My aunt just called several times from Japan, worried about where my mom was. My mom’s plan was to fly into Tokyo, spend the night, and then get on a train headed for my aunt’s place (at least 7-8 hours of train time). We talked about how hard it would be for my mom to call my aunt until she got on the train. The bad part about the ubiquity of cell phones in Japan is that it killed the pay phone industry and I’m guessing my mom’s having no luck finding a way to call my aunt. I had to call the hotel to make sure my mom checked in (and out) because my aunt was so worried. I figure there’s no reason to worry unless my mom doesn’t show up in Tokuyama, where they’re supposed to meet. I think that’s in an hour or so, about midnight my time. If things go poorly, I expect a panicked call around 2AM.

You know that $5000 ham radio I was talking about buying? It arrived on Monday and it’s kind of a kit. You really only need a screwdriver to put it together (they’ve done all the soldering for you) but it still took ten hours to assemble. Once I got it all together, I had to play with it. I’ve only talked to one guy on it so far (a guy from Calgary) because it’s taken me two days to figure out how to talk with the thing. I figured out how to send Morse code, and I heard Sweden, but Sweden didn’t hear me.

No news is sometimes good news, so let’s at least hope for that.

Several people who I trust aren’t just screwing with me have suggested I go see the doctor about my stomachaches and I finally had enough of it and went today. It went pretty much the way I thought, and he was happy (unlike me) that I’d gained weight over the winter. I guess if my problem was something serious, I would have been losing weight. But he told me things I didn’t want to know. I might have to avoid fried foods. I might have to quit drinking beer. I might have some sort of digestive problems that require a colonoscopy, TWO YEARS EARLY.

The worst part is that I HAVE TO PLAY WITH MY POO. That’s right, a hemoccult test where they look for blood in my stool. Not only am I supposed to avoid red meat for several days, I HAVE TO PLAY WITH MY POO. Oh, and I got a prescription for GERD medication, too.

So now I’m old, I can’t eat and drink stuff I want to, and I have a new unwanted scatological hobby. Oh, and I got a doohickey to help troubleshoot my radio problems and it proved to me that things are going to be harder to figure out than I’d hoped. Phooey. The new radio is arriving early next week, though!

I wanted to buy a new, expensive, ham radio and my current radio is acting up. I’m sure I can fix the current radio, especially since it was a kit and all the parts are still available, but this is just another reason to buy a radio where the base model is TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS. With the accessories I picked, it was FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS. Well, I told myself that if a certain event occurred, I’d treat myself to that radio. (The event was related to a goal that might or might not be tied to my vocation.) Anyway, I got good news today, and that good news helped me blow a five thousand dollar hole in my bank account. Eventually, I believe I will have a superior radio (an Elecraft K3 with second receiver and panadapter if you’re keeping track) that I can use for the express purpose of, well, screwing around talking to other ham radio geeks.

I finally made it back to the gym today and while I thought I was just being lazy, I really was feeling iffy. I still had to go all out at times because even with all my exertion I still gained 10lbs this winter. My stomach wasn’t 100%, and I now have several people asking me why I haven’t seen a doctor yet, but I’m afraid he’s just going to say (and I’m trying to get my medical terminology correct here), “Awww, poor widdle baby has an upset tummy.” I suppose that’s unlikely, but most people know what I’m talking about here.

Time to read a few chapters before I hit the hay and hopefully dream about my new radio.

I usually have pretty darn exciting Friday nights and this week’s was no different than most. I left work a little early because it was the end of spring break week for us and it was pretty darn quiet. Plus, my stomach was starting to bother me. When I got home I thought I’d take a short nap, which most days ends up being five whole minutes before I wake up. This time it was two and a half hours. At that point, I decided I’d just take it easy on Saturday and skip the gym altogether.

Saturday wasn’t all that exciting, but it started up with a dream where someone parked their car ON TOP of my new car. I couldn’t get in, so I couldn’t find the number of the insurance company, and I was trying to figure out just who to call. I even remember it being on a narrow street behind our neighborhood Trader Joe’s in a dream neighborhood that seemed very familiar yet not exactly like my real neighborhood. I think I’ve seen this dream neighborhood before.

I’ve been accused of being a Civil War re-enactor because I have radios with tubes in them. Tubes, as in the glowy hot old-school things used before transistors. Today I was busy getting an old printer working so I could print ENVELOPES and put STAMPS on them. After people contact each other on ham radio, we have to confirm the contacts. There are ways to do it on the computer, but I think the traditional method, sending postcard-sized QSL cards, is more fun than just some bits on a server somewhere. So I was busy addressing envelopes and filling out cards to send out. The postage gets expensive, but who has a cheap hobby? Plus, I’m a fan of the post office and this will show my support.

I finally started to grow my hair out because having it short made me look too much like a guy who thinks he’s a badass but isn’t. Or a guy who spends too much time at the gym thinking he’s that way. But man was it good for being lazy or wearing any sort of hat. My head itches when I wear a hat and no hair sure cured that. All day with a knit cap was no problem with a buzzcut.

As you can see from this next picture, I found out that fluorescent light is truly not flattering, I have gained weight, and I just look tired. Or maybe just old. At least my hair is longer.

The past two weeks I haven’t been able to keep track of what day it is and I keep thinking it’s later in the week than it really is. I’m not sure why that is, but I think I mentioned that I’m tired but I can’t seem to get to sleep very easily. I shouldn’t complain because other than that I’m sleeping just fine.

