On Monday, April 4, I took AMTRAK's "Capitol" to Sacramento with ham radio friend Mike KB6OWT. We visited the California State Railroad Museum and toured Old Sacramento before walking about 15 blocks to the Towe Ford Museum NOTE: in late 1998 or early 1999 the Towe Ford Museum was renamed the Towe Auto Museum.
On Tuesday, April 5, I slept in and didn't do much.
On Wednesday, April 6, I slept in. At 11:00 a.m. I had my lower teeth cleaned.
On Thursday, April 7, I slept in. I picked up my mother at 9 a.m. and took her to The Villages. We had lunch with her friends Earl & Kathy Levin and Ray & Barbara Harvey at the golf course restaurant. Then we toured the model homes at Village Olivas. Mother would like to purchase a home there, if she can get past the street name: "Grape Wagon Circle."
On Friday, April 8, I slept in and didn't do much. At 8:00 p.m. I saw Bryant Gumbel speak at Flint Center (Foothill College's Celebrity Speaker Series). After the talk I thanked him for coming, and he called me "sir" while shaking my hand.
On Saturday, April 9, I got up at 5:30 a.m. and went to Foothill College for the Electronic Flea Market. It rained, it shone, it rained, it shone, it rained and then it shone for the rest of the day. At 6:00 p.m., I went to the C.O.M.A. dinner, renewed many old acquaintances, had my picture taken, had an interesting dinner and met the new Director. County Communications led the way in acknowledging good work with standing ovations. I went home and shaved off my beard.
On Sunday, April 10, I got up at 4:40 a.m. and took Southwest Airlines to Phoenix to visit Uncle Art and his wife Norma. We went to a resort called "The Pointe" and had a wonderful dinner at a restaurant called "Beside The Pointe." We spent the rest of the afternoon sharing updates on family members, including Uncle Art telling me as much as he could about his/our family going back to the time of the Civil War. (Our last name would have been "Gebhart" if it hadn't been for a 1932 divorce.) I got back to San Jose about 10:00 p.m. and was in bed before 11:00 p.m.
Side note: no matter how many times "Park and Service" tells you the gate is open at 5:00 a.m., it is not. The gate is not open until approximately 5:20 a.m.
On Monday, April 11, I got up at 7:40 a.m. and picked up my friend Tom Server at Davidson Chevrolet. He gave me a ride back home and borrowed my Oldsmobile while his Blazer was being repainted.
On Tuesday, April 12, I slept in and didn't do much. In the afternoon I got a haircut.
On Wednesday, April 13, I slept in. At 10:00 a.m. I went to the dentist and had a temporary crown put on (right rear molar - number 30). When I left Saratoga about an hour and a half later, I went to the Gavilan Hills Memorial Park (1000 First Street, Gilroy) and then to Habing Family Funeral Home (129 Fourth Street) to do some genealogical research. At 7:00 p.m., I helped fold, seal and stamp our amateur radio newsletter THE HETERODYNE. Then I went over to help the Technical Committee work on the Association's 440 repeater.
On Thursday, April 14, I slept in. In the morning I took Barney to the Santa Clara dog park. In the afternoon I replaced the battery in my pager.
On Friday, April 15, I slept in. Starting about 10:00 a.m., I took three loads of furniture and household goods to Public Storage. I thought about going to the Meridian Post Office ("Willow Glen Station") at about 9 p.m. to watch the tax-night insanity but thought better of it.
On Saturday, April 16, I slept in. My ham friends Fred and Paul and I went to an amateur radio meeting at 11:00 a.m. in Concord. After the meeting we had cheeseburgers, chicken and steak sandwiches at Fuddrucker's at the Sun Valley Mall. The manager told me that the bright-orange hats had been a special promotion and were no longer available.
On Sunday, April 17, I slept in. Barney and I went to the Santa Clara dog park. I took a load of stuff to my storage locker. I cleaned the downstairs "den" and threw some things away (*). I found some things I haven't seen for many years.
On Monday, April 18, I slept in. I took a load of stuff to my storage locker.
On Tuesday, April 19, I slept in. I cleaned out the spare room closet and took two loads of stuff to my storage locker. I cleaned the top, sides and back of the refrigerator and the floor underneath. I cleaned the top and front of the stove.
On Wednesday, April 20, I slept in. I had my upper teeth cleaned.
