Look Ma, No Hands

Starting next year in California, you can get a ticket for driving and using a cell phone, unless you use a hands-free device. (“CVC 23123”:http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc23123.htm) I’ve done a little research, and found a few products that I like and recommend to do the job. All of the devices listed here are “Bluetooth”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth devices, since all of my phones are Bluetooth capable. If you have a phone that isn’t Bluetooth capable, there are adapters that let you use Bluetooth devices, or you can get a new phone. 😉

!http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/ec39df83-fe4a-4b86-8cf9-8fbd0bc59e03/vgr510s.jpg!
The simplest to get started with, and the cheapest, option is a headset. I’ve tried lots, and most of them suck, especially the ones the cell phone companies like to sell. I recently discovered the “Plantronics Voyagerâ„¢ 510 Bluetooth® Headset”:http://www.plantronics.com/north_america/en_US/products/cat1150057/cat5420035/prod5460010 and it is the first one I’ve found that is comfortable, easy to use, and sounds good. It can also be used with the “Plantronics Voyagerâ„¢ 500A Deskphone Adapter”:http://www.plantronics.com/north_america/en_US/products/cat1150057/cat1150057/prod29870005 to connect it to your desk phone. This allows you to use a single wireless headset with both your phones. I try not to be on the phone that much, but I know people who are. The headset will run you between $50 and $80.

The biggest problem I find with headsets is if you aren’t wearing one already, they are distracting and difficult to put on before it’s too late. (That sounds dirtier than it is.) If you are driving and your phone rings, the call goes to voice mail (or you hit a tree) before you can get the headset on. For these situations, I find car kits to be a much better solution. My favorite car kit was the Nokia CARK-91H, because it was a drop in cradle that charged the phone, had an external antenna connection, tied directly to my truck’s speakers, and it had a separate handset for those private moments. (Of course use of the handset while driving is contrary to the purpose.) When I was forced to get a new phone, there were no longer any phones available that were compatible with it, but I started to really miss the convenience.

I finally found a line of Bluetooth car kits that work well made by a company called “Parrot”:http://www.parrot.com/usa and installed one in my truck. I chose the “CK3100”:http://www.parrot.com/usa/products/ck3100-lcd because I wanted a display for caller information, but I was too cheap to spring for a color display model. They have models to fit every needs, from a simple one that plugs into a lighter socket, to full color with GPS receivers for those of you with PDA-phones. They even sell devices to allow the use of your steering wheel controls to place calls. Most of their hands-free devices support voice recognition, so you can do voice dialing, even if your phone doesn’t, and some even voice announce calls, so you don’t have to look at the display to see who’s calling. If you don’t like to cut into your vehicles wires (who does?), there are custom wiring harnesses made by “Quick Connect Products”:http://www.quickharness.com/donotcut.html to connect Parrot car kits to just about any vehicle with little or no cutting and splicing. The car kits range in price from $50-$300, depending on features, and the wiring harnesses are $50-$150 depending on your vehicle.

