Christmas Night Is Here.... And Gone

My Hawthorn Tree, on which I put strings of Christmas lights (when they are working) and some ornaments every Christmas. This year, it's my 'Christmas Tree'.

I normally do not post things that are personal here on my blog, as I like to try to keep it light-hearted, as well as possibly informative, not just about the radio hobby, but about life in general. There is enough rancour in the world, and I don't really care to add to that.

It's one reason I veer away from general news and politics in my articles here -- as a student of History, my perspective on national and world affairs is probably a little different than a lot of people's, and as a guy who no longer votes, in any election, the political process means nothing to me anymore. It's refreshing, actually. 

I think George Carlin was onto something.

My two Christmas Candles, Christmas Night. I managed to find some scented tea lights to put in them. Some of the tall, glass 'votive' style candles can be re-used in this fashion. When the original candle inside is gone, you can drop in a tea light or small votive candle, and they usually last at least a couple hours. It's a money saving trick I learned during the 2009-2014 recession.

All that said, this year 2021 has been a toughie. My mother, who I had to take care of daily (and sometimes hourly) for well over a year (approx. 2018-2020), died suddenly and unexpectedly on November 17th. She was in a nursing home for almost a year, because I simply could not give her the proper care anymore. I was also totally exhausted, and it was starting to take a toll on my own health.

Also, earlier this year, my best friend Sheryl, a former girlfriend with whom I still kept in contact, also died suddenly at the end of June, during our short heat wave of 108F weather. Sheryl and I were going to get together for a movie and some snacks on the 4th of July, and I learned from her family on July 1st that she had died. It was all completely unexpected.

It was a shock.

Earlier, at start of August, Mom's dog died here of old age. And I almost lost a cat late in August, but I was able to nurse her back to health, thank God.

So, here come the holidays. Awesome time to celebrate stuff, right? Not really.

As far as I'm personally concerned, 2021 can go piss off.

My collection of Gingerbread men, that I put on my fireplace mantle every year. Gingerbread Men are cool. They're always happy. The one wearing the chef's hat, on the left, is my newest one. The one on the right I got at the Dollar store, probably in 2008, 2009 or 2010.

So here comes Christmas, and all of the memories of some Christmases past. I recall one Christmas being OK on 2014, I think it's because I had written a kids', illustrated Christmas book that never sold, but a thoughtful and considerate overseas friend read it to her young niece and nephew, and she told me about it. She said they loved the story, and the pictures. That actually felt really good. I put a lot of work into that kids' book. It's called Woody The Woodchuck Saves Christmas! It has sold 3 copies on Amazon in 7 years. A bestseller!

This is how I look in an Elf Hat. Elf hats are kind of cool, because the bell ringing when you're walking around sort of puts you in some semblance of the Christmas Spirit. Has to.

In 2008 or 2009 I actually had a decent Christmas. I was wearing an elf hat and trying to fix my girlfriend's son's new game that he'd gotten at a thrift store. There is a photo of that somewhere.

Before that, the closest thing to a good Christmas was in 1985 I think. First love and all that seems to help make those memories... And then, before that, one would have to go back to 1982, and earlier (minus a couple years where my parents weren't getting along), there were a few good ones, because it was family, and Dad was still alive. We generally had good Christmases. When the folks determined my discovery about the truth of Santa Claus, I decided to also play Santa Claus. To keep that tradition alive, in some way. I mean, it made it fun.

Holidays are supposed to be meaningful and fun, right? 

There are many people who dread the holidays. I can totally relate.

Which brings us to Christmas, 2021. I didn't decorate much. Living alone with my cats, there really wasn't much point. I did not put up my tree for the first time since I bought it new, at Walgreens in Renton, on December 22nd or 23rd, 2004. 

I didn't put up nativity sets, or any of that. I did manage to find a couple strings of lights that still work, and put them on my hawthorn tree outside, and add my ornaments.

Christmas Eve I slept part of the day, and when I awoke, it was night. So I grabbed a radio, to DX the MW/AM band and see what was out there. There was a lot of Christmas music, naturally. Even KGO San Francisco was playing a lot of Christmas music. Previous nights I tuned to 1270 khz and heard a bunch of stations, all competing: KVMI Tulare, California playing Christmas music, and Reno's KBZZ playing Classic Rock (they've just flipped to that format from Sports). Mixing in with those stations was KAJO, Grants Pass, Oregon, with Classic Hits and local spots, along with all-talk KEDO, Longview, WA, which has switched channels with KBAM, a long-time country station from that part of my state -- which was on 1270 and now is on 1400. 

As you can tell, it was quite a lively music and talk mix! That's one thing that's interesting about the AM band at night, even on one channel, you can get a lot of variety.

My Sony SRF-59, which still works off of its nine year-old battery, in its 'holder'. The SRF-59 still works. The Arginine supplement bottle came in handy as 'holder' for the radio, so it could be set next to a loop antenna. I just used a thick cutter to cut the bottle's top off. 

The back of my Sony SRF-59 with the first battery I used, a Sunbeam AAA I got at the local Dollar store. The battery is about nine years old. Some of these portable, analog tuned radios are very good on batteries. The SRF-59 is one of those models.

It was pretty cool. I then saw my Sony SRF-59, sitting in its homemade 'case', on the bed's headpiece, and switched it on, and DXed a little, using the crate loop I have on my nightstand near my bed. Now, the Sony SRF-59 is a little wonder radio for MW DXers. They unfortunately no longer make them, but SRF-59's are good performers and excellent emergency radios. I got my SRF-59 at a local box store in early 2012, for $15. It still works off the original battery I put in it.

Did I say an SRF-59 is perfect for disasters and other occasions when there is NO POWER? Yep. I just said it.

Obviously, I haven't DXed a ton with the radio -- as it still works on its original battery -- though I did log a bunch of stations on it in 2012, 2013, and did some DXing with it probably in 2014.

But it was a bit of fun tuning around during Christmas Eve on something I've had for a long time.

My Penncrest 1993, AM-FM-SW -- I heard South Africa and Australia on this radio, and did a lot of DXing with it over the early years -- and when I was a teen we'd go camping in Eastern Oregon and I first heard Wolfman Jack on this radio. It still works -- even the dial light is still working on it. The radio works on 4 C-Cells.

GHOSTS OF CHRISTMASES PAST

Then I grabbed my old Penncrest AM-FM-SW multibander, Model 1993. The radio was a gift from my great aunt on Christmas Eve, 1967 I think. Penncrest was a brand name for Japanese-made electronics sold by J.C. Penney's, a large US department store. The radio itself may have been made by Toshiba or some other Japanese manufacturer at that time.

