happy friday pups!

Cute! I’d never seen that. How goes it, Suz?

Aloha, Suz and lln pups…! Gotta luv Miss Piggy and Kermit…! ;-)

hey loohoo — it goes well. i’d not seen it before — iirc that was a real priest used in the scene so there has been debate back and forth as to whether it was a real marriage or not. kermit says it was just two actors in a wedding scene and piggy says but it was a real priest :)

how’s socal tonight?

Brotherhood of the Wolf — love this scary movie!

aloha tut — how’s paradise tonight?

hey ce — how’s cleveland tonight?

Evening, firegoobers

Snow for about an hour, 6:00 or so. Now, just a little bit cold and clear. 27 all weekend and snow.

hey ppd — how’s the monterey bay tonight?

59 and sunny — it was a 5 mt day here. when token and i went out to scappoose to get a latte today, we saw 4 of the 5. i saw mt hood, mt st helens, mt adams and could see the tip of mt rainer’s peak. if i had gotten to the other side of scappoose, i wudda also been able to see the tip of mt jefferson which is the furthest south of the 5 cascade mountains.

Another dank, dark day here in Hilo town…!

Oh! Sounds so beautiful. It takes my breath away.

fork :( when does the dank dark usually go away and paradise return to being paradise?

Good thanks – ef’ing 78 F today. Going to get some miles in this weekend. How’s everything up north tonight?

it was spectacular ce — absolutely spectacular. local news this afternoon showed the view of all 5 from their copter above the willammette river. wish they had posted it to their website… really was a great false spring day — tomorrow our grey clouds and drippy weather returns

where you planning on riding? locally or going somewhere to train?

Hey CT!
I think that it was almost a year ago that we saw some really dark days in Hilo!

Good thing I sprayed my fruit trees with fungus suppressant before every one of them blooms like crazy

Aloha, Christine…! It was about this time last year…! Did you see any sun in Hilo during your stay…?

Maybe ten minutes? Really, CT, it rained like a bastard the whole time!

i got all kinda bulbs coming up. jen got me a buncha bulbs and pots for my birthday in october. looking forward to seeing what comes up – i know they are assorted daffodils and hyacinths. my other plants are starting to get leaf buds too

Out to The Lodge & back probably – about 65 mi. – if it stays warm.

Bulbs are coming up everywhere!

what a fun ride (and pretty too). i hope it stays warm for ya

weather dood and doodettes keep calling this a false spring but it sure don’t feel or look false

Hiya CE, CT

Hiya! How are you?

Firegoobers? I liked Firegods or whatev!

Pretty good, thanks

Oh my! You are surrounded by beauty it sounds like.

everytime ppd comes in, he calls us a new name.. my favorite is firegourds

*heh* Again my condolences…! Did you get over to Kona for some sunshine at one point or other…?

Loo Hoo,
What’s up?

can’t see any of it from home but once i get out on the main drag it can be gorgeous… if it is clear :)

No, we left Hilo in a furious rainstorm. It sure smelled wonderful, though!

Variation on a theme, LH – on firegods

I know wrong color but I’m in love with a big blue frog.

hey cmauk — how was your day?

I always enjoy seeing what PPD comes up with…! ;-)

Well, I’m here in Leucadia waiting for the deck to be finished while my mail awaits me in Palm Springs…enjoying it, though.

How are you and hubby doing? I live vicariously through you!

And the best cover of this Dylan tune.

Have you ever used firefuckers?

Hi, Kids. Warm and sunny, if a bit windy!, in the ‘nard today. I do love the sunshine! Headed for Montana soon for a few days of granchild lovin’…. and it will be cold (brrrr) but also probably sunny. Montana is really lovely.

Pretty good. Talked to a number of school ham radio stations during a contest for school (k-12, college..) radio clubs.

LooHoo, you are a hoot!

and this is the best cover of this dylan tune

Today is our 38th wedding anniversary. Can you believe this?

hey dearie — how exciting — you must be looking forward to that! how long has it been since you were back there?

Happiest Anniversary!

were you a judge?

