Life in the time of Wuflu, Part 35: Busy, busy, busy

Bonus points if you get the cultural reference

I’ve been going at what passes for wide open this week. 20 years ago this would have passed for a slack week, but that was 20 years ago. Much as it is with our culture, I won’t see those days again.

Warm and blessedly dry weather has allowed me to get more of the overdue yard work done, especially processing a large pile of oak, hickory and ash (I think) logs into usable firewood. We’ve not used much firewood so far, but one of my comfort items is a full woodshed.

I’m also working on back-filling holes in the pantry. Our state government, led by Obersturmbannfuhrer Cooper and his grinning pixie HHS director, is instituting a 10 PM curfew starting tonight, and making noises that if this doesn’t stem the tide of the Wuflu that stronger measures are coming.

You know, if they just shot all of us, we could stem the Wuflu once and for all. Instead, they’re just going to shoot us all up with a poorly tested near-experimental vaccine and we get to hope for the best. I plan on being allergic, like I am with the flu vaccine.

Back-filling those holes has been interesting and expensive. We’ve not bought much meat since March, and good grief it has gotten expensive. I know the stuff we’ve been buying has went up a little and some has went up almost nothing, but meat is just insane. And here I am planning on t-bones for Christmas dinner. Pinto beans and peanut butter sandwiches for January!

I watch the continuing election news with interest. I’m surprised that our best shot is what I would think of as a voting rights lawsuit, but if it works, I’m game. Better than the martial law some are calling for. Maybe. Is a Biden and Harris presidency worse that the end of the Republic and the beginning of empire (assuming we follow the Roman model)? 

I’m noticing that deliveries, whether via UPS, FedEx, Amazon’s delivery disservice or the venerable USPS is getting really erratic. I have one package, sent USPS Priority 2 Day on 12/4, that has still not arrived as of 12/11. It’s “in transit”, although there’s no tracking information available. Amazon tells me that a printer cable will take until nearly New Year to arrive and I got it 3 days ago. Another package that was supposed to take a week arrived overnight. Several people I know are also waiting on various deliveries. At least all of our Christmas is here. Of course, I ordered all that the week before Thanksgiving. I just sort of suspected this was going to happen.

I did get myself a rather expensive Christmas present. A ham in Moscow on the Catawba (Charlotte for those of you in Rio Linda) had a 2 month old Icom IC-7300 for sale at a reasonable price. I’ve wanted to dip my toes into the SDR waters, and I am learning just how useful a waterfall display can be by using WSJT-X. Since gun shows and hamfests have been rare, my allowance has mostly just been slowly accumulating, and yesterday, I de-accumulated some of it.

I have set the radio up and tried it out, and it is an interesting change from my Kenwood. Lots of menus, not so many buttons. So far I like that, but we’ll see how that holds up over time.

Of course, making room for this purchase, plus the realization that two monitors just isn’t enough (sheesh), and I’m going to be partially rebuilding the ham bench. I’ve got new shelf standards and brackets on order, and I plan on getting the radios and such up on the shelves; freeing up space on the bench itself for monitors and the computer. I put a lot of thought into the initial layout, and it’s made it almost 6 months. Is there such a thing as an inexpensive hobby these days?

We met to make the magic transformation of cash into electronics about half-way between our respective homes, which is the town of Concord. Mrs. Freeholder offered to ride with me if I would see that she was appropriately fed, and we stopped at one of their local restaurants, located in a large strip shopping center anchored by a Target and a PetSmart. I was surprised at the lack of traffic and shoppers so close to Christmas. Mrs. Freeholder believes everyone is just doing what I started doing years ago, and shopping online. Could be, but that trend is going to be hell on the local stores, even if the local stores are simply locations of national chains. The restaurant was busier. I think folks are trying to enjoy eating out while they can. We have school system after school system closing in-person classes and going back to remote learning. Mrs. Freeholder’s system is planning on that for January, just in case all the little darlings come back with a dose of the Chinese Cooties. Back-channel word is that there has been a rash of teacher and staff absences since Thanksgiving. Those can be in part blamed on much stricter screening processes at the schools. I’ve seen them, and most days I couldn’t pass them.

We have met the enemy and he is us, as Pogo said. No surprise there.

Have a good weekend. I doubt you’ll see a Sunday Reading post, as reading time has been non-existent.

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