The radio still works, and actually, it works rather well. In 2011 I took the back off, lubed the bandswitch, and overall checked it out to make sure nothing was broken. Then I put it back together and left it alone. I switch it on once every month or so, just to keep it working.

With a loop it will DX really well, and the sound through headphones is very pleasing. When I was a little kid, the radio used to pull in WSM 650 Nashville on a good night (without an external loop -- back then I didn't even know what an external loop was!). It would pull in WWL 870 from New Orleans on rare occasions, too. It doesn't have a TRF circuit (which boosts signals on an AM radio), but it has a hefty ferrite loopstick antenna inside, which definitely helps. And its sound is really pleasant.

I used to use my Penncrest 1993 to listen to Shortwave every night and early morning on this radio, hooking it to an 80 ft outdoor wire. I used to hear Radio RSA from South Africa, Radio Nederland, HCJB, Radio Moscow, and most importantly I heard Radio Australia on it during 1-2 in the morning when they would play their hit music program, Countdown. That was a rush. I heard all these Oz bands that no one here in the US had heard of at the time -- AC/DC, Skyhooks, The Angels, Supernaut, Hush, Chariot, Red House, Sherbet, John Paul Young, Pussyfoots, and a host of other artists that were part of the Melbourne-based Oz music scene at the time.

I was musically influenced by most of those bands -- thanks to me finding Radio Australia on my little Penncrest 1993.

So I fired it up on Christmas Eve, and listened for a while. All the memories came back -- stations I'd heard, going over to my Grandma and Great-Aunt's place every Christmas Eve, Dad and Mom still being alive, my former GF Sheryl still being alive, all of that.

Then I turned off the radio for another day.

Two books I read during Christmas time. Every year I read Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. I used to watch the movie every year -- the 1999 'A Christmas Carol' featuring Patrick Stewart as Scrooge always gave a little extra meaning to the holiday. My former GF and I usually watched it every Christmas Eve. Now I merely read the book -- which is an easy enough read, and grittily realistic in its portrayal of life in Victorian England. It has a lot of heart in it.

When I got up earlier this evening I read a little book I probably got at Borders Books when it was still around, "The Little Book Of Christmas", and dug up my copy of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", which I either watch or read (or both) every Christmas Eve or after. It's my own tradition. I don't know why I do it, but I adhere to it I guess because it doesn't depend on other people being here.

Right now as I finish writing this, it's time for me to go on my nightly bike ride. I do it because at night it's quiet, and it's easy to reflect. It's quite pleasant to ride at night, and it's safe on the local Trail. We had a slight dusting of snow earlier, and it's 0C / 32F outside. My bike, luckily, is good in snow and freezing weather, as it is quite a stable ride.

Then I'll have to hunt up some pics to throw into this blog post and publish it. 

Here are a couple pics from the Fall, which I had once intended to put in here, but never got around to doing it.:

The Cedar River during a fairly bright Autumn. The biggest problem with this Autumn, and Winter so far, is the rain. Drip, drip, drip, drip. And it's cold rain -- 40 degree weather (4C). And it never stops. As this picture looks soggy, so has been the weather. :-)

My soggy Zebra-Kenko, purple, 10-speed bike. It's an amazingly stable ride. My mother used this bike to commute to work at Boeing for several years. I refurbished it around 2010 or 2011 (a little automotive wheel bearing grease works wonders) and it's my number two bike. As one can tell, it was raining. Terminally.

Halloween is my favorite holiday. And fortunately, it is one that City laws can't outlaw (like they did with the 4th of July), and even a pandemic can't destroy it. I only put out a few electric Jack O' Lanterns, and didn't carve any this year. My neighbors down the street carved three of them, and they did a good job, too. I had nine trick-or-treaters, including parents (that I always give candy to, should they want it).

I'm sorry if  this blog article is a bit reflective. But it's how I feel, and there is no point in lying about it. This time of year is a variable time for people. If you have love, family, financial ability, and all that goes with it, Christmas can be an awesome time of year.

For the rest of us? YMMV (your mileage may vary). I lit a couple candles in a safe place atop the refrigerator earlier tonight, when it still was officially Christmas Night. I had to hunt for tea lights to put in them. One candle is in a clear glass holder Sheryl gave me one Christmas years ago, the other one is a red Maria candle (Virgin Mary), that is colorful, as it shines up the night with a red glow. My cats seem to be OK with it. As I type this I am listening to an Irish Carol on KIXI 880 -- they are still playing Christmas music, as they usually do until around 5-6 a.m. on the 26th. Christmas Morning I heard the Nutcracker Suite on local KING-FM, a classical music station. They play a lot of Christmas Carols during the season.

This is an early 2012 pic of my grey cat Fluffy. She took ill from a virus during this past August, and I almost lost her. I couldn't take her to the vet, because of their corona restrictions. They were booked out for more than a week. Giving her frequent doses of freshly mixed, warm kitten formula and keeping her on a heating pad brought her back. It's one positive thing that happened this year.

Another pic of Fluffy when a kitten. She has the same expressive eyes now.

I will end this by saying I wish for everyone something decent out of every day. Sometimes, that is all we have. Your loved ones may diminish. Sometimes all you have is your pets, whatever hobbies you may have, and your memories. But at least that's something.

As I have said before, this infernal pandemic is socking it to us all, even if we don't think so. But humanity has survived pandemics -- probably numerous ones, over the 40,000 + years of our existence as modern humans on planet Earth. As H.G. Wells said in the book War Of The Worlds, man earned his or her reason to exist here, by getting through these challenges, as we are a human race of survivors.

We'll get through this. Stay strong as you can.

Peace. 

C.C., Christmas Night, 2021.

Ham Radio Will Save The World! ...NOT

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! :-) AM / MW radio can be useful in emergencies, as noted on this blog previously. A pic of my Sangean PR-D14, a radio similar to the one on which I heard a recent Emergency Alert System message.

Recently -- a couple days ago, in fact -- I was at home on a day off, doing some writing on my computer, and a strange thing happened: a tornado warning.

I had my nearby radio -- my trusty, mini-boombox Sangean PR-D5 -- tuned to a local AM band talk station. The station was one of the stations in the Seattle metro area -- I had it turned on for background news and info, basically.