Wildflower 2007

I just got back from the 25th annual “Wildflower Triathlons Festival”:http://www.tricalifornia.com/wildflower/2007/ at Lake San Antonio, CA. Now, before you start to think I’m some super athletic triathlete, I’m not. I wasn’t a participant in the event[1], I was working for Tri-California, the production company that produces it. (And by working, I mean volunteering.) I’ve been volunteering at various levels for Wildflower and other events since 1999. Some events, like the San Luis Obispo Triathlon, I just show up and hand out water, then go home. Others, I take a day or two off work, travel to the Bay Area, and help set up and tear down the event. Wildflower is the big one, though. With 8,000 athletes and an estimated 40,000 people in attendance, it is one of the largest in the world.
While the event is produced by Tri-California for the Monterey County Parks Department, the race planning and volunteer coordination are handled by a committee of Cal Poly students. This student committee is responsible for all aspects of the race, from marking the course and setting up the aid stations, to recruiting and coordinating the 1500 Cal Poly students who show up to volunteer. This committee is how I became involved. They are guided by binders compiled by previous committees and assisted by Tri-California staff and the support team. The support team is made up of dedicated former committee members who continue to support the committee after they leave[2] Cal Poly. This is how I continue to be involved. The committee begins planning in January for the event in May, and I keep in touch to offer support and answer questions throughout this process. While I started out on the swim course, these days I mostly support the communications team and the transportation team.
When it’s event time, I usually take a few days of vacation and go up to the lake early, to help with logistics and setup. When I lived in San Luis Obispo, this usually meant two or three days before the event, and the Monday after to recover. This year, since the drive time is a little more, I took the entire week before the event, and two days after (one to recover, one to drive). It was great.
What do I actually do at the event? Lots of different things, mostly _not_ having to do with computers. This is my vacation after all. Logistics is a big part of my job. Getting people and things to different places when they need to be there. This means I spend a lot of time driving. I can drive just about anything on wheels. I am one of a handful of people that drive the fork-lifts, from small warehouse models, to the big, blue Gradall extending boom truck we had this year. I drive 24′ box trucks and stakeside trucks. I drive pickups with varying size trailers. I drive motorcycles. I drive it all. All of this with 8,000 athletes and 35,000 spectators to worry about. All of this with one road in and out of the park, and that road is the race course.
That brings up another large part of my job. I am the Safety Coordinator for the event. This means anyone that needs to drive on the course during the event needs to talk to me. (Notice I didn’t say “wants?” The people who don’t need to drive on the course don’t event talk to me, because I’ll just say “No,” anyway.) I also coordinate motorcycle riders for the race officials and photographers that are on the course. This year, I didn’t have to recruit them (Thank you Meredith), which is great because I don’t do a very good job at recruiting. We use motorcycles because they are similar to bicycles in size and maneuverability, and they are a lot smaller than a car. On a two lane road course, this is key, they don’t need to cross the center line to pass athletes.
All of us on the support team also help everyone else do their jobs, take care of things that aren’t really part of anyone’s job, and fill in where we are needed. This means anything from building a projection screen for the slide show to helping check in volunteers.
This year’s event went very well. The weather was great, it didn’t rain and we didn’t run out of water. Everything seemed to go smoothly. I think we found the perfect forklift for the event, the “Terex/Genie 5519 (or 6622?)”:http://www.terexamericas.com/products/material_handlers.htm (we just need to add lights to it for night work). I made one exhausted dog (and her people) very happy by giving her a ride up the hill to the campsites. I got to be there when my brother came charging out of the water after his swim. The only downside was Monday. Several of us picked up a bug of some sort and spent the better part of Monday feeling horrible. I didn’t make it out of my trailer for the entire duration of Monday. It wasn’t until Monday night that the whole body pain subsided enough for me to identify individual areas of my body (mostly my back and diaphragm, oh, and my head) that hurt. It wasn’t until around noon on Tuesday that I was able to begin re-hydrating. I’ll spare you any more gory details. Before you get any ideas, this wasn’t just the cocktail flu, this was much, much worse. Several of the affected did not drink at all. Despite the sickness, this was still a great event. It seemed to go smoother than some years, and we all managed to have a good time.
I can’t wait for the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon next month!

fn1. My brother did compete this year. He has been a swimmer his whole live, but this was his first triathlon. Congratulations Scott!

fn2. Notice I didn’t say graduate? I didn’t want to exclude some of the most dedicated members of the support team. 😉

Snow Day!

!/images/6.jpg (Snow Day!)!

It’s official, we have a snow day. We woke up this morning to several inches of snow on the ground, with more falling. Neither of us thought to turn on the radio to see if there was school, but they didn’t decide to cancel school until after we left the house anyway. We decided to walk, since it would have taken longer to get the chains on Molly’s car, and a student passed us going the other way and stopped to tell us there was no school. We decided to come in anyway, since we were half way there, and we both have work to do, but it won’t be a long day.

RV Mattresses Suck!

The mattresses that come with RVs are horrible. They are thin, soft, spring mattresses. The first thing we did was pull ours out and put it in storage (I need to put it back in if we ever sell it). We initially replaced it with an AeroBed, but we had to be plugged in, or use my crappy inverter, to inflate it, which is less than optimal. While we were living in it, we put our real memory foam mattress in it, but it’s in the house now. We tried sleeping on a memory foam mattress topper Molly’s parents weren’t using, but it wasn’t thick enough to keep us from bottoming out, and it was only a twin. I was planning on finding some higher density foam to put underneath a memory foam mattress topper, and had talked with Menzo about it, since he was working on the same thing for his van, but never got around to it. While we were at Camping World, we looked at RV mattresses with memory foam toppers, but they were expensive, and you couldn’t try them out. They had a Sleep Number display you could try, but it was even more expensive, and loud, and I’m still not sure we wouldn’t have to be plugged in.

