(A belated followup to Part 1. Part 3 is here.) Neighborhood Practice: 25mph streets Goals: Back out of and pull into our driveway. Complete point-to-point drives in a gentle environment, build good habits – speed control, scanning, and learning to recognize potential issues. Two-way communication with parental unit in right seat. For example, when I say stop, you need to stop right away. Otherwise, I’ll suggest things like “let’s pull over ahead” or “right turn at the next traffic light.” I need you to articulate things you see and actions you’re about to take (e.g., “I see a child on a bicycle weaving; a pedestrian is about to enter the crosswalk, so I will plan on yielding.”). If you don’t do that, I will assume you’re unaware of the issue and will point it out with varying degrees of subtlety. Locations: Klahanie Blvd – This is a wide road with ample shoulder, traffic calming devices, and pedestrian crosswalks. The speed limit is 25mph and visibility is excellent … once you’re off our street. Neighborhood beginner level. Source: Google Street View ...

This can also be made in a waffle maker. Ingredients: 3 zucchini, grated 2 carrots, peeled and grated 2t salt 3 eggs 1/2C flour 1t baking powder 1/2C feta 1T olive oil 3 chives, chopped (or use 1t dried leeks) 1/2 t dried dill butter (for frying) sour cream (optional topping) Place grated zucchini and carrots into a colander. Salt. Allow it to drain a few minutes. Squeeze into colander to drain off as much water as you can. (You can also put the mixture in a clean towel and twist.) Mix it good. ...

Because I had a polyp last time, I was due for a followup at 5- instead of 10-years. Today that happened. no polyps, am now on a 10-year follow-up.. Most of what I wrote up in 2017 is identical, so I’ll just note the differences I want to be aware of next time I need to know. Nearing the 2/3rds mark. Preparation: I was pretty organized about the process, timing my grocery run to reduce the temptation of having fiber-foods around the house. The GoLytely (mineral salts that make you poop) documents were pretty thorough, but I found it helpful to write specific days in the margin. An interesting addendum to the instructions provided by the doctor was a note that anyone coming into the procedure high, stoned or drunk would be automatically rescheduled. I assume this has problematic interactions with the sedatives. It is interesting that it occurs frequently enough that they feel it worth mentioning. I intentionally tapered back on fiber a day earlier than necessary to make the purge phase easier. That worked, but midway, I was having serious fiber cravings. For breakfast and dinner, I stuck to Greek vanilla yogurt and jarred peaches leftover from my pandemic stash. Lunch was Boar’s Head chicken slices and provolone cheese. For dessert, rice pudding. Next time, I should ask to get the prescription stuff (GoLytley, ondansetron, simethicone) in earlier so I don’t stress out about it. Ice and Crystal Lite lemonade mix helped the solution go down. The IV added used a plastic hose, which meant I could bend my arm. I did not realize this until the doctor presented me with consent forms to sign and he mentioned this. The nasal oxygen cannula was placed underneath my K95 mask, which I kept on all the time. As per last time, i received 100 mcg of fentanyl(IVP) and 5 mg of versed (also IVP). The clinic notes had a nicely formatted table listing precision down to the second: This stuff works quickly! ...

The first official CHS hike was the Bullitt Fireplace Loop on Squak Mountain. It’s east of my prior two hikes: The route is similar to a reverse of this loop: Cougar-Squak corridor to the Fireplace, direct to the microwave towers, then Old Griz to Eastside Traverse and back down. Although this hike was labeled “easy,” the last 0.4 miles up to the fireplace was steep enough that I needed to pause a few times. ...

My daughter, who’s home for her last spring break ever, wanted to go on a hike before heading back to school. I’d scoped out a lot of interesting hikes, but several were in weather-affected areas, because I forget 50s here does not equate to “melted snow” east of the pass. We ultimately settled on something closer to home: Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park. Cougar has well-maintained trails and a selection of waterfalls, marshes, and mining artifacts. It’s a really nice area that I forget because it’s so close. For today’s hike, we’d do a 6.5 mile loop from the Sky Country trailhead, covering several lookouts and the waterfalls. ...

To help remotivate myself to get outdoors again and, hopefully, lose some of the “Covid 19”, I’ve signed up for the Conditioning Hiking Series with the Mountaineers. This involves two hikes from April to August, a “graduation” hike of >15 miles in September, and a stewardship project. Map from GaiaGPS based on my track with the parking lot to trailhead portions removed. There are two tracks: CHS 1 — pace of less than 2mph CHS 2 — Pace of more than 2mph. Cool. A few questions: how does one calculate pace? Is it total moving average? Moving time over flat terrain? Distance divided by total time with breaks? No one was able to articulate this in a way that I could nod agreeably in understanding. I was leaning towards the faster group, but unsure about my current couch potato-ness. ...

To honor the fifth month since putting down a deposit on a new furnace and A/C add-on, our existing furnace started acting up this weekend by sleeping in. (This is how it should behave.) I, of course, did not notice the house was 61F, but my spouse certainly did. Thanksgiving 2016 with a dead furnace controller. Fun times! Having more than casual familiarity with the innards from my Thanksgiving 2016 experience, where the control board itself died, I thought I’d do some diagnostics before calling a professional. ...

Newer update here. With my KX3, using N1MM+ to manage CW sending was accomplished via an indirect set of KX3 macros and keyboard sequences. Thus, we had this awfulness: F1 CQ,{CATA1ASC KY CQ SST * ;} F2 Exch,{CATA1ASC KY TU {EXCH};} F3 Tu,{CATA1ASC KY tu * ;} Bob (N6TV) presented at the Spokane DX Association and mentioned this on slides 52, 62, and 63 of his presentation. There is a lot of good information in his presentation, and you should view it. For my notes to self, the configuration is thus: ...

After a year, my new Elecraft K4D has arrived. To any new owner, I’d highly recommend grabbing Bob (N6TV’s) general setup checklist. There are also some great presentations on Bob’s QRZ page. **2022-08-13:**This guide is intentionally detailed to ensure that you have everything you need to be successful. Nearly all of the issues that folks have contacted me about are a result of skipping an important step. The top three items: COM port changed when you plug the USB into a different physical socket (you will need to re-map the devices – blame Windows); audio volume management; IP address versus hostname. While I’m happy to help, please check that you haven’t skipped a step. ...

The second half of my geocation was in Colorado. With some potentially dicey weather en route (midwest Thunderstorms), my plan was to drive from Mt Sunflower all the way to Tarryall (GC18), the oldest cache in Colorado, then pick up caches (as weather permitted) on the way back to my motel. Departing Mt. Sunflower, KS This part of Western Kansas/Eastern Colorado feels endless with no official rest stops. I stopped a few times to stretch my legs, grab a quick park-and-grab cache (enough to claim the county), and pee. The night before, I picked up some extra tamales at Los Jarochos food truck in Colby to munch on at an appropriate point. Cell coverage was very limited, I was really glad I had pre-downloaded music and a few (good) audio (meh) books (great). I wish the Netflix app would let one play just the soundtrack to music without having the video screen go. The scene before Lake Urine spontaneously appeared next to my car ...