A beautiful sunshiny day here....unfortunately it is only 10 degrees.....todays agenda is a little too busy for me...digestive Drs appointment (no big deal) plus drugstore etc....hate cramming too much into one morning....hope all is well....Ernie you really are able to fix so much stuff some that I don't even know.... 

Good morning Kitty.  Only 15 this morning but a mid 40s day and 60s tomorrow.  Wife's parents

said come up north and bring the dogs.  I will do my best to take care of them while wife visits

with her parents, she doesn't have that much time with her mom while in her right mind.  Could

be measured in months, I think.  That's why we're going up there every month or two.  So I won't

be posting on here for couple days, sorry. 

There are other dogs we looked at and I feel bad for them because I have followed other dog's history

before and it's not good.  We can't adopt them all.  There's a steady flow of dogs that were to be killed

from the south where they don't have our laws to protect them. 

I've had a life time of experience and education as a technician.  What I've come to realize is I'm the support

for the lives of kind hearted people like my wife.  They are the important people in this world.  Technicians,

engineers, scientists, etc.., are here to support them so our society can slowly move forward.  In the case of

this tube amplifier, it's so my brother can use his ham radios, one of the last things he can do.  He didn't

have kids but he did become a kinder gentler person than I am.  There's more to it, we get his antennas up,

his equipment set up, power supplies working, etc...  I was so lucky to find this ham operator in Texas that's

doing the opposite with his amplifier that I'm doing with mine, it makes it possible for both of us, and affordable.

I went to the farm yesterday and did some of the work they can't do.  It's a chore for my brother to walk across

the lawn, especially when it's snowy, icy, or muddy.  My brother and I were looking into ham radio in the mid 70s

and got our first novice licenses in January, 1979.

Our relationships with these dogs is teaching me so much, and to think I could've so easily missed out on this in

my life. 

I hope you were able to get through your day and it's events easily.  I have lots of appointments this month with

diabetes blood tests and my annual ultrasound of the stent in my Aorta Artery.  The diabetes becomes less and

less important with my exercise every day, it's just going through the motions anymore but it takes 3 hours of hard

exercise every day.  1.5 hours in the morning and 1.5 hours in the eve.  I will walk 10 miles with the dogs up north,

not as intense as my exercise on the elliptical but close.

Enjoy your day, getting warmer.

Ernie

Our Monte Carlo SS on Dad's Pennsylvania farm.

home sweet home.   A lovely 10 day trip. Sunny and mid 70’s. How beautiful!  

A lovely picture of you and your wife!  
A chilly welcome home on Monday… in the 20’s.

Florida was beautiful. Another world ~ no masks!

Good morning Susan and Kitty.  Glad you made it back safe, hope Finn is doing well.  It's a

picture of my wife's parents.  We were supposed to go visit them this weekend but we have

two 2 month old puppies we adopted, wife thought it would be to much for her parents.  The

puppies are black with white patches and came up on a transport from Georgia.  They told us

laws are more lax down there and many pets are killed in the shelters because to many are born.

We were to pick them up Tuesday after our visit north but the lady at the shelter was worried the

puppies might get sick living with the other dogs that long.  I think they have to keep them there

until they get well.  I went back there today to pick up some wire covers the adoption coordinator

gave my wife.  Was glad to see the one year old shepherd we looked at had been adopted.

You came back just in time to see the north warming up.  You only missed more cold and snow.

Kitty, hope your appointment and other business went well yesterday, and smoothly.  We have our

hands full training the two puppies.  It's good my wife has two great beings in her life.  The love, kindness,

and understanding will be in the new puppies.  Their view of the world will be through her eyes.  I help

but she's the star.

I have the parts from Texas to complete the amplifier I'm rebuilding to be able to talk to my brother on 2

meter ham radio.  Will get tougher soon with all the leaves and other vegetation growing in the Spring.  I

haven't started yet because we are working with the new puppies.  This amplifier will increase my output

from 150 watts to around 800 watts.  I use a directional beam antenna aimed at where my brother lives so

the power isn't going off in all directions.  Because of the atmosphere I can talk to people in further away

states much easier than 100 miles away in Pennsylvania.

Susan, looks like you had a great time in the south.  

In the 60s today and some sun, hope everyone enjoys the day.

Ernie

Our grandboys picking blueberries Summer 2020.

Good morning all....we are totally socked in with fog....can't even see the hill behind us....and glad we have no agenda so we can stay home....hope your day is wonderful....and Ernie hope we finish your project.....stay well....

