Another things that keeps me busy is trying to learn the intricacies of my new ham radio. The Kenwood TM-D710A is pretty much a ham radio wrapped around a computer that has some pretty slick features. One of the biggest reasons I purchased this radio was for APRS tracking during stormchases; this allows my colleagues to see where I am at IF I am within range of a base radio hooked up to the internet. However, amateur radio is one of the few communication methods that can work after natural disasters and is the safest way to relay information in emergencies especially if there is a widespread power outage. Being a ham radio operator can help out quite a bit in natural disasters and a mobile rig such as mine can be used to fill in gaps in coverage should the need arise. Now that I have a surplus radio (my trusty TM-V7A that I've had for 7 years); I'm also in the process of getting the Jeep set up for when I'm on the trail. You would be surprised how far you can talk at the top of a 13,000 ft. mountain in Colorado! There are also so many other cool things that you can do with ham radio; packet, PSK (yes, it does look like the picture on the top right - matrix style!) DX, and many many others. Unfortunately, this isn't a cheap hobby to be involved in!
Then there is the shift work that is constantly reminding me that I'm not as much of a spring chicken as I used to be. Typically I could bounce off of the graveyard shift or evening shift without too many problems. Now, I'm more of a zombie for a day/day-and-a-half as my body tries to regain a "normal" circadian rhythm. Those days are usually planned out to accomplish quite a bit but typically end up vegging out in front of the T.V. or computer cleaning out the DVR or working on pictures.
How can working on pictures you ask take up too much time? Well, having recently rebuilt my laptop for Photoshop, it takes a long while! I'm still very much a novice with Photoshop CS3, can accomplish the important tasks (copyright, minor fuzz/speck removal, and minor color adjustments), and have started to explore some of the neat features of album management within CS3. In other words; too much time staring at 10 Megapixel images at 200-400% zoom to get that one dust speck out of there. Here are a few oldies I had laying around from my KWAJEX experience almost 10 years ago...
Then there is the yard. My backyard is an oasis in the desert (to which I'm paying out the wazoo thanks to the Hub City's failure to properly manage the water department); canopy of trees with a nice green fescue lawn. Unfortunately the oaks in the backyard hadn't been trimmed in a while so I had to thin them out a bit to keep the limbs off the roof and to allow ample sunshine to reach the lawn to keep it green. Squirrels have taken fancy to chewing on my hammock and I've been developing ways to keep them at bay (right now an emulsion of cayenne and black pepper spread on the strings seems to be working). Another pest issue are the neighborhood cats that think they can use my yard as their personal litterbox. That one is a bit harder to remedy as these suckers are mighty elusive to "catch in the act".
And last but not least are the plethora of other things going on - stormchasing when I can, trying to formulate intelligent and thought-provoking responses to friends/colleagues blog posts, tackling new books (I'm thinking next up is The Federalist Papers in book form to better understand what our founding fathers had in mind for the constitution and our form of government), trying to get back into the workout routine, non-stop research on powder, primer, caliber, and cases for handloading, and trying to spend time with friends outside of church and work. Yeah. Adult A.D.D. for sure.
Oh, stay tuned for a stormchasing summary as well from April 29th. I've been sitting on that for too long...
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