Day 649

We kind of slept in this morning - until after 9.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast.  I called Joe and he said he'd come out today.  Then I went out to continue the radio project.

I finished wiring the speakers.  That turned out well with only a little difficulty.  Then I went to the shed to test out the timer.  That went well once I figured out that the Chinese instructions had an error in them.  It only took moving one jumper to change from "what the hell is wrong" to "everything works perfectly". 

I reloaded 20 ga while I waited for the timer to delay half an hour before turning off.  The time adjustment wasn't marked, so I had to guess on the setting based on where it needed to be set for a shorter interval.  I set it at 34 minutes rather than 30 - pretty good.

The next step was to install the antenna.  I drilled the hole and then had Ellen come out to hold the bottom part while I attached the top part on the roof.  Things did not go well.  There was some drama before I realized that the damn Chinese had included a mounting screw that was too short.

That ended work on the radio.  I went in to have lunch and Ellen went to the club to work on shoot setup and website.  I went back out and did some cleanup, but then there wasn't anything I could really do.  So I went back inside and surfed, waiting for Joe to show up.

About 4:15 Joe called to say he wouldn't be coming.  He promised to come Monday morning at 9:30.  We'll see.  That did allow us to leave.  We went to Woodburn and made four stops - Walgreen's for Ellen's drugs, ACE for a screw, Chinese place for takeout, and Baumann's for berries.  We needed to be back before the 6:30 board meeting.  I lucked out at ACE.  It only took me less than a minute to find the countersunk, metric, screw I needed.  I also got a great deal on a new metal hose reel to replace the crummy plastic one that's always been a pain in my ass.

When we got back we ate dinner.  Then there was enough time to install the antenna.  It only took a couple of minutes with the right length screw.  I'll hook it to the radio tomorrow.

We went to the board meeting.  The business is starting to do pretty well.  Everything else seems to be OK.

After the meeting we went home and I watched guns shows that were taped while we were at the meeting.  It's nice to fast forward through commercials.