Yeah yeah, it’s a recurring theme. I’m sorry. Things have been rather busy lately. I’ll try to sum up what I can remember of what I did.
Got my Extra class Amateur Radio license. Yep. Decided one day to do it, studied a bit, and the next day went down and took the test. Doesn’t really change much for me, but now it’s done and I won’t have to think about doing it later.
Been working. Still got the same job. They haven’t laid me off yet. Or in other words, they laid me off in late August but keep extending me. This second extension is thru the end of the year. We’ll see what happens.
Taking fall quarter off from school since I took summer quarter. It’s been nice not to have to worry about it. Got about three more months of not having to worry about it. Feels good.
Brat’s been running good (for her). Got an emergency brake cable broken, but the normal brakes work better than ever. Maybe have an axle starting to go bad, kinda making a bit of a clunking sound, but that’s not a new occurrence.
The Girl and the Dog are both doing well. The Girl got herself a job recently and is learning that working for a company is not like working independently. Even when that “company” is a hospital (or part of one).
Weather ’round Seattle has been rather nice actually. More than expected. I hear that we’re supposed to have the “worst winter in 50 years” this year. You know what I say? “Worse, or better?” I likes me the snow, and as long as there’s enough that the idiot Seattle drivers stay home, I have a nice time.
I haven’t really been working on much in terms of personal projects lately. I’ve been pretty busy helping out with the local ATV (Amateur Tele-Vision) club. It’s just like ham radio, you chat, hold meetings or conferences, etc. Just on TV. (No, you can’t get it with your normal TV, a little extra equipment is involved.) Anyway, We’re setting up a repeater on top of a building here, and so we’ve been installing antennas and cable, and equipment. We’re pretty close, but there’s still a bit of work to do. You can see the group site at http://qsl.net/ww7ats/. You should probably view the page in IE. The guy who set it up used Microsoft Web Expressions or whatever it’s called, and it makes horrible code and renders bad in every other possible browser. Yes, I’ve harped at him to change it, or let me, but we’re still working on it.
Went camping with the Girl, and old friend, and his wife a few weeks back. Hadn’t seen him in a while, and it was good to get all of us together to hang out. He and I could talk nerdy or juggle or play badminton, and the girls could entertain each other with some chatting.
Also been working with a team on the USLI (University Student Launch Initiative). It’s a NASA deal where teams of university students submit a proposal, get funding, build a rocket, take it to an air force base in Alabama, and launch it. NASA grades our performance, and gives awards for the best ones. Anyway, I’ve been tasked with managing one of the sub-teams. We’ll be creating the primary payload. We’ll be taking pictures and making a whole bunch of different atmospheric measurements. We haven’t heard yet whether our proposal has been accepted, so I’ll let you know more when I know more (or two months later).
I think that about sums it up. In short terms, my life in the past few months. Anyway, hopefully I’ll get back into a bit more of a habit of actually making posts. 73! (Best Wishes in ham speak)