While we were at Ikea, not looking for mattresses, we discovered they sold mattresses, and they had them all out to try. They had all ranges, from futon style to full inner spring, with a full range of prices to match. We were looking for something with a memory foam layer, higher density foam underneath, not full thickness (headroom is an issue), and affordable, and they had a couple of models that fit the bill. We finally decided on the “Sultan Forestad”:http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?topcategoryId=15558&catalogId=10103&storeId=12&productId=41377&langId=-1&categoryId=16085&chosenPartNumber=70094364 because at only $250 it was a good compromise between price and quality and it gives us an extra couple of inches of headroom over the next model up. We can now sit on the edge of the bed without our heads hitting the ceiling. With memory foam mattress toppers going for $150 for a queen, it’s not a bad deal, and it should last long enough with the use it gets. We now sleep much better in the RV.

Around the state in 8 days

So instead of having two three day weekends in February for the two Presidents’ birthdays, Trinity High School has President’s Week, so Molly had all of last week off. I didn’t, but I have lots of comp time, so I decided to take the week off so we could go visit friends and family.

We spent most of the first day sleeping in and packing, but we still managed to make it to Emeryville, where Brendan’s has his winery, “Periscope Cellars”:http://www.periscopecellars.com/. We toured the winery and had dinner at a great Italian place around the corner, then went back to the winery and toured some more. He’s got a great setup, with lots of warehouse space and an office that overlooks it all. We parked the RV in the parking lot the whole building shares, but it was Saturday night, so there weren’t many other people anyway. Brendan did warn us that the gate gets locked at night, and he doesn’t have a key, but it got locked after we went to bed and unlocked before we woke up, so it was fine. On Sunday morning, he took us to the Pete’s Coffee headquarters, where they custom grind a cup of coffee for you, before he had to be back at the winery to help the caterer across the hall with a small gathering.

Once we left Brendan’s, we went down the street to “Ikea”:http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/IkeaNearYouView?storeId=12&langId=-1&catalogId=10103&StoreName=emeryville and spent most of the day shopping. We weren’t planning on buying much, which is always dangerous. After filling one of their shopping bags with a few little things upstairs, we stopped for lunch at the Swedish cafe. They really were thinking when they laid out the store, you follow the winding path through the upstairs and it leads right to the cafe, which is good because you need to regain your strength before you go downstairs and follow the winding path through the downstairs, where we broke down and got a cart and mostly filled it, too. We even ended up “buying a mattress for the RV.”:http://www.mollyandrich.com/article/rv-mattresses-suck After spending far more that we expected, we loaded up the RV and headed to “Fry’s”:http://www.frys.com/ in San Jose for more shopping. The hardest part of living in the middle of nowhere is we tend to go overboard when we go to the city. We shopped at Fry’s until they closed, which was only about an hour, and spent a little more than we were planning, but not that much. When we were finished, we headed south and stopped at Chevy’s in Gilroy for dinner, then on to Paso Robles, where we spend the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

On Monday, we went to a Winery/Nursery outside of Paso so Molly could get some plants she had been looking for, then headed to SLO. On Sunday, Molly managed to get a hold of here massage therapist and arrange for an appointment on Monday, so I dropped her there and headed to TrueLink… TrueCredit… TransUnion… whatever to visit with my old coworkers. I was in time to catch them before they made lunch plans, so I dropped the trailer near my old house, picked up Molly, and we met them and our friend Margaret at “Bon Temps Creole Cafe”:http://www.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=active&client=firefox-a&rls=com.google:en-US:official&hs=pgm&q=bon+temps&near=San+Luis+Obispo,+CA&radius=0.0&latlng=35282778,-120658611,9932007064017866527&sa=X&oi=local&ct=authority for lunch. As usual, the food was excellent. If you’re ever in San Luis Obispo, I recommend stopping here for lunch. After lunch, I went back to my old workplace to talk to the HR person, but she just told me to call the corporate HR hotline anyway. If I’d been able to find that number on the web site, it would have saved us all some trouble. It being a holiday for many businesses, we couldn’t get much done, but we could meet up with Hieber at Home Depot. He had the day off, so he was doing some home improvement, or something. We managed to get out of there without buying much, just some plants (imagine that). We went downtown to wander around and do some people watching, but being a three day weekend in winter, it wasn’t very exciting, the Molly went to hang out with Margaret and I went to the Wildflower meeting. It was good to get to see everyone there and a bunch of us slackers, I mean support team, sat in the back and did “paperwork” while the student committee held their meeting. After the meeting, we went to Firestone’s, and the real work was done. 😉

After sleeping in (seems like a common theme) on Tuesday, we did a little bit of business in SLO before hitting the road for Glendale. We rolled through Santa Barbara at the peak of rush hour, so we stopped for coffee and wandered around an outdoor mall, and we managed to not buy anything except the coffee. We got to my parents too late for dinner, but not too late to visit, so we went down the street to my Grandma’s for a while, then stayed up late with my parents.

