Today was a holiday for both of us, I would guess… neither one of us moved very fast and we both pretty much did what we wanted to. For me I woke up at 3:30AM… something about some of the meds I take that at the end of the 4 hours that they are supposed to work, I am wide awake… not really woke up cause of back pain or anything else, just awake? I only take those pills when my bulging disc tells me to “ease up fool”! I had one of those attacks yesterday even though it was an easy day of driving and sight seeing, I think it was overload from the previous days? Anyway I did get up and walk in the house a bit, took an aspirin and hoped that would calm things down… It didn’t. So I was in bed but awake till about 4:30 or 5… then I drifted in and out of sleep till about 8… at that point it was get up anyway.
I got up and checked and yep those geese were in our back yard again…
From a distance they are cute but up close that is an ugly bird… they like picking up leftover seeds and acorns under the big oak tree so they tend to make the rounds there maybe 3 times a day… at least this year all the little ones have survived more than a few days… previous attempts on our pond have met with disaster for the geese but this year they are brave enough to come right up on this side of the house, which has been a bit more protected from ? what ever has attacked them before…
I got an email early from a guy that wanted to see the gas grill I am selling… so I said, sure I guess we will be here…
Breakfast was an exciting pair of “Whapping Biscuits”… not bad with some good honey on them… along with that my standard of Cran-Grape juice… It was looking like rain but not raining… so I made it out to the shop and found that my weather station was not getting signal from the rain gauge. So it was all locked up? I tried some resets but nothing was working so figured I would have to take it down? Before I started climbing up on the roof I checked email and the guy said he would come on over to see it… for $100 as is, he took it cause it had new grates and burners even though it looked pretty dirty… but that is how I advertised it anyway “as is”… so I weeded out one more piece of stuff we don’t use.
Once that was done and he loaded up, I crawled up on the roof of the shop (where the rain and wind gauges are mounted)
and pulled the rain gauge sender off… got it down, worked on it a bit and hooked up the old measure bucket (I have a spare) and got it to work? so took it back up and mounted it back in place… well it lasted about 30 minutes and quit again… (note it is hooked up to a different rain bucket on the roof). So now my indication was that it must be a problem in the bucket end of the electronics…
The spare rain bucket with some electronics in it that hook to…
The sender that ? wouldn’t stay on track? it is a solar charged affair and wireless to the receiving unit in the shop so the computer can make the neat webpage
But first, before I go climbing up there again… lunch and a few contacts on 17 meter…
I grilled ( on the Treager)a couple of burgers and we had a simple lunch, again… I got the area where the old grill (a big gas fired one) set cleaned off, removed the hold-down blocks (the wind tends to blow even the grill off the upper deck some times)… then did some digging in the shop for the parts to finish up the block wall under the steps… to my surprise I had all the parts I needed including some lattice work that I can cut down to fit? don’t remember having that but found it in the back stacked under some stuff along with some cedar boards. So there are the parts for a project to finish later this week… but back to the rain gauge…
This time I pulled the bucket and the sender and got them in the shop and did some checking… the old sender would reset but then send HHH to the receiver unit and appear to lock up? not sure what caused that as it usually either works or doesn’t. I played with it for some time, put a new end on the old bucket as it was all corroded and got it to work some but still locking up so I pulled the spare sender out of the box and hooked it up and reset things and as of now… it appears to be working with the first bucket? only time will tell but the bucket was full of crap, bugs, bird poo and other stuff so it may have gotten a bit wet and needed drying out on the circuit card with all that stuff in there? (It prevented it from draining properly) We haven’t had enough rain to test it in months so now? I hope it is cleaned and good for the remainder of this year?
I then got it put back up on the roof and tied down and got myself down with out any problems… whew… 4 or 5 times up and down the ladder to the roof can wear you out? ha! I then sat down to make a few more radio contacts… just about then we had an opening on 6 meters again… although it was in and out for a couple of hours? I did make a few contacts but may have to break down and set out to build a better 6 meter antenna? I have some plans for one made of plastic pipe and wire and since it is not all that large I may try it to see how it works… but it will have to fit in after several other projects currently in the works…
Before I got into this situation, everyone asked, “what will you do with all your time when you retire”… right now… I may have to go back to work to rest? the more I do the more I find that I need to do or want to do and it is adding up faster than I am getting it done… the only real good thing is I can work at my pace and not be in a big hurry anymore… I like that. Also I have not had time to get my naps in either? need to fix that problem as well?
The other day I had the “retired” discussion with a neighbor that is semi retired and his comment was… “I head out to work on the deck and as I go past the tools in the garage I see a tool that reminds me I need to fix the door, so I grab the tool to fix the door and on the way to the door I remember I need to set the water for the flowers out front so I double back and get the water going then pick up the tool and try to remember why I was carrying it? Oh yea the door and on the way to the door I see that something else needs to be moved out of the way and while moving it I figure I better re-stack that stuff on the shelf before it falls down and then at the end of the day I realize I never got to the repair on the deck and the door is only half done cause I need some parts? So tomorrow I will get right on that door first” or go get parts” …
So that is why some of us get busier when we retire…
Oh and I still have some flowers blooming that need to be recognized… but one picture was not right so may have to do it again tomorrow…
WD0AJG