34 days till 2012 Hamvention

Well its that time of year again and nothing has changed.... Well No a lot has happened since my last blog about a year ago.

Had a great 2011 Hamvention but I didn't blog about it.

Had a great 2011 AirVenture. Plane got me there with no mechanical problems like in 2010 (bad carburetor). Had some weather issues on the return trip but all that caused me to do was fly to Peoria to get around a weak cold front. Followed the south side of the front thru the middle of Illinois and Indiana. The front broke up in Ohio. Weather in Oshkosh was great. Hope to return every year till I cant either afford it or cant walk. Which will come first?

Got a new left knee in September. Operation went great. But the physical therapy afterwards sucks. They never tell you that. I didn't do well and had to go back to surgery for a MANIPULATION. They put you out then the surgeon manipulates your leg breaking up all the scar tissue that has formed. He also stretches all those muscles you haven't used for years and injects the knee with steroids. Afterwards my muscles were sore but the knee was much better. Three weeks later I was back to work.

Several weeks after my knee surgery MOM was in the hospital with diverticulitis. She was there for a couple weeks then went home. Us kids camped out at her place for a week or so cause she was not up to her normal strength. Then we just visited her for lunch and dinner since all the drugs she has been taking for her liver totally destroyed her appetite. She was constantly loosing weight. In about a month she was complaining about abdominal discomfort but didn't want to goto the doctors in fear she'd end up in the hospital. The entire family was in town for my nephew Steven's wedding over the Thanksgiving holiday and she didn't want to miss it. After Christmas we got her to the doctor who ordered blood work and a cat scan. For weeks we didnt hear from the doctor and Moms condition got worse. In late January 2012 she collapsed in her bathroom and hit her life alert button. The squad got her to emergency and a cat scan taken in the ER indicated an abscess on her colon. After a week of treatment she was getting weaker. The family called in her doctor for some action. The surgeon wanted to do a colostomy and her doctor wanted a feeding tube. Mom rejected all the treatments the doctors wanted and died in hospice on Feb 6th. She was sick and tired of being sick and tired. The good thing is she was surrounded by family thru her entire sickness till she died. We all loved her and helping her during this time was a great opportunity. Not that it was easy but with 2 other siblings close we all helped each other and everything worked out well.

Every winter I vow to get a jump on tracker production. Since the LVB Tracker project started in 2007 I have been building aprox 100 trackers a year. But since the knee replacement and returning to work I don't seem to have the stamina I had pre-surgery. Also helping MOM took some time BUT I was cutting wires in MOM's hospice room while pulling an all-nighter. And last year took the project to her condo and worked on trackers there. So I was able to get some work done. After MOM died I just didn't get back into anything. Was busy on the weekends helping my siblings clean out MOM's place. Cold winter evenings were spend in my recliner with Mork sleeping. So the jump on tracker production didn't happen.

Today I'm resting my left shoulder from stripping wires. Did about 200 this morning so far but decided to start the blog again. Not that it gets read but its a good benchmark for pre-Hamvention production. Next to the showers then to the doctors. Hopefully by late this afternoon I'll start crimping the contacts on those little white wires. The goal is to build 30 LCD cable assemblies. Earlier this week I finished stuffing parts onto 11 pc boards. After the LCD cables I'll do push button assemblies then another 10 pc boards.

The big problem is staying focused... Not wasting any time (INTERNET).