Boxing day on the Monument

We took a little road trip this afternoon with the dogs to the Colorado National Monument. I've only been there for work related reasons since the main FM site is behind the monument. The pix are a bit 'fuzzy' since they were taken with my Palm (we forgot the real camera).
We got back home in time for the sunset. The dogs had as good of a time as the people.

XMAS

We opened presents today under our "christmas tree" and hung the ornaments that 'Pete' and Ione sent us on it. They were the only ornaments on the "tree" that we had. Bill got Mocha a squeeky toy bone and we got Kelly a mallard.
We send out our thanks to 'Pete' and Ione for the candles w. the snow-flake holders (as well as the telescope). Susie got a new dishwasher (see 12-Dec) and she "got me" the box set of the extended LOTR series.
I haven't said anything about my side of the familiy because we were gonna go over there but cancelled at the last minute. So we'll have to do all the xmas stuff via long distance.

Val got his blog up

Click here for Val's blog

The work week is done

After spending the majority of the past few days holed up in a small studio under construction it is good to know that I have a few days off (don't have to go back till Tuesday - ain't that a band name!)
Mocha is still doing great - Susie is certain that he'll know a couple new tricks soon. Of course we don't wanna keep him around forever, and it doesn't have anything to do with Mocha.
We also decided not to go over the hill and thru the ski areas to the big city - we've been a bit too busy and tired from it, we don't even have all our stuff here yet. The guest bed frame is here but the mattress is still in the storage unit. Bill is happy with a second sleeping bag for a mattress - yep he's a bit eccentric.
We accidentally opened an xmas gift that was drop-shipped to the house. Hey it wasn't wrapped and Susie is the one who opened it, so don't blame me! And to both of our amazement it was a telescope, a Meade to boot! So I put it up and took a picture thru it of a tree on Mt. Garfield out the back door.
From the house you can sorta see the tree but it's not much more than a bump when you look at it with the naked eye. The 'scope specs out at something like 260x.

Solstice

Well Bill arrived yesterday and we put him to work on helping with the house cleaning. He doesn't seem to mind it (in fact it was partly his idea).
Not much new on the Val front (just continuing to keep him in our thoughts - it's just that much easier with Mocha around).

One of Susie's co-workers gave out xmas presents last week and I had to take this picture.

BTW it is a paver that's been dressed up.
I've been spending most of my work hours doing studio wiring and finding out more "interesting" tweaks that they have here. It keeps pushing back my completion date for this studio.
Tonight we're going to a solstice celebration - it should be fun.

Another day at the studio mill

Last night Mocha spent the night sleeping beside the bed real nice, but he still barks at me when I walk in the door.
Susie is off work this week and I get the pleasure of keeping the economy going. The folks at work were wondering what was wrong because I was there early for once - I was able to get the morning ritual done quicker today. So I spent the workday running wires and cutting holes for the new studio. Everybody there is happy to see progress on the project.

Day 2 w. Mocha

We'll Mocha spent the night looking for Val (or so we think) so he spent the night in his own room, and no "presents" to be seen.
We went to church and they had the annual xmas pageant.
There was a potluck afterward for a family going to the east slope (Denver area). There was plenty of food.
When we got back home Kelly and Mocha were waiting for us. Susie took care of the leaves out front whilst I hunted for the tv cables which were hidden under the vinyl siding. Mocha spent a lot of the time watching me tear the siding off and put it back up.
We also met the neighbor to the south (Larry) he offer to let us use his lawnmower to get up the leaves. Mocha didn't get to meet him, yet. We were concerned about all the newness to him, no need to overwhelm. He still spends a lot of time looking around.

Well Mocha is here

We went over to Breck today to see Val and pickup Mocha. There was a bit of confusion with our friend Bill about the xmas weekend but that has been resolved for now. Val is holding up real well under the circumstances but he is using a cane but that is because of the tumour.
Mocha and Kelly seem to be getting along fine (Klaus may take some time). He has been spending a bit of time wandering around checking the place out and prob. looking for 'daddy'. He did have a bit of an 'accident' (as Susie put it "a little present") in the living room but that is prob. from nerves. We'll see how tonight goes.

