Oct. 22nd, 2009

altivo: Geekish ham radio pony (radio)
It has been raining more or less continuously since last night. Sometimes just light sprinkling, other times a deluge. Gary drained a half inch from the rain gauge this morning, there was another 5/8 inch at sunset, and it hasn't quit raining since then. Supposed to rain all day tomorrow and probably into Saturday. Of course, if all this were to be snow, we'd have more than a foot. Hmm...

Maybe just as well we called off that trip to Ohio. Tentatively reset for second full weekend of November. I'll have to miss a guild meeting, but that's OK. If we go then, we get to visit the Ft. Wayne hamfest, giving me a chance to sit for my long-delayed extra class exam. I have the week before that off work, ostensibly to work on the NaNoWriMo but should also give me time to brush up on the exam questions. After 27 years as a licensed amateur radio operator, I really should finish off the exam cycle and get the highest available level. Most folks were held back by the 20 wpm morse code test, but that has been abolished. I actually was able to pass the code test, but distaste for the pointless grilling about satellite operation modes and memorized frequency tables was what kept me out of the exam room. The added privileges, though there are some, are of little value to me, and I have no interest in changing my station call sign. The extra class does add a little more credibility to your status as a radio op, I suppose.

Since I'm not going to Ohio, the day off I scheduled for tomorrow will not be taken up on the road. That means I get to either squander it on nothing or do something useful, or maybe a mix of the two. UPS say they will deliver some weaving tools I ordered tomorrow, so I should probably clean up the weaving room and make room to try them out. On the other hoof, I just started reading Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood and it's off to a good start, so I could just sit inside where it's dry and read. Hmm. Hard decision.

The sound of the rain is not unpleasant, except that it brings back the worry about hay. I think it unlikely that there will be any more hay made this year. The forecast calls for rain every day well into next week, and temperatures are dropping so that hay cut now will probably not cure properly. We can still get more hay from storage, fortunately, but the excess rain makes the approach to the barns soft and treacherous for a heavy-loaded vehicle or trailer. That means probably we will have to wait to take delivery until the ground freezes. The first delivery that we got is enough to last until New Year. We'll need at least two more that size or three smaller ones to make it into next year's hay season.

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