It’s about six months until my long trip to Japan. I’m looking for short-term apartments because I’m planning to stay in Tokyo for a solid month and then wander around a bit. I’ve never lived in Tokyo and I figure it’s high time to just go and visit some of the neighborhoods I’ve heard about but never have seen. Maybe I should do the same for other cities, but for some reason Tokyo is calling to me. I think I found something in Korea Town just north of Shinjuku. We’ll see how it all pans out. Another thing I’m planning on doing is looking up the address of the woman my dad married and divorced in the 1950’s. That’s somewhere in Kyoto, and maybe it would just make more sense to look it up on google maps, but everyone needs an adventure once in a while, even if it’s pointless.

I’m having a hard time with sleeping properly and I’m blaming the seasons. I hope it’s not just because I’m getting old. I’m tired during the day and when I try to go to sleep I start hearing the voices from earlier in the day and sometimes even Morse code. I need to get off my radio but right now I’m trying to hear a guy on North Cook Island which has been about as uneventful as trying to hear the guy on Macquarie Island. Earlier I heard a guy from BurkinaFaso but there seemed to be a bazillion people trying to call him so I didn’t even try.

I went to the happiest place in the state today, the Department of Motor Vehicles! I thought it might be crowded because of spring break, but I think it was mainly because it was their “Monday”. I must have been pretty annoying to the people there because I kept telling everyone around me in line about how I thought the line wasn’t that bad. There were 30 people in front of me and it only took me about an hour of waiting to get another horrible picture for a new driver’s license.

I better try to get some sleep before I start hearing more imaginary Morse code.

Most nights lately I’ve been busy playing with my radio. I “talked” to Tonga, Nigeria, and Senegal and it took a lot of my limited free time. I’ve described it to be like fishing with lots of waiting while listening to radio static while you tune around looking for signals. The propagation of radio signals is rather random as well, which makes it more fun. For example, I couldn’t get anyone from the Caribbean to hear me Friday afternoon, but I talked to two guys in Cape Verde off the coast of Africa. Weird. I’m always surprised who hears me and who doesn’t.

I’ve also done a lot of driving, though none this weekend because there was a radio contest. That’s really one of the only times that anyone’s even on ham radio any more. Two weeks ago I drove up to the ham radio swap meet, and last week I drove to the coast for Megan’s grandma’s funeral. It’s sad as the year pass that there are people I only see when there’s a funeral.

My commute to and from work takes about 25 minutes without traffic and some bending of the speed limit. And, as you’d expect, I’m not even keeping up with the fastest traffic. My midlife crisis car still doesn’t get the mileage you’d think it should (it’s a frigging Prius, after all) but the sound system has quite a lot of bass punch to it. I was driving 3MPH and trying to stay sane so I had my iPhone playing my usual shuffle, fast-forwarding past the non-dance music. I had a Justin Timberlake remix playing so loud that the rear-view mirror was vibrating and I couldn’t clearly see the guy right behind me. Fuzzy or not, I could tell how far he was so it wasn’t that dangerous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71VUdPxMOxQ&feature=related

Turns out there must have been quite an accident because it looked like there was flame-retardant foam all over the side of the road.

Yes, I admitted to playing Justin Timberlake at a loud volume in my car, sort of on purpose. And it was a dance remix.

I seem to have all sorts of acquaintances who are going out with women who are around 30 years younger than they are, and the recently deceased 63YO editor of our local newspaper, The Oregonian, died at his 23YO mistress’ house. This from a paper who is too chickenshit to print the Doonesbury cartoon this week because they’re pointing out the ridiculousness of some of the recent anti-abortion or contraception laws.

Well, I’m reading the comics online, and I think I just “talked” to Nigeria on the ham radio using Morse code. They were going really fast and I’m not sure if I sent them enough info or not.

Sitting at my desk, late at night, reading comics on the intarwebs and sending Morse code to Africa. That’s what really gets the chicks.

I just spent a lot of ridiculous time trying to get my USB microscope working so I could look in my ear. I’ve given myself all sorts of grief in the past doing just this. I even irritated my ear to the point of getting an ear bleed once. But I’m still stupid enough to want to look in there to make sure I can clean things. After hours of updating my VMWare Linux boxes, I’ve gotten nowhere. For now I think I give up.

Yesterday was similarly exciting. Since I already did my taxes, I did my mom’s taxes. Woo. Life in the fast lane.

At least I’m in a fairly good mood for a Monday.

I drove two-and-a-half hours from Portland to the Puyallup Fairgrounds in Washington to the Puyallup Hamfest. It’s a swap meet focusing on ham radio equipment and is a lot different than the ones down in Oregon. What I’ve found is that the same stuff shows up year-to-year at the same swap meet, just owned by different people. But if you go to a different swap meet there’s different stuff. When I walked in I only wanted to buy one thing, and it is new and available on the intarwebs. So I knew I was driving 5 hours today and paying $8 to do almost nothing. Then I realized it was like visiting a museum. There’s all sorts of old ham radio equipment from my youth and even earlier and it was fun to look at. Plus there were old friends there I could talk to.

I generally don’t buy old ham radios because they have tubes in them and they don’t work as well as modern equipment does. As another friend says, it’s like we’re Civil War re-enactors. Using old gear pretending that we’re in olden times. I have an old receiver and transmitter in the basement and I don’t need to add any more.

One of the best parts was the drive back. I went through Lakewood, WA where there’s a huge Korean population and had Korean BBQ at Honey Pig. I also stopped for gas in Longview, WA, driving through the town and fantasizing about living by the lake. I really needed more sleep and less driving.

The high point of the day was getting checked out at the ham fair. An attractive and probably age-appropriate woman gave me a head-to-toe scan. She was probably a bored spouse and you can imagine that there wasn’t a lot of competition if I was getting the once-over. I still haven’t gained 100# and gotten my comb-over yet.