*heh* Now that is certainly a new one, M’dear…! ;-)

happy anniversary ce! you still planning on hanging out at home in your jammies to celebrate?

Thank you Dearie!

Love PPM!

That’s me, and MrCE at the moment. Yea!

Nope…the point was for the club stations to make as many contacts as possible and the ones with the most contacts gets a plaque.

….

Bob Dylan’ Dream…

woohoo!

how kewl! were they all local to your area or from all over?

Congrats to you and the hubby, Christine…! *g*

We still have a great fire. If I find any new films, I’ll send them your way.

And by Pete Seeger.

Wowsers! Congratulations.

Evenin Suz an firestarters. Just another fryday nite in the hamlet by the sea.

Have fun with your kiddies. Does sound COLD, though!

Not yet, LH

All over. Lots of middle school clubs and high school clubs. And the kids were great operators and very enthusiastic and yes the middle school kids on the radio did have their ham radio licenses.

We can take it round these parts!

hey homeroid — how’s homer tonight?

what fun! are there age requirements or is a test required? i don’t know anything about being a ham radio operator – other than they can be a very useful resource, especially in disasters…

Hi Homy!

What I enjoy about winter trips to Montana is the dry cold and the massive blue skies. What I don’t enjoy is the air travel. I’m becoming less and less interested in getting into an aluminum/plastic airbus and being abused for the privilege of doing that. Oh, well, no train to Bozeman and I haven’t looked == yet — into bus travel. Once I’m there, I’m fine. Miss my girl and her kiddies.

Nope no age requirements. Just have to pass the appropriate tests is all. And for HF (shortwave) operating the test is fairly stiff.

can you take a train to seattle and then a train to montana from there?

Excellent. Thanks.

how long have you been doing it?

Closest train station in Montana is in Butte, and I don’t know if there is a passenger train to Butte….. and that is still a long drive from Bozeman.

fork

This is true. Imagine if the internet were knocked out…tv too. Meteors are scaring me today!

If any of you were fans of “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” as I was, the house mentioned in Bozeman is still there …. just a touch back to the bohemian days. One of my daughter’s friends lived in that house for a time.

dearie my first inlaws retired and moved to three forks, near bozeman. visited them once or twice while they were up there (and i was still married to their son). its forking beautiful country.

the winters eventually forced them to move to bullhead city, az.

You’ll enjoy it. I know what you mean about air travel. It’s gone so downhill. Be sure to stay away from US Airways, now merging with American. They don’t give you enough oxygen. Everyone comes off a long flight sick.

Really a dismal weather pattern. Activity in town is sedate at best. Seems we should all jump on a plane and go to HI for a month. Hey Tut you got room for about 5000?

when i was on the pd, i learned the fd trained a lot with a group of ham radio operators. they used to have drills in central park and were granted permission to camp overnight during their events – people were not allowed to camp overnight at the park.

Since I was 10 years old. At that time you had to be able to send and receive morse code as well as pass a written test.

The written was multiple choice at that time. Initially it was more of an essay test. That is you had to write down the answers and except for the Technician class and Novice class license which could be administered by another ham of Advance class or Extra class, you had to take the test at an FCC field office.

It was pretty rough then but the technology was pretty crude too. The FCC wanted to make sure you would not harm yourself or others while transmitting or cause interference to other services.

The interference thing is still the there but the equipment now is way more sophisticated.

I know Three Forks. Not at all far from Bozeman. It’s just everything up there that the “Big Sky” suggests. It’s out there, though….. and while I like to get “out there” now and then, I also like to be near some amenities.

Hey Loo Hoo. Save me a dance.

can’t go there — tis dark dank and dreary. perhaps its time to start thinking about an fdl commune in the south of france again…

I returned from a 3,100 mile four & a half month bicycle adventure in 1975 when Pirsig’s book hit the best seller list. If you want to be one with the road, try powering your way to the top of the mountain with your legs.

wow! i bet you have talked to folks all over the world

Oh goodie. Texas considers allowing students to pack.