Midday update

Well it looks like we'll be going to Breck. tomorrow morning to get Mocha. And now I gotta rethink the whole xmas thing.
Since we'll have Mocha and Kelly we'll take both of them on the 24th and leave Mocha w. Bill and prob. Val - hopefully we'll also spend some quality time - and we'll have to see if my dad has some "room at the inn" to take the three of us (Kelly, Susie, I).

More on Val

We called Bill to find out the latest on Val and they did confirm that there are spots on his lungs and they did a biopsy to determine the course of action. So far they figure about 4 weeks of radiation followed by chemo. So we gave Val another call.
He was about the same as last night (but evidently a bit disturbed by the spots). We offered to help in any way possible - and that would include taking care of Mocha (his dog) for the time he was in radiation treatment. The treatments will be in Denver and he'd only get back to Breck. for the weekends. Bill offered to take him in and get him to/from the treatments (instead of coming to GJ taking care of Kelly) and we think he'll prob. take him up on that one.
Although the whole situation puts another new twist on the season since last year it was Bruce (in Michigan) and pancreatic cancer. I just hope and pray for a much better outcome for Val. At least the doctors seemed to be optimistic at the time.

Some bad news

We got a call from Bill (Susie adopted him as her uncle several years ago) to let us know that our good friend Val from Breckenridge was taken to the hospital because of a brain tumor. We gave him a call in the hospital - he was a bit out of it but otherwise quite lucid.
He told us they thought it prob. came from his lungs so they were gonna run further tests. I certainly hope for the best in that regard.

Should I say? It's My Birthday!

Well we spent the day going to church (where Susie was asked to be the interm Music Dir.) at coffee after the service the membership sang happy birthday to me. We also stopped by the new building that the church will be moving to in Jan. I've become involved in setting up the sound etc. for the place.
We also went to the mall and bought Susie's xmas present - a dishwasher (it's my birthday and she has to get the big present).
All in all though it was a good day.

It's been a long week

I spent the better part of the week rebuilding and retuning the kjoy transmitter - loads of fun. The back transmitter is pretty obvious when it's on since it has absolutely no control and it ends up the loudest, most distorted, station on the dial (and very - VERY illegal at that) and it is a soft AC format.
I also had to repair the transmitter for and tweaked the religious station (a 5Kw AM that I do mebbe 10hrs a month for) and now a really picky (and somewhat vocal about it) listener was very pleased with the result (so was everybody else for that matter).
I've even got a couple of complements on the restoration of kjoy.

and it snows ?

Well they keep saying it doesn't snow in GJ but then again the song goes it doesn't rain in Southern California . . .

It was a record breaker, too
The house has been doing fine with the snow and temps and it was a good thing I blew the lines out last night. I did finish the water heater so there ain't much water left in the rig now!!!
We got to perform at church today, along with a kid-band, which was quite (dare I say ...) interesting. We got a lot of complements from the experience.
I didn't say anything about this but since Tuesday I've had to turn down the transmitters on the hill because the local NPR/PBS stations were working on a tower change - of course they asked me yesterday to turn down the transmitters for today and I made the executive decision that they weren't gonna be there. 2 hours after I ws supposed to turn the stations down they called and said they weren't going up.
Susie is chanting "snow day - Snow Day - SNOW DAY" hoping for one - I guess we'll see tomorrow. The snow is that sloppy, wet stuff that makes a mess of everything, but it does make a mean snowball!

A stop by the Bagel Shop?

Well we goofed off a bit this morning since all the big stuff got done over the last couple of days. (of course there is still the #1 storage unit but that'll be over the next month)
We thought about taking our instruments but the temp was cold enough and we were tired enough that we decided not to (she only played 3 songs anyway - they didn't invite me up at all!!)
We spent the rest of the day going to WalMart for trailer stuff and some food then it was house cleaning.
Susie thought that I shouldn't be clearing the water lines for the trailer when I did - it was 19:00 when I started - but the weather guy was saying the temps were gonna really drop and stay down so I took the little (and I mean little) air compressor out and blew out the lines and put antifreeze in the traps. That should be good enuff until I can get the water heater completely dumped out.