So I'm listening and typing away at my computer and voila! The Emergency Action System's data sounds cover up the programming. This normally does not happen. And then, suddenly, a computerized voice comes on, stating that there is a tornado warning, or tornado watch, for a nearby county, about 30 miles (roughly 35-40 km) west of me.

That never happens.

The message repeated a minute or two later. The message was extensive, urging people to 'take cover', get into a basement or a protected, bottom floor room. It was scary to hear.

Now, for those of you in other parts of the US, or other parts of the world -- especially places that have tornadoes -- this sort of warning on the radio may be no big deal. But here in Washington State tornadoes are as rare as it gets. There was one waterspout reported in the 1990s, and my grandmother saw a small tornado in the 1970s, that tossed up some field hay and stripped some leaves off of trees. Other than that, one could probably count the number of tornadoes in my state that have occurred over the past 50 years on one hand and a couple more fingers.

It was a bit shocking to hear this on my AM radio, to say the least.

My Realistic Patrolman SW60, purchased in 1989 but still a good emergency radio for today. Radios like this are great in emergencies. They are light on battery use, and usually have decent to good reception of AM, FM, and the Weather bands.

After the EAS alert stopped and the local station went back to regular programming, I then grabbed my trusty Realistic Patrolman SW60 radio, and turned it to the weather channel -- NOAA's station on 162.55 Mhz. NOAA was broadcasting a continuous warning about possible tornadoes in Kitsap County -- which is where the Bremerton, Keyport, and Bangor Naval bases are located. There were severe thunderstorms in which radar detected vortices, and they were tracking it.

After listening to the NOAA Weather Service for a couple minutes, I thought to myself: "Wait a minute! The 2 Meter Ham Band is also receivable on this radio! Ham radio guys online always talk about the value of ham radio during major emergencies! I'll tune in and listen to the ham guys talking about this rare emergency!"

Now, for those of you who don't know what ham radio is, it's amateur radio, a hobby where you get a license, procure a radio, erect an antenna of some type, and communicate with other 'hams', even across the world. Guys do it by Morse Code ("CW"), they do it on sideband, and even digitally, which is a growing and effective part of that hobby.

I have always been aware of ham radio, and know that the 2 Meter ham band is not too far from the Weather band. In fact, there are a few radios you can get that have AM-FM-SW-Weather Band and the 2 Meter ham band. Those radios are sometimes advertised as being great for emergencies because of the 2 Meter ham band being included, along with the Weather Band.

So I tuned my radio away from the continuous tornado watch on 162.55 Mhz, downwards to the 144 Mhz portion of the VHF-Hi spectrum, which is were the 2 Meter Band is -- and the 2 Meter Band has usually been one of the most popular ham bands.

To my surprise, there was nothing but hiss. No hams talking about the possible emergency situation. No emergency networks checking in. Nothing.

Just 'crickets'.

This was on a radio that I used to always hear plenty of chatter on when tuning the 2 Meter Band. Day or night, there would be at least some activity there.

HAM RADIO FORUMS and SWL -- An Interesting Mix

The reason I bring this all up is because if you are a radio aficionado, and you have an internet connection, chances are high that you have checked out the ham radio forums. There are several radio forums that, even if they are not dedicated to ham radio, they at least have several sub-forums where the ham guys hang out and talk about the importance of ham radio, rigs, antennas, and other ham topics.

Some of them are really gung-ho. If you mention that you haven't heard much activity on the ham bands, and you are just a listener (like me), they'll often come back and ask you "Why haven't you got your ham license yet?" They may talk down at you because you do not have a ham license, despite the fact that you may have been in the monitoring hobby as long, if not longer, than they have been a ham. Most of the ham guys are decent people, but some of them online are total jerks. And when enough of them do act like total jerks online, it really makes amateur radio hobby look bad.

TEOTWAWKI & SHTF 

All that said, there is this undercurrent in ham radio land that somehow when the world is in the process of being blown to bits by meteor strikes, devastating earthquakes, tsunamis, coronal mass ejections, EMPs, or nuclear warfare, ham radio will be there to save the day. Ham radio will be that last line of communication necessary to save civilization! This is despite the fact that ham radio didn't save the day during Hurricanes Katrina or Sandy, and despite the fact that during this recent half hour of tornado warnings in a state where such a warning is a very big deal, the 2 Meter Band -- despite the fact that there are apparently 10-20 repeaters in the region -- was dead, dead, dead.

I'm not writing this to knock ham radio's relative importance. In a disaster, ANY communication medium is important. I've written before on this blog that AM radio may be the best disaster communication medium if a TEOTWAWKI or SHTF event occurs. I would include ham radio and even CB radio in that category as well. Some FM stations may still be on the air and operating.

But the problem biggest problem with ham radio is: ham radio is dying.

Now, as long as I've had radios with BFO or SSB capability, I've tuned through the ham bands. I have heard KC4AAA in the South Pole when it was handling DX 'pile ups' from the US and Canada. I've heard rare stations like A7XB (no longer active, I think), in Qatar -- an American who was apparently living there in the 1980s. At the time, countries like Qatar were still unknown to Americans -- this was pre-Gulf War. The pile up of stations trying to talk to A7XB was massive.

I've heard some of the exotic DXpeditions, although -- because I live in a hole, I haven't heard many of the actual DXpedition stations, but I still have heard the overall activity. I've heard stations from Indonesia and Malaysia chatting in English and sometimes Malay during the early mornings on 40 Meters. I've heard stations from all over the world during ham radio SSB contests. 

EVEN SANTA CLAUS IS A HAM RADIO GUY

Before the SW conditions hit the toilet in 2017, I even heard Santa Claus talking to little kids in the US, from his home in northern Finland (I think he was in Oulu, which is a city on the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia). Santa was on the 20 meter band, early Christmas Eve. One little girl said "I love you, Santa!" It was fun to hear ham radio being used to make kids happy.

So, as you may be able to tell, I have always enjoyed tuning in to ham radio.

But I've also noticed that over the past several years, the bands are relatively dead, unless there is a contest. It wasn't always that way -- even during sunspot cycle downturns, there was activity.

A DIMINISHED HOBBY -- Still Important, But Fading

It's definitely diminished. The 2 Meter Band is an example. When I first got my Realistic Patrolman SW60 in summer of 1989, I heard 2 Meter activity day or night. There was always someone on. The local aerospace company had a lot of workers who were hams, and they even had a club where they put up 2 Meter repeaters, including one which was very popular. Now, even if those repeaters are still working, there is mostly silence. After doing some research, it seems that most of their repeaters, save one on 440 Mhz, are gone.

