Long Days, Late Nights
On Saturday morning I went out to do a few errands, and then spent a while on the radio. We had friends round at lunchtime, and cousins round at suppertime, so it was a good social sort of day.
Sunday was a family day, though I did take a little time to join the local radio club's Sunday morning net at 9am. My brother's family were down from the ranch, so they all came round in the morning, and again at lunchtime, bringing lunch with them. My brother spent a while trying to get his old Range Rover running reliably, but eventually decided it needed more garage work after it wouldn't start at the petrol station he'd filled it up at. In the evening they went off to the airport, as the kids were flying back to school. Sunday evening was somewhat disturbed by power cuts.
On Monday my brother was round briefly in the morning, and we went round to their cottage to hand over some dog food that had been delivered. We then went out to do various errands. We went over to see my aunt at tea time, and dropped in on a neighbour who was having computer trackpad problems on the way home, and stayed for drinks. There was another power cut in the evening, so I didn't get much radio time.
I spent a good part of Tuesday getting my mother's accounts into her computer and then sorting out the reports she needs. Monday evening's power cut, which persisted into Tuesday morning but which only affected a few houses in the area, turned out to have been caused by a cut power wire on one phase. I didn't discover exactly how it got cut, but apparently the wire concerned was lying on the ground. It was finally fixed about mid day. Luckily, my mother has an invertor and some beefy batteries which supply power for the electronics upstairs and for a few lights around the house, so the cut didn't much affect the computer stuff. With the power back, the security system engineers were finally able to test the video link that had been giving trouble for a week or more, and determined that the problem was the buried cable. There was a dog-training exercise in the garden during the afternoon, and a friend dropped round for tea afterwards. After tea I finally got round to deploying the rodent countermeasures in likely target areas. After dark I had to walk over to my brother's cottage to turn out some lights that had been left on accidentally, probably as a result of the power cuts on Monday. I saw a Suni in the bush beside the path on the way there, and again on the way back. I think I managed to get to within ten feet or so of it. All in all it was a very busy day, and I didn't get any time for radio until the evening. However, HF conditions were not good, so I didn't get anywhere when I did eventually manage to sit down and turn the radio on...
Wednesday was a day for packing, more errands, more accounts stuff, more packing, and taking down my radio antenna. We were visited by one of the local fish eagles during the afternoon. In the evening, after an early supper, I took a taxi to the airport, and caught a flight back to UK. It wasn't a bad flight, and I got a bit of sleep.
The flight landed just before five this morning, and there was a taxi waiting to bring me home from Heathrow. I was home by about 7am. I had an hour or so's nap before waking up in time to catch most of the morning's Morse practice broadcast (which didn't go all that well) and then have a second breakfast. By the time I was done with that it had started raining, so I've yet to go out and do any serious food shopping...
Sunday was a family day, though I did take a little time to join the local radio club's Sunday morning net at 9am. My brother's family were down from the ranch, so they all came round in the morning, and again at lunchtime, bringing lunch with them. My brother spent a while trying to get his old Range Rover running reliably, but eventually decided it needed more garage work after it wouldn't start at the petrol station he'd filled it up at. In the evening they went off to the airport, as the kids were flying back to school. Sunday evening was somewhat disturbed by power cuts.
On Monday my brother was round briefly in the morning, and we went round to their cottage to hand over some dog food that had been delivered. We then went out to do various errands. We went over to see my aunt at tea time, and dropped in on a neighbour who was having computer trackpad problems on the way home, and stayed for drinks. There was another power cut in the evening, so I didn't get much radio time.
I spent a good part of Tuesday getting my mother's accounts into her computer and then sorting out the reports she needs. Monday evening's power cut, which persisted into Tuesday morning but which only affected a few houses in the area, turned out to have been caused by a cut power wire on one phase. I didn't discover exactly how it got cut, but apparently the wire concerned was lying on the ground. It was finally fixed about mid day. Luckily, my mother has an invertor and some beefy batteries which supply power for the electronics upstairs and for a few lights around the house, so the cut didn't much affect the computer stuff. With the power back, the security system engineers were finally able to test the video link that had been giving trouble for a week or more, and determined that the problem was the buried cable. There was a dog-training exercise in the garden during the afternoon, and a friend dropped round for tea afterwards. After tea I finally got round to deploying the rodent countermeasures in likely target areas. After dark I had to walk over to my brother's cottage to turn out some lights that had been left on accidentally, probably as a result of the power cuts on Monday. I saw a Suni in the bush beside the path on the way there, and again on the way back. I think I managed to get to within ten feet or so of it. All in all it was a very busy day, and I didn't get any time for radio until the evening. However, HF conditions were not good, so I didn't get anywhere when I did eventually manage to sit down and turn the radio on...
Wednesday was a day for packing, more errands, more accounts stuff, more packing, and taking down my radio antenna. We were visited by one of the local fish eagles during the afternoon. In the evening, after an early supper, I took a taxi to the airport, and caught a flight back to UK. It wasn't a bad flight, and I got a bit of sleep.
The flight landed just before five this morning, and there was a taxi waiting to bring me home from Heathrow. I was home by about 7am. I had an hour or so's nap before waking up in time to catch most of the morning's Morse practice broadcast (which didn't go all that well) and then have a second breakfast. By the time I was done with that it had started raining, so I've yet to go out and do any serious food shopping...