Happy Thanksgiving??

Well thanksgiving has come and gone and we spent it moving stuff from the storage unit (#2) to the house. The weather is not supposed to hold out and we have to be out by the end of the month. So we're stuck with doing it today.
Thanksgiving dinner comprised of stopping by the Village Inn for lunch (it was the only place open - and we got there 20 minutes before they closed for the day!).
At least that got done - we also did some holding tank cleaning on the trailer since we gotta pull that out tomorrow.

Pix of the house

Move - Move - Move - We're Movin' again

Well the closing happened and we spent night #1 in the new digs.
I don't think you could say we've really moved in yet. We took over a grand total of the bed, two dressers (his-n-hers), a tv (from the trailer), the cat condo, as well as the dog and cat. It is quite the empty space at this point, and lot's of it (particulary coming from the 5th wheel).
I took a bunch of pictures (and PO'd Susie doing it - she was cleaning and wanted me to do the same - but I wanted some before and after pix) I'll try to get them posted when I find the cable to download the pix from the camera.

Back from the Assembly

It was a wild ride in Boulder for the Winter Assembly (so many hours on the road) - but the weather was great for the weekend. The business meetings ran long (as was mostly expected) and, after much poking and prodding by Susie over the past few days, I stood for WIA chair - and became co-chair instead (can't win'em all). The lady who became the chair lives in Basalt so the organizational meetings won't involve travel clear across state.

The hotel was actually quite nice except for the teenagers upstairs who were bouncing off the walls late enough on both nights that we called the front desk about it.
Kelly had too much fun over the weekend - our doggie sitter ended up with a cold for the weekend so we had to improvise and pay $15/night more for the room. She got to stay at Roseanne's house in Boulder on Saturday and on Sunday got to join in with the activities.

Back to the house front - the appraisal came back at (as always it seems) the purchase price. So the house is still rolling along. As long as we get to move in before it gets too cold.

It's that time again ?1??

Well it's finally election day and I am sick and tired of the politicos calling (the BV number is finally forwarded to my cell phone - it only took Qwest 2 weeks to figure that one out) and the ads. Of course the calls I've been getting have been the result of when Susie gave her info to one of the parties in Chaffee County - at least that won't last long.

But on another front - I got a note from Mike last week that Rod Krol (the GM in Lansing) is out - I wonder how that'll hit the crew. I don't doubt that a number of them are on the hunt for that back-up gig in case the axe hits a bit closer (there is at least one that I believe will get the Anne Boleyn treatment).

Locally, we have an accepted offer on the house that is in the post before this one. They are conducting a couple of repairs that we requested from the inspection. If this keeps on going as it has, this'll be the easiest house purchase we've ever been through.

For the time change I've had to reprogram some of the remote controls for the stations - since they use the remote controls hardware to change the transmitter power levels for some of the AM's. A real P-I-T-A (you know what I mean) since one of them wasn't documented. I only spent the better part of the afternoon pressing the pound key on a telephone and writing down a number (from 0 to 15) then I spent better than an hour decoding the results.

Susie started her job (training last week Wed. to Fri.) in Parachute so she's racking up the miles again. It snowed here and it got pretty cold last night - I rigged it up so we've been running electric heat but it doesn't do the "basement" very well but I did figger out a way to pump some heat in there to keep the pipes inside from freezing (it only got down to 28 so not much of a problem there - YET!). The outside water line has a heat tape wrapped around it so it'll be fine (as long as it doesn't get too cold - it isn't insulated).

Mo fun-n-games

Hey we've been looking @ houses in the area - so far there is one (and it's the only one I've seen the inside of) that looks pretty good.
It is suburban and there isn't a HOA so I can put up an antenna!!
Today I get to visit another AM site to see what we need to do to move another station in (it has to be done before March so we gotta get on it).

All the stuff is here??