On Wednesday, we slept in again and spent most of the morning relaxing in front of the TV. Lilly enjoyed spending the night on my parents leather couch, and I can’t blame her, it’s comfortable. She’s gotten less guilty about sleeping on couches, she doesn’t even bother to get off when people wake up anymore. We were planning on going to the “Huntington Library and Gardens”:http://www.huntington.org/, but we decided to hold off until Thursday, so we could spend more time there. Instead, I spent the afternoon drilling a hole in the black water tank of my RV so I could install a tank washer. The installation went well, except the screws for the bracket to hold the hose connection broke when I tried to screw them into the frame, so I drilled the holes a little bigger and used zip ties. I’m planning on getting some small bolts to replace them. Once it got dark, we cleaned up and drove down to Santa Monica to have dinner with Erin. Out of all of her friends from SLO, we now live the farthest away, and are the only ones that have come to visit her. She even lined up a whiskey tasting for some of them, $5 for all the whiskey you can drink, and they still flaked out. But we had a nice dinner and it was really good to catch up with her.

Thursday, we managed to get moving early enough to get to Huntington Library by noon, when they opened, and we spent the rest of the day wandering around looking at their amazing collection of plants. We still didn’t see near all of it, so we’re going to have to go back this summer. Thursday evening, a couple of my high school friends and their families came over to my parents’ house for dinner, and it was just like old times, we spent much of the night picking on our friends that weren’t there.

Friday, we got going reasonably early because we had to drive all the way to Molly’s grandparents’ house in Diamond Springs. We managed to get there without much trouble, we hit some rush hour traffic in Sacramento, but it wasn’t bad. We spend some time visiting with Molly’s aunt and uncle, where we left the trailer, and stayed up way too late with her grandparents. We didn’t get much sleep, Lilly spent most of the night obsessing over the cat, and checking on us.

Saturday morning started around 05:00, so much for sleeping in, and we drove all the way up to Arbuckle. Molly had a CATA meeting, and I had time to kill, so I called up Hallie, and drove back down to Sac to meet her. I brought Lilly in to play with her dog Echo, but Lilly spent most of the time looking for her cat, which isn’t there anymore. When we were in the back yard, Lilly decided she needed to blend in to her environment more, so she rolled in poop. (Sometimes, I wonder about my dog.) We went to a great sushi place a few miles from her house, and finished just in time for me to leave to pick Molly up. I left Lilly in the back seat of the truck, but she climbed over the seats to get her stinky butt in the front. I picked Molly up and we headed for home, Molly’s FFA students were helping at a dinner for the local Clamper chapter, and we were on track to make it on time to help set up. As we drove north, the weather got worse, and by the time we got to the windy mountain road part, it was snowing. We were the first vehicle to be stopped at the chain checkpoint, and since I was pulling a trailer, I had to put chains on it too. I’ve had lots of practice, so it didn’t take that long, but I was still soaked when I got through. The drive over Buckhorn wasn’t that tough, just a little slow. There was a lowboy hauling heavy equipment chaining up when I left the checkpoint, so everyone was probably stuck behind him instead of me. When we got into town, I dropped the trailer at the high school and dropped Molly at the dinner, then went home to do a little unpacking. It took me a little bit of time before I could join her, I had a little bit of fun getting the stove to light. When we left, I only shut off one valve on the stove, and it was the one that leaks a little, so when I got home, the burn pot was full of Diesel. The cold Diesel didn’t really want to light, but once it did, it really roared. The only thing that limited it was the amount of air it could pull in. When it finally died back down to a sane level, I could shower and change and go to the dinner. We were there until about 23:00, and the dance after the dinner was still going strong when we finally left to go home and go to bed.

Saturday was a long, hard day, so we caught up on our sleeping in on Sunday.

Maggie

!/images/5.jpg (Maggie)!