And anymore, any time I tune the 2 Meter Band, it's just hiss. It's not the radio -- it still picks up the local airports and the weather channels on the same frequency band and range.

A regular weekend? No activity.

Tornado warning? No activity.

Even though I am not a ham, and never will be, because of the cost involved, and because I just don't see the value in it for me personally -- it's sad to see a radio hobby of any kind die.

On the ham radio internet forums, periodically this subject comes up. The ham operators who have been in the hobby for more than a decade know that things have changed. And someone always brings up an online map showing various contacts between continents, proving that there is as much activity as ever. Yet my radios tell me differently, and other long time SWL's (and even some hams) will say the same thing. 

Someone then will bring up the increased numbers of hams as retirees get licenses and buy radios. But many, if not most, of those licensees are inactive, and many ham radio operators admit this. Online you can find databases of hams in your general area. In my area there are technically 5-10 hams within a couple mile radius. I've never heard any of them on the air. 

One guy, who I did hear on the air once, had a very large tower -- right in front of his house -- maybe a mile or so from me. He moved out of the region a couple years ago, and that proud tower is now recycled beer cans, and the concrete base has long since been pounded into dust.

Not Just Ham -- MW RADIO Is Also FADING

Unfortunately, we who are in the radio hobby in general are seeing similar things happening to SWL and MWDXing. Aside from a few Chinese, Tecsun and Sangean radios, new SW models are fewer and fewer. Stations are slowly leaving the air. Propagation conditions are miserable or poor. Online, even MW DXers complain about the state of the band: "the music's all foreign language", "nothing but right wing talk and sports", etc. 

In a way, I understand their frustration, even though they are definitely exaggerating. There still is plenty to listen to. Any given night I can hear the CBC, with their variety of programming and news; KGO's interesting talk shows; stations playing South Asian music, Country music, or Classic Hits; the BBC overnights on KOAC (550 khz out of Corvallis, Oregon); some Canadian talk stations; and other variety programming. Most nights if I tune to XEPE 1700 -- a station out of Tecate, Mexico -- I can hear pop hits from the 1970's to the early 2010's. But if you're not into those types of entertainment, MW DXing can be a wash.

All that said, I am convinced that MW will be alive and well for at least another 10-15 years. There will be plenty of North American stations left to DX. 

As for Shortwave? I'm not so sure. I'm not even sure about ham radio activity being plentiful in 10 years. By the time the sunspots pick up in three or four years, will there be that much to hear in the SW spectrum?

It's a dilemma, but I will repeat the mantra I stated several blog posts back: GET 'EM WHILE YOU CAN.

In 2001, the SWL magazines were bemoaning the BBC stopping broadcasts to North America. Radio Nederland, which took up the torch, then left the air. Radio Canada International then left the air. The SW magazines of the time were full of letters to the editor, pronouncing doom and gloom. Yet the early 2000s were still a goldmine for Shortwave listening compared to today. I heard tons of signals every early morning, and plenty at night, too.

Just under ten years ago, I could hear CBers from South America; hams from Borneo; SW stations from Brazil, Chile South Africa, Singapore and Thailand; and even Vividh Bharati broadcasting South Asian movie music most evenings on the 25 or 31 Meter SW bands. A lot of it I could hear on my Grundig G2 just off the whip antenna. Even though a lot of the big broadcasters had left the air, there was still a lot to hear just ten years ago. Compared to today, those years were a goldmine of listening.

My point is -- ten years from now, or twenty years from now, this space in time, and this decade may be the goldmine that you look back and go "wow, I remember when I could tune across the AM band and hear all sorts of stations." Or, "I remember when I could still hear WWV before they took it down." 

If you're a ham, you may be saying "Wow, there was still a lot of activity on 40 meters back then.."

You never know.

I try to stay positive about it. Have to, really. We all probably should.

A shot of empty store shelves over a year ago, when the pandemic first hit. Hopefully, the shipping and supply chain issues in the news recently do not cause a repeat of empty shelves.

IN OTHER LIFE....

Right now my work has been on a somewhat extended leave of absense. I probably will be seeking other work, as soon as I get a booster vaccine shot. Being that I had no ill affects from the previous one, I have decided that yes, I will get the booster. I also take my supplements to help my immune system -- something I've done for years. I have cut back on ginseng, because I think my body is tired of it. But garlic extract, zinc (which most men need especially), and a few other supplements I take on a daily basis.

I still have been doing a bit of fiction writing, and playing slide guitar, improving my accuracy.

Our economy seems to be holding to a strange pattern. Prices of some items have gone up, price of gasoline has gone up, some food prices have climbed, and quality varies more than it used to -- and I've noticed for the third straight week that the canned pet food shelves are partially empty. The shipping and supply line issues are a bit concerning. 

My Halloween Jack O' Lanterns from 2019. This year I just put out a few of my electric ones. It was a low key Halloween when compared to previous years.

Halloween is my favorite holiday. This year, I only put out my electric Jack O' Lanterns. I had maybe 9 trick or treaters -- if you include the parents. I always give candy to the parents, if they want one. Halloween is a good time to interact with the neighbors on a fun basis. We had a cold holiday this year -- it was freezing the night before. And Halloween this year also was on a Sunday night -- so those factors, and the pandemic still being with us -- all probably added to the low numbers of trick or treaters.

Sammy the Cat (grey cat in front) R.I.P. -- Boots the Cat, in back, is still thankfully very much alive.

I am ending this post with a pic of my cat Sammy, who my neighbor found dead on his driveway. I don't know why she died, but she used to greet me every time I came home from work -- she'd be right on the car, meowing, like she was my little welcoming committee.

Now she rests next to Pudge, my cat who died last November. They are out by the hawthorn tree.

I hope this finds all of you readers safe and doing well. During this continuing pandemic, we all need to count whatever blessings and good things we may have.

Peace.

C.C. -- Thursday, November 11th, 2021.

Some Thoughts On A Dream Gone Wrong

 

Gabby Petito, on the California coast. From her YouTube. 

As many, if not most of you are probably aware, social media poster and traveller Gabby Petito was found dead in a remote area of Grand Teton National Park, in the US state of Wyoming, It's a sad end to a tragic series of events involving Gabby and her boyfriend, who is now apparently wanted by Federal authorities in connection with her murder.

Now, I hadn't been following the news much over the past few weeks -- outside of the brief news reports I heard on the radio while writing, I haven't paid much attention to news. I've just gotten burnt out on it. 