It's been a while but work has been a bit much and the move has also been taking it's toll. We finally got all the junk (we hope) out of Tom and Nancy's house (the one we've been renting for the past year) and put it in storage. We do have some stuff all in two 10x20 storage units about 2 miles from the ranch.
I'm still trying to take the daily time to post some time of an update so I'm not gonna fill in much more than:

Thurs - went up to Black Ridge (behind the Colo. Natl Monument) to check out one of the stations there that is interfering with Verizon (not a good thing) and the transmitter is far from happy - but the tools I need are supposed to arrive soon.

Fri - got to visit the AM in Delta and tweak the processing a bit (but left the high-end a bit quiet - gotta go back to fix) a fairly new install but needs cleaning. Drove back to BV for the last trip.

Sat - got and loaded a 17' uhaul then went to Deer Valley for a few hours at the Easy Does It Weekend - that was fun but we were both real tired.

Sun - tried to unload the uhaul before they closed - we missed it by mebbe 15 minutes.

Mon - returned the uhaul and got to work about an hour late - spent an extra hour at work discussing tech details with the GM

Tues - serious realignment of the levels in a couple of studios

Today - Tweak the modern music station's processing (it's got some thump now!)

Sunday and I get to go back?

Yes I started the day with less than half the trailer loaded but with a plan. The plan was to throw as much stuff in it and get to GJ before uhaul closes. Of course I have no idea when uhaul in GJ closes.
We did stuff a bunch of our junk in it and we were amazed that it was ready by 12:00. YEA a small miracle in our lives.
With a bite of lunch and a bit of rest I hit the high road to GJ - trailer in tow and a full tank of diesel (I do remember that in BV diesel goes for about 2.099/gal and in GJ I got a tank at 1.949/gal).
When I got to the storage unit I began to wonder if it would all fit - but thankfully it did, but we did have some casualties of the trip. Susies antenna hand a broken capactor on it (actually it happened in the storage unit when it fell), the humidifier has a broken hinge and a rolling table has 2 broken wheels on it now. But all in all the trip went without any other incidents, I even got to check into the Swan Users Net on 20 meters (ham radio stuff) for the first time in like 4 years whilst driving to GJ. There isn't any room left in the storage unit now and we have a bunch of stuff left to go so we get to rent another.
My plan was a success - I got the stuff in the storage unit and got to uhaul 15 min. before they closed. That was one tiring day!

Saturday - Fun with uhaul?

We had breakfast at the Evergreen Cafe (decent food and great early-bird specials before 08:30) and headed out to the uhaul joint for another trailer. My luck, they didn't have any of the big ones but they did have a 5x6 so we picked that up. Just in time since another guy walked in to rent it as we were finishing up the paperwork.
We spent the rest of the day packing and loading, loading and packing. Otherwise a real boring day just tiring.

Again once more

I've still been deferring these posts for no good reason (it's actually tuesday but I'm talking about friday).
I spent the better part of the day visiting the 50kW AM out here and the site itself needs some help (I'll try to put some of the better pix up). Exposed ground radials (wires), control cables on top of the ground unprotected, a building that one corner of is trying to sink into the earth, and a really screwed up door that can't close (unless you weigh a few hundred pounds and can force it to latch. Real fun stuff. I almost forgot - a couple of the rooms have been used as a dumpster for a while too.
Doing the fun site survey I didn't get lunch so I bailed out early and stayed a while in the trailer before heading back to BV. I actually got there in 3.5 hrs so I guess I did pretty good speed (like 60mph on average).
It was good to see Susie again.

Still trying to figure this place out

I'm still figuring this place out - I forgot to say the Tuesday they had an all staff meeting where lunch was provided. There was mixed fruit, rolls, a mixed vegi thing (spiced up nicely), meatloaf (I've always disliked meatloaf so I skipped on that one), and mashed potatoes, plus apple as well as pumpkin pie. When Jim announced the newest additions (there were a couple), it was also announced, from one of the staff, that there was a rumour that I was fixing things (appearently the prev. eng. didn't really do much here - and I keep running into poorly built/installed stuff).
On Weds the receptionist left - quite upset about something. Since I was too far on the outside I don't really know what happened but it created quite a bit of a scene.
I keep tripping over people giving me complements (mebbe I should back off on the efficiency - I don't wanna create too great of an image, at least as far as my ego could go).
On Thurs. I climbed up to the roof to see what's up there. Another ugly situation that should be dealt with quickly.