Maggie’s story began around 14 years ago in or around San Luis Obispo, CA. The details are a little fuzzy, as they are for most adopted dogs, but by the time I met her, she had already had a long, hard life. Maggie’ story intersected mine in December of 1999, when I moved into the house on Branch Street in SLO. She was the quieter of two dogs living in the back yard. The other, Bacchus, belonged to the couple living in the back house and he and Lilly (my other dog) made quick work of the fence separating the yards so they could play. The couple also cared for Maggie, but she belonged to the house. She was old, she had rough skin and thinning fur, she spent a lot of time sleeping, but she would occasionally bring you a tennis ball to throw. When the couple in back would go out of town, I would feed Bacchus and Maggie, and give Maggie her medication in some peanut butter.

Some time in 2000 or 2001, the couple in back moved out to Cayucos, but they only took Bacchus. Maggie was left in my care. My dogs have always been allowed in the house, so I decided to let Maggie in too. It took the better part of a week before she felt comfortable enough to come through the door, she had been outside her whole life, but she finally came into my house, and my family. After a while, her skin softened and her fur filled in, and her energy level rose, and she started bringing the ball more often. I still gave her medication in peanut butter, but I was able to lower the dose. After a while, I got tired of saying the landlords last name when I called the vet, so when her license was due, I switched all her records to my name.

After this point, I began to take her with me whenever I travelled, as I had always done with Lilly. She was always ready to get in the truck and go, and always happy to get home. In addition to bringing another dog with me, I always had to remember to bring one more thing…the ball. She travelled with me whenever I went to visit my parents, and when I started driving to Hayfork to visit Molly’s parents, she came too. The first time I drove to Hayfork, it was straight from Christmas at my parents with all my stuff and two dogs crammed in Molly’s Geo, then home to SLO with Molly, all our stuff, all our presents, and two dogs sitting on top of everything crammed in Molly’s Geo. I think we were all happy to get home.

It was around that time that Maggie’s age started to show. Since I had started taking care of her, she had become full of life and energy, like she was having a second puppyhood, but age catches up to everything. Her eyesight and hearing started to fail. She could no longer see well enough to find the ball, so we bought her one that flashed, and she was happy again. As her eyes and ears continued to fail, she began to rely more and more on her favorite sense, her sense of smell. We had to keep a closer eye on her when we let her out, she would pick up a scent, lock on to it, and follow it wherever it led her. She couldn’t hear us calling her back (or she used her hearing as a convenient excuse to ignore us) and we had to walk over and touch her to bring her out of her scent trance. The biggest blow was in the fall of 2005, when she tore a tendon in her back leg. It wouldn’t heal on it’s own, and she developed a painful limp. Worst of all, it was seriously aggravated by the thing she loved doing the most, chasing the ball. This was most distressing to all of us, so I got everything set up with the vet to surgically repair her hind leg, but when she went in for pre-surgery blood work, it came back with problems. She wasn’t healthy enough to have surgery. That holiday season, she went with us to visit our families for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but she wasn’t herself. I started to fear she wasn’t going to be around much longer.

After all the holiday stress and travelling, she rebounded. She got her energy back, and was able to compensate for her leg, though we still kept an eye on it and stopped throwing the ball when she started limping. I was worried she would have problems when we moved to Hayfork in the fall of 2006, but she had spent enough time on the ranch during holiday visits and the wedding that she didn’t seem to mind. Shortly after that, we moved over the hill to Weaverville, were we both work, and she moved right in with us. Maggie seemed to take all the stress and changes 2006 presented in stride, and I think she welcomed the move, since she would finally have a nice lawn to chase the ball across, instead of concrete.

As the four of us (Me, Molly, Maggie, and Lilly) entered 2007, we looked forward to the new year, but as we relaxed on the couch watching a late night movie, things took a turn for the worse. We heard a thump in the bedroom that didn’t sound right. When I went to investigate, I found Maggie lying on the floor having a seizure. After a while, it passed, and a few minutes later she was up and around again, if only a little wobbly. We snuggled with her on the couch for a while, and it wasn’t long before she found her ball and brought it to us to throw. We though the worst had passed. About half an hour later, we realized the worst had yet to come when we found her on the bathroom floor seizing again. This one was worse. When it was over, it took her a long time to regain control of her body, and even longer to stand up. Once she was walking again, it was clear that something wasn’t right. She was walking, but she couldn’t see. I put the leash on her and acted as her seeing-eye-human as we walked around the house. Molly and I decided to take her to the emergency vet in Redding, so we loaded her up (and Lilly) and drove 45 minutes through the fog. On the way, I drove, Lilly sat up front, and Molly sat in back with Maggie, who continued have siezures. By the time we got to the vet, she was seizing most of the time. We loaded her onto a stretcher and carried her in. When she wasn’t having a seizure, it was clear that she wasn’t healthy. She was unresponsive and her eyes were vacant. The vet sedated her to stop the seizures, and we talked about what to do next. We decided to try some anti-seizure medications and left her with the vet to see if there was any improvement. That evening, we called, but the news wasn’t any better. The vet was keeping here comfortable, and wanted to try one more drug. The next day we went back out to Redding to see her and talk to the vet. The seizures had mostly stopped, but Maggie wasn’t happy. After several hours without sedation, she still didn’t have much control over her muscles, and she was still unresponsive. It was clear that she was scared and confused because she didn’t know what was going on and her muscles weren’t doing what she told them to do. It was then that we made the hardest decision we have had to make. Maggies story ended the evening of January 4th, 2007, but she will always be remembered by those who threw the ball.