But I kept seeing references to a "lost blonde girl" in social media, and a couple days later someone on Facebook posted a pic of Gabby which was taken when the Moab Police (in Utah) pulled over the white van, in which she was riding, for erratic driving. The boyfriend was driving.

In the pic, Gabby was crying. There was talk about how the police handled the situation, as it appeared Gabby was possibly a victim of abuse. There were some people talking about how Gabby was travelling across the country, living her dream. But in that pic, her sadness was deeply touching.

The pic struck me -- she was such a pretty girl, was living a glamourous life of travel and adventure -- and here she was, miserable. Why?

It turns out that she and her fiancee had a tumultuous and probably violent relationship. And it also appears that her boyfriend Brian Laundrie was verbally (and physically, according to witnesses) abusive -- witnesses had seen Brian hit Gabby and slap her on one occasion, and witnesses also saw her crying in a Mexican restaurant in Jackson, Wyoming, not too long before she disappeared. Her boyfriend was described as volatile, enough to where the witnesses were concerned. In the police video available to see online, Gabby mentioned that he had struck her.

I checked out some of the Moab Police bodycam footage, and a few other videos about Gabby, and then I found Gabby's Instagram, which is still available online to see. 

Gabby's Instagram is full of pics that make it look as if she were living a dream life: there's pics of her on the beach, pics of her posing in the mountains, posing in front of murals in California, and even a couple pics of her near the beach in Costa Rica. There are pics of her and her boyfriend hugging, laughing, enjoying life together. From the pictures, the two appeared to be in love, nothing but happy, and living their dreams.

Apparently, Gabby's dream was to be a "travel blogger". Now, I know a bit about blogging, and know a little about social media, but I hadn't heard of "travel blogging" before. I knew that some people blogged during travel, but wasn't so aware of it being a big thing. But I guess there are people who travel all over the US, Europe, and all over the world, and they blog about it, and have lots of followers.

Gabby's Instagram is undoubtedly an example of this: she has 1.2 million Instagram followers. Gabby's posts on Instagram had the hashtag "VanLife". I wasn't aware that the idea of living out of a van was a big social media deal, but I guess it is.

Gabby wanted to have a successful VLOG website -- a video blog, based on her travels with her fiancee. She had been working on her website the day the cops pulled them over when they were fighting. It seems that Gabby -- 22 years old, who had just quit a nutritionist's and pharmacy tech's job to travel and blog -- had a dream of being an internet personality. Both Gabby and her boyfriend were described as online 'influencers' -- people who post pictures and videos online that bring in lots and lots of followers. Many people apparently make a lot of money being influencers.

Perhaps Gabby was aiming for that goal -- to be a popular influencer.

I won't go into more detail on what happened. It appears Gabby was murdered in some remote campsite in the Tetons, and a lot of evidence points to her boyfriend as the murderer -- right now, as I write this, he is a fugitive. 

But I can't get over the tragic nature of what happened to Gabby Petito. I've known girls like her in the past -- they dreamed big. There are a lot of young women who dream big, using the internet and social media as a platform to achieve their dreams. All one has to do is peruse Instagram for a while and you'll see all sorts of examples. It's not difficult to find attractive young women who have thousands of followers, their social media loaded with fashionable photos. Like Gabby's Instagram, their pics often reflect the perfect life, where nothing goes wrong, and all is happiness. 

In some cases, perhaps it's illusory. In others, maybe it's real.

Gabby Petito didn't have that luck She had her whole life ahead of her, and a big dream of making a living as a travel blogger. Now she's gone.

Rest In Peace, Gabby. You deserved better, no matter what the circumstances. You deserved a chance to pursue your dream, to find your happiness, and be known for your travels and your pictures and videos. But not this way.

The CB Mystery of "GI Joe" in Belize -- and 105F in the Shade

My venerable Cobra 148GTL, a terrific CB/SSB radio -- and it still works. I took this pic in 2011 and was hearing a mess of skip signals on channel 6, just off a small whip attached to the back of the radio. Over a decade earlier, I was able to talk to Texas, Alaska, California and Mexico with this radio.

I hang out at several radio forum websites, under different pseudonyms, and often at these forums the subject of Shortwave radio comes up. 

And CB radio (also known as the 11 Meter Band) often is raised as a SW-related subject, as well. The ham guys on the ham sites seem to decry CB, making fun of CB operators. The MW and SW guys seem to have a more positive view of the 11 meter band.

I'm old enough to remember CB, during the last edge of its heyday, which was during the turn of the decade, just when the 1990's began. The sunspots were up, and the 11 Meter Band was hopping with activity. It wasn't long after 1991-1992 that the sunspots started their dip, and then the internet cut into the Shortwave radio band's popularity, and CB, too.

But as late as 1990, even with a CB radio plugged into a whip antenna stuck into the back of the set, you could hear much of the world. I bought a SSB CB radio (Uniden 122) and then a second, better one (Cobra 148), and even just using the legal channels (my radios were, and are, both 100% stock), I could hear Latin America, Hawaii, Canada, the SE US and Texas, California, and even Australia. And most of this long distance CB skip was on sideband.

During this period, I built an 11 meter quad antenna. With the quad I was able to talk to Northern California fairly often, and also parts of Canada and even Alaska. One of the more interesting convos I had was with a guy driving a truck up the gravel highway that runs from Fairbanks to the North Slope / Prudhoe Bay region of Alaska. I don't know what the name of the road was back in 1989, but now it is called the Dalton Highway:

Dalton Highway - Wikipedia

The Alaskan trucker was driving up into the isolated, desolate looking, and majestic appearing Brooks Ranges when we talked. He said a lot about the highway, and we also talked fishing -- in Alaska they have a lot of big lake trout. That 'QSO' was one of the standouts.

My Realistic Patrolman SW-60, a portable radio that runs on 4 C-Cells for a long time. When I first got it, of course, there was a lot more activity on the SW, VHF, VHF-Low and UHF bands. I heard my only satellite on this radio, just off the whip -- a weather satellite beeping around 136 Mhz. For a non-TRF model this radio does really well on MW at night. It's probably a good emergency and camping radio for those who still have them, as it gets MW and FM well, and also the Weather band.

The quad antenna also came in handy for VHF Low Band 'skip' on my Realistic Patrolman SW60. The radio has provision for an external, balanced antenna (via Motorola style jack) so I plugged the quad into the radio and tuned the VHF Low Band. The 11 meter quad antenna was tuned close enough to the 30-33 MHz portion of the VHF Low Band that I heard Louisiana accented guys talking about oil rigs -- in clear FM, as well as other Texan and Louisiana accented speech.