The entire north-west section of the roof is too hot (from the low STL dishes) for anyone to be over there. I didn't get a pic of the other tower (but mebbe tomorrow) but it has less stuff on it and the plan is to put a big dish on it. The dish is actually too big for the tower (particularly as mounted).
Susie didn't like the picture that I posted of her (the one with Don) so here's another one:

Back 2 Work

Well I started full-time work for the first time since April. I dunno if I am really ready to do this (I was getting to like living 'on the dole')!


The first day went without too much of any incident - just that there is plenty of work too do. I got the new employee paperwork for the place and I noticed that I left my I-9 info in BV - OOPS! Oh well they don't seem to need it until Monday so I'll be OK there.
Of course as trailer trash I have to show y'all the homestead:

The only problem with living there is the site is near to the flight path to the airport so the inbound flights go over the place - it isn't too bad though, with the fan on for the AC in the trailer it effectively masks the sounds. I guess the fact that the railroad is about a mile away would also keep us from staying there too long as well (the trains can be heard).
Tuesday I actually did some real work (lots of rewiring and sat company negotiations). Otherwise I'm still just acclimating to the place.

It's been too long!

I've been away too long so I'll break this into a few days (I'm actually doing this on Thurs.)
This past weekend was all about the WIA (great weekend just up the hill at Trail West). Ran into all sorts of folks I haven't seen in a while - and we found out about some of the meetings in GJ so I'll keep it together while I'm there.
Today was all about the end of the weekend and the beginning of the new job. Loaded up the truck with as much stuff as I could and headed out. Hoping the job would actually be there.
The drive itself was full of changes I left in sunshine but dark clouds to the west and north (where I was going) and as I got to the Leadville area it started drizzling with a little snow. Then it cleared and as I past Gilman the rain started again and got worse (of course I had boxes and my dresser in back so that wasn't a good thing) but it cleared again at Minturn and stayed that way the rest of the trip.
I wish I took a picture of the hilside just south of Rifle where there was only one large aspen tree changing in the midst of the evergreens - that bright yellow in the sea of dark green.
I rolled into GJ and got a message form the GM of the radio group wondering how it was going. I went directly to the storage unit (getting dark outside) and whilst emptying the truck Susie called (she noticed I called but it was yesterday - kinda funny).
So I finished up and went home to the trailer - yes I am once again TRAILER TRASH.

Back from the meetin'

Well that was a short one. We stopped along the way to Hotchkiss @ Blue Mesa Reservoir for friday night since we left at nearly 18:00. So we rolled in to the event on sat. morning and there were a few people up and about at 11:00.
We hung around, picked a bit, played on stage for a couple of songs, and picked a bit more. We enjoyed it and found out about a few of the jams in the Grand Junction area so we can keep up with it.

We dropped the trailer off on Sunday morning at the rv place in GJ - now we have a 'home' in GJ. Of course I still wonder how all this is going to come together. We have to move all the stuff in the next few weeks and I get to work through it and drive back for the weekends.

Back from the "Rat Colony"

We went down to Denver for Susie to have a follow-up exam by a surgeon. There were no real problems just some nagging pain that was reported as normal and expected.
We did have lunch with my dad and Betty, as well as a visit to the oriental markets in the area to get some foodstuffs that aren't available around here.
Tomorrow we're going to head over to the Mountain Music Meetin' that is if we can get our act together by then. I only have to get ready for this event, WIA next week and then to be in GJ by a week from monday for work - YeeHaw!
BTW the reference to "Rat Colony" is credited to Wes, a friend and ham that lives in the mountains.

26 Things

Just thought I'd give this one a try (all the pix were taken this morning):
(Put mouse pointer over image for description)