If you have a favorite Maggie story or picture, please add a comment to this post. If you feel the need to send us money or gifts, please donate to your local animal shelter in her name or adopt a lonely dog from one and make your own story.

A good time was had by all

People came from miles around to what has been described as “the best wedding I’ve ever been to” by more than one guest. There were fireworks Friday night, amazing food all weekend, and lots of beer and wine. If you were there, you don’t need a description. If you didn’t make it, you missed out. Thank you all for a wonderful time and all the gifts, and thank you for making the long trek to see us. There are some pictures from the wedding weekend “on Flickr,”:http://www.flickr.com/groups/richmollywedding/ please add your pictures to the group so everyone can find them. That will just about do it for this section, but keep an eye on the “main page”:http://www.mollyandrich.com for updates on our life.

It’s been a while

We’ve been a little busy lately, so we haven’t been updating the site much, plus nobody reads it anyway. We’re settling in to our new jobs and lives. We found a house to rent in Weaverville, so our commute is now fifteen minutes (if we walk). There is a spare bedroom, so come on up and visit, just give us some warning so we can turn the heat on. We had the first snow on Monday, and it didn’t completely melt until Tuesday, but it’s been dry since then. We’re supposed to get more rain/snow later this week. It’s been dropping to just about freezing overnight for a few weeks now, but warming up in the afternoons.

In other news, the Treasure Island Triathlon was a week or so ago and it went great. I drove down after work on Friday and came back Sunday night, just like the old days. I miss being able to take a day off on either side, but the drive time is about the same as it was from SLO. Molly couldn’t make this one, she was in Santa Rosa Thursday and Friday. We were going to pass each other on Friday night, and so we stopped in Williams for hugs and kisses on the way. The event went smooth, and I even had time to take a nap on Sunday. This was the last event of a busy TriCal season, so my weekends are a little less busy, just in time for holiday travelling. It’s nice to hang out with friends from my preivous life.

“Me and Coach at Treasure Island”:http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcgreenw/298323196/

I also had a chance to talk on the air with Rob, who “just got his Amateur Radio license.”:http://rcpeters.blogspot.com/2006/11/ki6gfr.html Contratulations, Rob! I’m working on getting an outside antenna so I can hit some repeaters around here. If I can hit one that supports EchoLink or IRLP, I can connect to some Bay Area and SLO repeaters and keep in touch with friends. I might even look in to setting up a local IRLP node, since the school has decent connectivity.

BTW, you might notice the timestamp indicates I posted this from work. Unlike some people I know, I didn’t change the timestamp to make it appear that I bent the laws of physics and posted it in the future. I just took a break and posted it during work. I don’t currently have internet access at home, anyway, and I might not for some time.

Getting married, moving, starting a new job…

They say that getting married, moving, and starting a new job are three of the most stressful things that can happen to a person. We’re doing all three. The first one is out of the way, the second two are in progress. Molly moved a month or so ago and started her new job a couple of weeks ago, and I will move and start mine in a couple of weeks. (Now that others have made this public, I can.) The two dogs, Molly, and I will be living in our RV (see previous post) on the ranch until we can find a place of our own. If anyone would like to visit, let us know. We should be able to arrange for a place for a couple of friends to sleep for a weekend. Once we get our own place, we’ll invite everyone up for a housewarming.

Trinity County Amateur Radio Repeaters

For those of you that are Hams, there are a couple of repeaters in the area. I’ll try to figure out which one has the best coverage at the ranch and I’ll monitor it for talking people in. I’ll probably scan all of them when I’m near a radio. This page lists them all:
“http://www.tcoek12.org/~tcarc/tcrptr.html”:http://www.tcoek12.org/~tcarc/tcrptr.html