Good morning Kitty.  Still 39 out this morning.  I barely got started on that amp yesterday when

I decided to take my bike out for a ride.  It had a stuck carburetor float so was leaking gas all over

when I got it started.  Usually they free up pretty fast but took a while this time.  Put a whole bottle of

carb cleaner in the tank and took it for a ride for almost an hour.  Then I had to let it cool down trying

to keep it from catching fire.  Then took it out for a second ride and it stopped leaking pretty fast.  It

was nice being out in the sunny 65 degrees.  Almost felt like Summer.  I rode Brandy and I old walking

routes for the most part.  Felt like crying sometimes.  Like always when someone leaves, we think we

had a long time left with them.

I have many colder and rainy days to work on the amp.  We even have more snowy days in the forecast.

We had a snow covered ground in the morning yesterday but it's about gone now. 

My daughter and her family came over for pizza last eve, so her dogs and ours met for the first time.  Had

some tense moments between them but they got friendly.

Was very glad to have some good weather to get outdoors and ride bike, also we got the puppies oudoors

a lot.  They didn't want to come back in the house, naturally. 

Saw the neighbors motion light on a few minutes ago.  He goes outdoors all hours of the day and night to

smoke.  Glad that isn't us.  I come up on 15 years next month, and you later this year.  I still can remember

when another 15 minutes seemed impossible.  I would be such a mess with smoking and diabetes, if still

here at all.  I remember it bugged me that I could hear my breathing when I laid down to go to sleep at night.

Have a good day Kitty and Susan.  We have lots of rain forecast for today.

Ernie

Brandy at the top of the mountain on one of our walks.

almost 15 years for us....sometimes can't believe it ....we are partly sunny /cloudy....snow has melted just a few piles left....and it is 58   hope to go out for a ride later....  we have lots of scenic roads around lakes and hilltops...really pretty country.. your neighbor has to go outside to smoke...if I still smoked I would probably do that too....glad I am no longer hurting my husbands lungs....and not going outside all the time....and maybe not being here anymore is always something to think about...

Good morning Kitty.  Our snow gone too!  We had complete snow cover until Sunday.  But it's snowing

again right now.  Our neighbors are from Ukraine, moved to Russia, then here.  Their daughter is still

living with them also.  She just got a car after 8 years here.  I think she has a job now, at least she takes

off a lot.  Actually, they had a place down in the valley first but was in some of our floods, so they moved

up here on the mountain.

Yeah, I would have worse lungs while dealing with diabetes and an aortic aneurysm.  I know people that

had them burst and died, only takes minutes.  I still remember the week I stopped smoking and my

granddaughter convincing me to try that last time.  So many other times I tried for many years.  I still

think I might fail if someone close to me died but I made it through Brandy dying.  Yesterday we took our

new puppies to the doctor and was in the exact spot where Brandy took her last steps.  Very painful but

I have a lot of good memories with her.

The heated seats in my wife's 2019 car keep coming on.  They are working on it but haven't solved the problem

yet.  We need to have them disconnected today, they get very hot and can't put anything on top of them because

then the seat would be insulated and get even hotter, then might cause a fire.  The indicator lights don't come on,

just start heating.

Speaking of cars, can't wait to get my Monte Carlo SS back.  It's so much fur to drive for an old hot rodder like me.

Loud and fast.  And now it looks better than it ever did before.  Brother in law painted it black with purple mixed

in so when you look down the side of it the purple shows up.  The puppies are the most beautiful new chapter

starting up in our lives but like the car too! 

I worked on the amplifier some yesterday and think I might complete it today.  Hope it works because the leaves

will be out soon and will block signals on the 2 meter band.  W can talk on 80 meters right now but that doesn't

work in the Summer because of atmospheric conditions.  We are lucky the internet works year around and vegetation

doesn't block it.  And cell phone, sometimes I still can't believe almost everyone carries a phone with them.  Almost

as unbelievable as most all of the stores leaving our mall.  Montgomery Wards and Sears just about out of business.

When our kids were little and I got upset my kids would tell me to go to Sears.   

Glad you we all enjoyed the great weather, Spring almost sprung.

Enjoy the day.

Ernie

Mounted a new LED light strip on the rear bag on my bike so people don't run over me while waiting to make a turn.

the bike looks fancy.....it is sunny here and 37  no snow..there is a great deal of March wind however......Brian went to cardiologist for a check up and the Dr was so impressed she said she had never seen a man his age do 13 minutes in a stress test and did so well they just told him he could stop....such wonderful news....I wish I was in such good shape....and he lived with second hand smoke  for 30 yrs....