After building that quad antenna, I built a three element, wire beam, which aimed South-East. I hung it by ropes from the house, the other ropes attached to some poplar trees. With that antenna I was able to talk to Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, and Coahuila and Chihuahua Mexico. Because I know some Spanish, I made contact with some Mexican sideband CBers on their favorite sideband channel of that time, which (I think) was the upper side of channel 29. The main way to call "CQ" was "Hola Once! Hola Once!" (hello 11, hello 11).

So I have quite a few fond memories of talking on the CB sideband.

THE STRANGE SAGA OF BELIZE'S "GI JOE"

But then there was a CB mystery, which has always puzzled me. It's almost like the CB radio version of an urban legend, but this guy was very real... he was the mysterious guy who was on CB skip every afternoon during the summer and fall of 1989 or so -- a guy who called himself "GI Joe".

I was working at a college radio station at the time, and sometimes I would hook up my CB to a magnet mount antenna atop my Ford sedan car, and switch the CB on to listen to the CB sideband channels while commuting, and sometimes I would listen a while in the parking lot just before going up to work -- and there he'd be, most afternoons: "...this is GI Joe.... Just an old soldier... I'm in Belize..."

He had no call letters or 'unit numbers', like sideband people had back then. Just his 'handle': "GI Joe".

He always had tons of US stations trying to talk to him, and some Canadian stations, too. Some of them didn't know (or hear correctly) where "GI Joe" was located, so sometimes he'd spell out the name of the country ("it's B-E-L-I-Z-E...") -- and sometimes he would even tell them where it was on the map (in Central America, near Guatemala, Mexico's Yucatan Penisula, and Honduras). 

"GI Joe" never talked about the conflicts going on in Central America at the time (US involvement with the Contras), nor did he say exactly where he was, but at least once he seemed to mention an offshore island (Belize has a couple offshore, barrier islands). He sometimes mentioned the weather, which he always said was warm.

Of course, because F2 skip was on (the peak of the solar cycle), "GI Joe" was usually heard very well. I don't remember him saying what kind of radio he had, but my guess is that his radio was probably a ham rig like a Yaesu or Kenwood, tricked out for the CB band, because he got out so well.

And for a couple months it seemed that every afternoon, I heard him... "This is ol' GI Joe, in Belize, calling CQ..." You can't necessarily tell a person's age from their voice but he sounded like he was close to retired.

Any time he made a call, there was a 'pile-up' of stations trying to reach him -- from the Southern states of the US, from Texas, from Florida, from Ohio, from Ontario Canada... "GI Joe" had quite a draw. I think I remember him talking to a guy in Utah or Colorado or California, but never anyone in the Northwest US. Of course, this was years ago, and I'm going by memory.

 

He didn't say too much about his life, aside from mentioning now and then that he had been a soldier. I don't know if he was married, divorced, widowed, or whatever. He also didn't specifically say where he was, like ham radio operators will do.... aside from him being possibly on an island with a beach, and I think he said he was living in a camper or caravan trailer. I tried to talk to him more than once but never got through.

 

I stopped hearing him some time during the early 90's, and I never heard him after that. Also, internet searches came up completely blank. There apparently is a store by that name that shows up in searches -- but it's not him, obviously. One would think he'd been mentioned somewhere on CB forums because of all the guys (and women) who talked to him, but nothing ever came up. Even searches of radio people in Belize comes up blank.

A lot of Americans apparently retire or move to Belize. I have found that out from internet searches. "GI Joe" obviously was one of them -- probably sold his house and stuff and either drove a camper van to Belize, or somehow got a hold of one when he moved there. But who he was? We will never know.

I rack it up as a mystery. He was just a guy who -- with just a simple CB radio and a decent antenna -- talked to probably hundreds of people every day of every week, and then eventually disappeared, into the ether.

If you're still out there somewhere, "G.I. Joe", this one's for you, and stay safe.

Dry, packed earth -- a pathway just off the bicycle Trail that a lot of people use as a detour. It's what's left of the Milwaukee Road railroad grade. The dirt is drier than I have seen it in a long time. Although this photo was taken a few days ago, I'm certain that our heat wave here made the dirt only drier and even more hard-packed.

HEAT, HEAT, AND MORE HEAT

Here in the Seattle area we're not used to heat. "Hot" to us is 85 degrees F (about 29C), and 90-95 degrees F (35C) is really hot. It usually hits 90F about 4-5 times a year. 100 or greater is rare.

When I was a kid, usually once a year the temperature would break 100. Now, to you folks who use the Centigrade system in the rest of the world, 100 to us is similar to what 40 is to you: a round number that means SUPER HOT. When I was a kid, 100+ temperatures were exciting for some reason. We'd all talk about it, how hot it was. I remember at least 3-4 times the thermometer hit 101 and 102. Never hotter than that.

The clear, sun-sparkling waters of the Cedar River when the sun is high in the sky and warm temperatures and river recreation beckon.

Last week they told us that there was a heat dome building in the Western US, and that we'd have record breaking temperatures over the weekend, and into Monday. They were right. About 200 miles north of us is a small town in British Columbia, Canada called Lytton. It's in a relatively dry area (rain shadow) NE of Vancouver, BC. It was 118F there -- that's 48C. That's HOT.

Here in Seattle on Sunday it was 105 (40C), and on Monday it was 108 (42C) on my front porch. For us, that is REALLY HOT. Especially for rainy, moderate weather Seattle. The hardest part of it was trying to sleep, because the rooms in the house were still hot, and most people here in the Seattle area do NOT have air conditioning. Just fans. And if the power goes out during the heat (which it did for a couple hours), you don't even have the fans. :-(

Thankfully, it's cooling down over the week!

I notice I have a couple new readers from parts of the world... One from Colombia (new country), one from Luxembourg (new country), several from Croatia (new country, I think), one from Belgium (a rare check-in), and Japan, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Australia, Germany, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Portugal, Italy, Netherlands, Hungary, Romania, and the Czech Republic all have checked out the blog. Usually, half of my readers are overseas. I hope your temperatures are moderate and you're all well and safe. 

Peace.

C.C. June 29th, 2021.

 

SOLSTICE SUNRISE

Solstice Morning Idyll -- the rising sun through the trees.

In the past, I have written several articles about Summer Solstice, including pictures of the sunsets, sunlight, sunrise (generally through the clouds), etc. 