Well mostly. No one in India and that area yet. Furthest west has been Japan and Australia and New Zealand.

the sky… ohmystars, my first night there and i learned why it is called big sky country.

amazing skies but yeah, it was pretty rural and the trips into town to get supplies in the winter got to be a bit much as they aged. lotsa retired folks in bullhead city and lotsa amenities

Texas is certifiably bonkers.

Good. One of the teachers in my district was teaching the tech kids ham, so hopefully all is well.

ohmy… what could go wrong (/s)

I’ve read the book almost once a decade (due for another read soon)…. wannabe hippie, I think. I was struck by how small and ordinary the little farm house was looking at Pete’s Hill (or whatever, I may have that wrong) …. brought it down to earth for me.

still pretty cool cmauk

fuck — i did it again

shit

Oh and I have built and/or modified a lot of my own stuff too.

Crap! I went to junior high and high school in TX. It was enough that everyone drove their cars too fast. Can’t imagine if kids were packing. Nuts!

Did what ??

do ya still have to know morse code or has the technology also improved the ham radio system?

i snagged the fucking happy lucky 99… i try to avoid it because its to be a celebration when someone else snags it. as host, i feel the pleasure should belong to someone else and since i’m irish, i tend to have bad luck and snag the forker

It’s the same practice keeping your bicycle aligned for max performance, dearie. Even more tuned into your physical & mental state, without the internal combustion engine pollution.

South Africa. The coastal mountains the vinyards and you don’t have to put up with the French.

Congrats Suzzz – for 99′ers everywhere

You Betcha!

bora bora?

Time for some sleep – be well

Nice. It must be wonderful. I am inspired by you and msmolly, both.

g’nite ppd

Suz we waz steering you towardzd the big 99.

I’m in favor of Tuscany…. so gentle and humane and delicious. I can dream and also dream for all of us. There is gentleness in the world…. we just have to go find it.

No. The morse code requirement was set by the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) way back just after the Titanic disaster. So that anyone licensed to operate on shortwave could copy distress messages from ships.

But when the last of the coastal morse code ship stations closed and ships stopped having shortwave morse code operators, the requirement was dropped by the ITU and the FCC quickly followed suit.

Now it’s just a written test on rule and regs, electronic and radio theory and operating procedures. And the test is administered by local ham radio clubs that have been certified to do so.

dont make me get The LQQK out dood — it would totally harsh my mellow

Aloha, homer, I’m sure we’ve room for 5k…! Btw, did you know a Deborah Olson, her son Bjorn of Homer was listed in her obituary in my local rag, give him my condolences….!

sweet! i would think that learning morse code was a task best left to the young… i don’t think i could learn a new language at this point in my life. i sometimes have a hard enough time remembering what i ate yesterday

Say no more than TED CRUZ. Good comparison with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism tonight on Hardball.

*heh* The 99 and the 100…! 8-P

You would be surprised. But morse code is not dead by a long shot. Foreign hams use it a lot. In fact a lot of them prefer it since their skills at other languages are quite lacking.

A foreign ham may not know English or French or etc. but there is a good chance they know morse code. And most are very good at it.

Me….not so much.

speaking of looks, token is giving me his…

thank you for letting me hang out with ya tonight — hope to see ya tomorrow night for sat nite cartoons

g’nite all

I know Bjorn. And will pass that on. No i did not know Deborah.

Sweet dreams, Suz…!

Good-night, Suz and All. Nice sharing.

Congrats!

Good morning, pups. Today we have Blow, Nocera and Collins. In “Don’t Mythologize Christopher Dorner” Mr. Blow says he is the wrong emblem for those wronged by the system. Mr. Nocera has “Notes From a Gun Buyback.” He says New Jersey is using “every means necessary to reduce gun violence, traditional and nontraditional.” That includes turning guns into bracelets. Ms. Collins has a question in “Senators Overboard!” She asks what’s going on with the process of getting us a new secretary of defense? Sometimes Washington really is a Carnival.

Here they are, and

here’s Krugman’s blog.

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and I’ve got apple walnut muffins. I picked up a few little herb plants yesterday, and it will be interesting trying to get them in the ground today since I’ve got a ferocious backache. Wish me luck! Have a great day.