Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Almost Mid-July

As usual, just random thoughts.  

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I wrote about my not-too-far-from-home camping stint early in June.  What I didn’t include was a couple of unexpected gems.  

The first occurred when I (just for the fun of it, of course) raised the TV antenna on the camper and plugged the DTV stick into the Macbook.  I figured I might (at best) catch a couple of signals, KSNK and KLNE.  

However I was in for a surprise.  Granted, that’s part of the fun of dx-ing whether it’s radio or television.  

The scan showed I grabbed two channels.  Hmm.  

I ended the auto-tune function and lo and behold I’m watching KLBY from Colby.  Their tower is located south of I-70 in between Colby and Goodland, a bit south of Brewster.  That’s a good 100 miles from here.  Signal’s strong and I don’t experience any pixellating or dropouts until the middle of the day, which makes sense given solar interference this time of year.    

To put icing on the cake KLBY’s .2 channel is Me-TV.  So not only can I watch ABC on 4.1, I can catch some great old shows on 4.2.  I caught Star Trek on Saturday night.  Who needs a satellite dish?

On Sunday I wanted to kill some time so I rotated the antenna and did some re-scans.  I hoped to catch the stations from Kearney and Grand Island but no go.  I did finally pick up the nearest station, KSNK.  Almost not worth the effort since it offers NBC programming in 480i only and no  subchannels.  The flagship station, KSNW in Wichita, seems to treat KSNK as a red-headed illegitimate child.  

The second “nice surprise” happened a short time later.  I broke camp and after unplugging, disconnecting, closing, locking and folding numerous things I was ready to hitch ‘er up.  However Geogal was still taking care of something in town so I was on my own.  

Perhaps I was impatient or maybe I had a desire to learn yet another thing about my camper.  After waiting a few more minutes I decided to try to do the hitching myself.  

Jack up the camper’s tongue then begin backing up.  Slowly.  

After a process of backing, getting out to check, then getting back in and adjusting, I actually got the hitch ball underneath the tongue, right where it should be.  And it only took a few minutes.  

Crank down the tongue and I’m on the ball!  Engage the locking mechanism and I’m almost good to go.  

Then Geogal shows up.  I think she was slightly impressed I hitched up on my own.  

This ability opens up a whole new world of possibilities for me.  While I want camping to be primarily a family activity I believe there will be times it will be just me, my truck, and my travel trailer.  

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Summer’s in full swing here.  Since we’re past the Fourth of July many families are away on vacations.  The fireflies give us a great show every time the sun goes down.  

And I’m trying to cook as many meals as possible outdoors.  Not only do I like grilling but it helps to keep the house cool when the stovetop or oven isn’t going full force.  Let’s leave that for winter!

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I am enjoying blessings if I remember to look for them.  Just this morning I was eating breakfast, already thinking about the workday to come, when I was treated with another of nature’s offerings.  

Just a few feet from my back door was a doe and her two fawns.  Munching away at the growth between my lawn and the creek.  Then they trotted into my next-door neighbor’s backyard (there are few fences in this area).  


That set a wonderful tone for my day.