mystify the average drywall guy, too. It all evens out. I’m just glad we found a place that could send out a guy to do good quality work at a rate we can afford.
Well, it was a busy weekend and week here, and it’s not done yet. We’ve now got a spare fridge in the kitchen that needs to be moved this weekend, and the new TV is in the family room. I still need to re-connect all the stereo gear downstairs, not to mention finishing the cleanup there. It’s a lot better looking than it has been in the past, but I’m hoping to give Lisa back her sewing area by the beginning of next week.
Somewhere in there I need to do a little Christmas shopping, too…
Just in case anyone needs to know…. here’s my Christmas wish list. The Harley is about as blinged-out as I think we’re likely to get it, but of course H-D has all kinds of stuff that would be nice as well. A lot of it’s shamefully overpriced, though. I suppose the fairing mount mirrors (91945-98B) would still be good to have.
If anyone happens to hit the lottery, a JVC Everio GZ-MG670 camcorder or a Barnes & Noble Nook would be great. 🙂
I’ve been looking at camcorders. We haven’t used one in years, not since the days of the VHS-C vs. 8mm tape battle. With the coming grandbaby, the occasional step-granddaughter and/or grand-niece running around, it might come in handy for that. We’re planning trips for the coming year, probably including one or two on the motorcycle. After seeing some of the video Kim & Stu shot on their trip, I’d like to be able to do the same.
Of more immediate concern, though, is getting some videos of my kits and the new keyer shot, edited and up on the HamGadgets web site, Youtube or both (or more). So, I’ve been looking at a lot of different camcorders to see which one will be the best for our needs. What a tar baby. Of course the job is made tougher by the fact that, even if you do find a particular model at a local store, or several different models you want to compare, you have no way to view the actual video shot with each on a TV or computer. All you can do is to compare specs, reviews and how the LCD screens look.
Right now the front runner is a Canon, but I’ve decided to do a lot more reading of reviews on line. The lower end JVC Everios are not getting very good reviews, but the somewhat-nicer GZ-MG670 is supposed to be better than the Canon I’ve been looking at.
So far the only ones to really impress me are the $800 and up HD camcorders. Of course. But I’m not spending that much on technology that’s getting significant bumps every year or so.
I added Captcha to the comment posting page. That’s the little thing that asks you to type in some obscured characters to prove you’re a human and not a robot script. Since starting this blog there have been four real comments posted. I have also had to delete several hundred comments that were nothing more than links to illegal drug sites, porn sites, or web pages that would load you up with the latest Windows virus or worm. Or a combination. None of them were ever visible, since I have to approve every post, but it was a pain in the ass. Maybe this will help to stem the flow of spam.
So here I sit, 10:30 in the morning, still in a bathrobe and slippers. I would be dressed, but in addition to work I’ve been getting two keyers ready to ship. I have half a dozen orders that need to get packed and mailed, email to be answered, and still need ot make a complete run through of the new keyer firmware to make sure all the debugging and diagnostic stuff is pulled and all the features work. On top of that I have 50 boards that need to be prepped for assembly… in less than 2 weeks the magazine ad will hit peoples’ mailboxes, which means I need to do some serious assembly work by then. I’m still trying to get the basement de-junked so Lisa can use what should be her sewing area. The new antenna still isn’t up, need to order the support line and insulators. I’ve got a piece of desk that needs finishing. Haven’t been to the gym in two weeks, again, and that’s not good. The list goes on, and on, and on.
This has been a pattern for – well, as long as I can remember. I must have a damn short attention span or something, seems like everything gets about half done. On the bright side, I think I have every Friday off from now to the end of the year, courtesy of my new employer’s crappy PTO carryover policy. Maybe I can get enough stuff finished to get to a more or less normal life again.