I've always been fascinated by the Solstices, sometimes tracking the sun's apparent movement as it sets and rises, including marking the trees on the distant hillsides where the sun come up, and goes down.

This year I didn't catch any sunset pics. But I did get out during Solstice morning, the a.m. of June 21st.

So here are a few of the pics I took, including a couple I took through the trees when the sun had just set on the early evening of June 21st.

A frog pond and bicycle trail on Solstice Morning. The morning was pleasant, with the air fresh and cool.

Looking east, the sun just rising over the hills to the left of the picture.

A lone pigeon sits on one of the electric wires near the river. Often there will be 10-20 pigeons there.

The Cedar River in the Solstice sunrise.

All these pics I took with my newly awakened Fuji AX655, 16 megapixel digital snapshot camera -- the camera which froze up on me in 2016 and then fixed itself after sitting on my desk immobile for 5 years. There is a post about that here: Interrock Nation: My FUJI AX655 16 Megapixel Snapshot Camera Fixed Itself

The Cedar River, lazier flowing than usual, in Renton on Solstice Morning.

The Renton skate park at night, June 21st. It was shut down during the Corona lockdowns, but things are back to normal now.

The big Cottonwood tree near the trail, Solstice Morning.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MY EXPERIENCE WITH THE 'JAB'

Nothing else much has been happening here. I've been off work. 

After getting my second Pfizer jab, I have had no side effects I can think of, aside from the time I work up in the middle of the night, and my heart was racing a little for about a minute. Then it settled down. It didn't happen again. I also had a slight muscle pain behind my neck. Whether that was from oversleeping or whether it was a side effect of the vaccine I don't know. My left arm, where I got jabbed, was a little sore for two days.

That's it.

My elderly mother got both Pfizer jabs and all she had was a sore arm -- no other side effects whatsoever.

My ZebraKenko, purple 10-speed bicycle -- Japanese made in the 1970's. Still hitting the road in 2021.

I'm going into detail about my experience with the 'jab' here because there is still a lot of paranoia about the vaccines here in the US. I myself measured out the pluses and minuses of risk -- I figured it was better to get the jab and deal with a few side effects, rather than catch corona and risk a ton of health issues.

For what it's worth, I still take garlic extract and zinc every day, as well as a few other supplements. I've been taking garlic and zinc for years.

My Grundig G2, my favorite go-to SW radio. It performs as well off the whip as my other radios perform when connected to a 25 ft. (10 meters) indoor wire. On SW, these small DSP-chip radios can really perform.

IN OTHER, NON-HEALTH RELATED THINGS:

On Shortwave radio, I've been experiencing the same mostly dead SWBC bands as I've experienced over the past 4-5 years. I have heard Voz Missionaria just barely, on 9665 khz, and Radio New Zealand is amazingly strong during the evenings on 7245 khz. I believe their antenna system amplifies the effective power by 16 db towards the Pacific Ocean Islands region, so we here in the Western U.S. receive that benefit.

I also heard the BBC broadcasting to West Africa, in French, from the UK on 9410 khz last night. It was weak, but readable. The signal had over-the-pole choppiness to it.

Early in the morning a couple days ago I switched on my Grundig G2 and tuned around the 49 meter band. It was the first time in maybe six to eight months I tuned the 49 meter band during that hour. Usually, early mornings is when the "Asian Pipeline" comes in. That's my name for the plethora of Asian stations I hear early mornings when the SW conditions are good.

When I first got my G2 in 2014, I tuned around the 49 and 41 meter bands around 6 a.m. local time (it was still dark out), and both bands were loaded with signals -- mainly from Japan and China. For the next year or so I noticed much the same thing. Of course, the solar minimum began to kick in during 2017 and that began to choke off SW.

This particular recent morning when I tuned the 49 meter band, the SW conditions weren't so hot. There still were a few signals from China: CNR1, their main channel, was audible on 5-6 frequencies. CNR1 is used to jam other broadcasts aimed at China. In the early 2010's, I'd hear it SIO 555 many mornings with a smooth voiced announcer talking softly as romantic piano music played behind him. On a higher fidelity SW radio, like my DX-390, G2, or DX-350, it sounded very full, like a decent AM band, smooth jazz station.

I didn't hear the piano music this time, though.

The moon through the trees, the night of June 21st. My Fuji AX655 takes pretty good night sky shots.

That's about all for now. I hope that this blog posts finds you all well and safe.

Peace.

C.C. June 24th, 2021.

Streaming Radio? Hello, Geo-Fencing

A pic of my Sangean PR-D5 radio playing a radio stream off my tablet computer, back in 2016. In a few years, that tablet computer's screen may show a blocked website instead.

Several years ago I wrote an article about Geo-Fencing, and how it would be the death of radio DXing (Distance Listening).

In that article, I suggested that because of streaming royalty fees, there may be a day in the far future where you won't be able to DX or hear broadcasts in other states and cities. The AM stations may lower their power to save money, or go all-digital (which doesn't DX as well as analog signals), and they will Geo-Fence their online streams -- essentially blocking listeners from other areas.

A link to my previous article, which I originally wrote in 2016:

Interrock Nation: GEO-BLOCKING AND THE DEATH OF DXing (Radio Distance Listening)

A recent decision by the US Copyright Royalties Board may have accelerated that possibility.

WHAT IS GEO-FENCING?

Now, "Geo-Fencing" is the practice of limiting the regions of the world that can log into your radio stream. To put it simply: they 'fence' you off.

I personally discovered Geo-Fencing in 2015 or so when I tried to 'tune in' to NFL football games in other cities, and found out, to my dismay, that the streaming of games was blocked. A Pittsburgh station would be broadcasting a Steelers game over the air, but their online stream was a repeat show of some guy talking about sports.

This was an example of Geo-Fencing -- the NFL wants control over who gets to hear or watch every game. They want to monetise every single view (or listener). Hence, if you want to watch or listen to games online, you have to pay via the NFL site (or another pay service that pays the NFL). This is a type of Geo-Fencing: blocking who can access the content.

In broadcasting, there is also Geo-Fencing of radio broadcast streams.

SOME HISTORY: STATIONS DIDN'T ALWAYS BLOCK ACCESS

When radio stations started streaming their broadcasts in the 2000's, they generally let anyone in the world log in and listen. In fact, in 2000, I was able to listen to stations in Australia daily from work, using my computer. I could also listen to US radio stations anywhere. When I first got Tune-In in 2012, it was like a smorgasbord of radio. I could hear stations all over the US, and all over the world.