On Thursday, April 21, I slept in. I attended Stan Edwards' Memorial Service in the afternoon. My cable TV went out at 6 p.m. and I spent 10 minutes trying to reach T.C.I. Cablevision. I attended a meeting of OneNet Live! at Apple Computer in the evening. The F.B.I. speaker was a total bust. He barely told us anything and he could not answer questions. I should have stayed home.
On Friday, April 22, I woke up early for no reason. I didn't do much. I took Barney to the Santa Clara dog park.
On Saturday, April 23, I slept in. I attended the Silicon Valley Emergency Communications System's quarterly breakfast meeting at the Santa Clara Senior Citizens' Center. They asked me to speak briefly about the difference between dialing "911" and "299-3325" (paramedics) from repeater telephone auto patches. I explained that if the individual ham does know which agency to call for an injury accident, it's better to call the paramedics and "we" will notify all the correct agencies. During the afternoon, it rained like heck. I sent Ron Townsend an electronic message by computer to see if it would work.
On Sunday, April 24, I slept in. I bought a newspaper, read it, and computed.
On Monday, April 25, I slept in. I took my mother to The Villages to talk to the Sales Woman about some of the details of her possible pending purchase of a home there. We had lunch at Heidi's European Deli; I spilled mustard on a brand-new shirt. It rained.
On Tuesday, April 26, I slept in. The dentist removed the temporary cap and replaced it with a permanent cap. I spent some of the afternoon packing for Dayton and part of the time loading things to take to the storage locker. I watched the fifth game of the hockey playoffs; the Sharks beat the Red Wings at the San Jose Arena. While I was taking a shower, some idiot numskull jerk pulled the main power circuit-breaker, plunging my entire home into darkness. After I dried off and found my flashlight and the phone, it took San Jose Police 10 minutes to take the call over the phone (kept putting me on "hold" to answer other calls) and one hour to respond. Of course, the officer declined to take a report and I had to him ask twice before he gave me their Event Number. PG&E's on-call service man lives in Gilroy; I had to wait an hour and a half for him. (I spent the time resetting clocks and VCR programming for the third time this week.) He replaced a security clip on the power control panel. Nearing 0100 hours, I finally got to bed. Ten minutes later, I heard engines, back-up warning beeps, grinding of gears and saw flashing lights. I dressed again and went downstairs to see, "what next?" The City of San Jose backed two large trucks all the way to the end of my condominium street (beep, beep, beep, beep) so that they could put television cameras into some underground storm drain pipes. There have been some reports that the bank of the creek is being undermined and they are trying to locate the problem.
On Wednesday, April 27, I only slept until 8 o'clock, not qualifying as "sleeping in." I took one load to my storage locker, packed for Dayton, did some laundry, paid a few bills. Barney and I went to the Santa Clara dog park.
On Thursday, April 28, I got up early and flew TWA via St. Louis (MO) to Dayton (OH). The first segment of the trip was very turbulent and we were delayed by rain in the St. Louis area. It was drizzly in Dayton, too. I rented a 1994 Tempo with automatic seat belts, which almost strangled me twice. I lucked into a room at the Hampton Inn ($65/night!), just 4 miles from the airport.
On Friday, April 29, I went to The Dayton Hamvention® and its 10-acre outdoor Flea Market. It rained. They started to call the "swapfest" the "swampfest." The hotel bathroom's exhaust fan didn't work and they didn't do anything to fix it, in spite of their "100% Satisfaction" guarantee. Although it was pay day, I didn't worry because I have automatic deposit and I had enough money in the bank.
On Saturday, April 30, I attended the HamVention. It rained. It was awful. [I don't want to play this game any more.] I visited many of the indoor vendors (picking up lots of new product literature) and attended some interesting forums.
On Sunday, May 1, I attended the HamVention. It was cold, windy and unpleasant.
On Monday, May 2, I slept in. I returned to San Jose on an afternoon flight. While waiting at the Dayton International Airport, I met an apprehensive woman and her teenage son who were flying "alone" for the first time, to San Jose. I was able to reassure them with information about what was going on at the airport and how things would work at the St. Louis layover. Fortunately, both flights were on time and except for the length of flight (4+ hours), all was well. Upon arrival in San Jose, I contacted a ham friend by radio to give me a ride home. Barney was glad to see me [!] and there were 8 messages on my answering machine. I got an electronic message from Ron Townsend at OneNet Los Altos.
On Tuesday, May 3, I slept in. I picked up the mail at the post office and took my mother a gift. Barney and I went to the Santa Clara dog park. I mentally prepared myself for returning to work.