Then I started seeing more and more stations streams being blocked. I would 'tune in' a station on the Tune-In app, and I would get an error message stating that the station's stream is not available in my part of the world. This was an example of Geo-Fencing -- I was being 'fenced off' from hearing the programming.

As the royalties for streamed music increased, after a protracted series of negotiations between the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters), representatives for the music publishers, and representatives for musical artists (who believed they weren't getting enough money for streaming of their music), stations had to pay more for every song streamed over the internet.

Then many radio stations started Geo-Fencing (or Geo-Blocking).

For example, when I first began to listen to a rock station out of California, sometimes I'd log into their stream when the AM band wasn't delivering the signal. After a while, they started Geo-Fencing. I would get an error message on my computer screen.

Some stations that are part of the IHeart or Radio.com (now Audacy.com) networks never Geo-Fenced. 

But a lot of stations that aren't part of those networks chose to Geo-Fence, because every time an online listener hears a song played, the station pays a fee. And stations do not care to pay for listeners in far away places. They only make money off of local listeners.

Hence, we got Geo-Fencing.

A NEW INCREASE IN FEES: POSSIBLE INCREASE IN GEO-FENCING

A recent decision reached by the US Copyright Royalties Board may change online radio listening, especially for people who listen from far away places, or other metros. Some think this may also induce smaller radio stations to stop streaming altogether.

The US Copyright Royalties Board recently increased the cost per song / per listener from $.0018 to $.0021. Now, these rates may look small, but if you use a calculator, and multiply 1000 online listeners times 10 songs per hour, that's maybe $500 a day ($3500 a week). Using this example of 1000 listeners / 10 songs an hour, it would be around a $700 a week increase), which could be a lot of money for a smaller station to pay. In the case of 1000 listeners every hour I suggested above, that would be an increase of costs for a station amounting to $20K - $30K a year.

The article can be read here:  CRB Raises Royalty Rates - Radio Ink

Not only are the per-song-streamed costs going up, but there are other streaming fees that will also increase.

Some radio analysts believe that this increase in costs will lead to more stations Geo-Fencing, and they also think that many stations will turn off their streams, period. After all, local listeners have the FM or AM broadcast that they can listen to, for free. And due to longstanding agreements and laws, the Over-The-Air costs of playing a song are much less than they are for streaming the same exact song.

ANOTHER OPTION: PAID SUBSCRIPTION

Another option that may happen thanks to increases in streaming royalty costs is the rise of the paid subscription model. In other words, you pay to be able to listen to a radio station's online stream. Apparently there are a handful of stations in the United States that do this, including one in Monterey, California that plays eclectic music. 

Paying for content online, obviously, is not a new idea. It began to be a standard in the last decade, as internet content providers learned how to monetise their content. There are numerous examples of pay-to-play in the online content world, be it video, audio, written media, or a mixture of both. 

For example, most online newspapers have paywalls. They may give you three or four free articles, and then you have to pay to access anything except headlines -- and some online newspapers will not even allow you to access those without paying.

Online radio may adopt the same model. The only stations that won't be affected -- possibly -- are the ones associated with the big streamers IHeart and Audacy (the former Radio.com). There may come a time that even those two will charge, but I have read that because they are large conglomerates, they apparently can negotiate their own royalty rates.

WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN TO DXers?

In my earlier article on DXing and Geo-Fencing, I saw a day approaching (maybe a decade or two away) where AM DX stations would be lower powered, or off the air, and you wouldn't be able to hear them online either, due to Geo-Fencing. 

This new agreement and ruling from the US Copyright Royalties Board may accelerate that day. Chances are high that in the future, royalties will not go down: they will always go up.

Radio is having trouble making money right now. Since 2005, radio revenues in the US, industry wide, has dropped by a third -- and if you account for the 30% inflation since 2005, radio has lost almost 60% in real revenue in just 16 years. Radio is in no place to pay more for streaming music without seeing a ROI (return of investment). 

And Still: GET 'EM WHILE YOU CAN

Once again, I'll repeat my recent mantra: Get 'Em While You Can.

If you have a SW radio, log all the stations now before more go off the air. Don't depend on some recent glowing forecasts of an awesome sunspot cycle -- there is a possibility the solar prognosticators may be wrong, and even if they're right, that doesn't mean SW stations won't go off the air.

As recent as Sept. 2020, NASA was telling us that Solar Cycle 25 could be as weak as Cycle 24 was. Cycle 24 peaked at 114 sunspots. NASA believes Cycle 25 will peak at 115.

You can read the article here: Hello Solar Cycle 25 (weather.gov)

This certainly would follow the trend noticed by some solar observers over the past several cycles.:

A NOAA based chart showing the downward trend in Solar peaks since Cycles 21 and 22 a couple decades ago.

Another NOAA / NASA based graph forecasting Cycle 25. As you can see, it may be the same as Cycle 24, which although OK, wasn't phenomenal.

If you have a decent AM radio and are into the AM band (especially DXing at night), enjoy it while you can. AM radio is having more trouble with the economy than FM radio, and FM radio isn't exactly rolling in the dough in many regions. As the Solar Cycle progresses, MW reception at night should improve, which should help DXers.

Finally, if you enjoy streaming radio from other cities and countries, enjoy it while you can. In a decade what you may be able to hear may be reduced, or you may have to subscribe to listen to it.

IN OTHER NEWS...

The weather here has been summery. I haven't started clearing the yard yet, but that's on my long list of things to do in better weather.

I've been riding my ten-speed bike a lot more. I got out of the habit over the fairly cold, damp and rainy winter, and decided a week ago that I need to ensure I return to the habit of daily 5 mile bike rides. I have to admit, it's very enjoyable, even if it's at night and there isn't much to see, it's a great pastime.

I got my second corona vaccine shot (Pfizer), and had no side effects (at least any that I could tell). in two weeks I will be considered 'vaccinated'. 

I notice I have had some visitors here from new places: Bulgaria, Belarus, Iraq, Romania, the Netherlands, Belgium, Turkey, South Korea, and Poland. I also have visitors from Germany, the UK, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, and sometimes France. In the other parts of the world I have been getting visitors from India, Brazil, Argentina, Indonesia, and Australia. I had a visitor from Nepal, which was a first. I had a visitor from Iran last week.

I always appreciate it when people from overseas visit here, and try to keep my subjects and writing with them in mind.

Peace and good health to all of you, wherever you are.

C.C. 6-21-.2021