Nice Bike for sale or trade.

*** SOLD ***

I'm selling my bike, I've had it for 4 years and only taken it
out once.

It's a Mongoose IBOC, 21 speed Mountain Bike.  It has
new handlebar grips, new tires, a water bottle cage, and
bosses for another water bottle cage or whatever you want
to put there.  The sadle is brand new.  Indexed thumb
shifters.  Cantilever brakes.  Spring loaded rack in the
back.  Recently tuned up.

All in all this is a nice bike, and if i were a little bit taller i
would be taking full advantage of it.  I did get a smaller
framed bike which i WILL be riding.

Would consider a trade for ham radio gear.  Like a cross
needle antenna tuner, or an HT.  Or maybe a web cam.
(i know that's computer gear)  Use your imagination.

Asking $ 100 for the bike

All in all, all is well.

Just selling cuz i want to free up some space. That and the
fact that the frame is a little tall for me.

*** SOLD ***

Thank You Craigslist

-marcus  (kg6ghw)

Post Op Recovery and pet news

It's been almost 5 months since the operation.  That is the
dirty appendicitis and the following appendectomy.  I feel
fine.  Something seems to stop me from moving too fast
and too forcibly.  There's the angry red scar across my belly
that reminds me of the operation.  Poke or prod there and
you will soon see that there is still healing to be done
underneath the external scar tissue.

Next ham radio thing i'm going to do is string some wire
around the apartment for a random wire antenna.  I bought
70 feet of AWG 10 (I think)...  Paid about $ 17.00 for it
which was an excellent deal. I do wonder however if i got
a full 70 feet, I'm just taking that at face value on what the
guy working in that part of the store said.  It was discounted
because it was a short length.   I didn't do the math.  I think
it was supposed to be $ .27 a foot, let's see that would be
$ 2.70 for 10 feet, 7 times 2.70 is probably 14 plus the seven
times 7 49.  So 14.00 and 4.90 The math says i should have
paid $ 18.90 at $ .27 per foot.  But i didn't i only paid about
$ 17.00  Or suppose it was .25 a foot.  that would be 4 feet
to the dollar.  70/4 let's see that's 17.50.  But then there was
tax.  So, I guess i was paying less than $ .25 a foot.  Or,
I have less than 70 feet.  It's very nice wire, with a tough red
insulator and some nicely stranded copper inside.

I need to somehow get my hands on a step ladder.  I might
have to go to Sears and buy one.  Maybe Big Lots.  I can
call around, let my fingers do the walking so to speak. I
remember the one that my Grandmother had around when i
was growing up.  It was very nice and solid.

Oh, I might be getting a new budgie/parakeet.  Some guy
on Craigslist is offering one but he didn't return my call so, i
 may have missed out.  There's a really great bird store way
out on Hall Rd.  They have 100s of Cockatiels  and Parakeets.
Anybody tells ya birds are friendly, tell em to get their head
examined.  That's the main reason i don't have a bigger,
'Man's' bird. A full sized parrot could probably take a finger
off if he so inclined.   My Tiel flew the coop tonight when i
was resetting a perch that he had worried to the point that it
fell on the floor of his cage.  I wasn't going to mess with his
beak.  I just threw a towel over him and put him back in the
cage that way.  Less stress for him, no bites for me.  After
all the stuff he's been thru, i'm surprised he's still with me.
His predecessor was a little more perfect.  This guy has a
blem, his nostril is a little higher on one side than it is on the
other.   He'll sing a little song if you start whistling at him.
He also does a pretty good 'Hi Pretty Bird' when you can
coax it out of him but,  it's like pulling teeth though.

Pesto has been really nice lately, she seems to come more
when i call her.  I don't know why that is, maybe she's getting
older and enjoys together time more than she used to.  She
also likes to listen in on the VHF nets at 8 and 10.

There that's a March blog for all of you out there, dear listeners.
Thanks for tuning into My Late Night Talk...

Green beans

Hi, again, it's Me.  I'm enjoying a bowl of rice a roni chicken flavor.
I found that green beans go nicely in stir fry.  I don't know why I
had never thought of that before.  So the basic stir fry is this.
Cabbage, Green Beans, Bean Sprouts, Bell Pepper, Bok Choi
Broccoli, Cauliflower, Green Onions, and Regular Onion.  The only
problem with these dishes is the vegetables all expire at different
times, so at any one time there can be 3 or 4 vegetables in a
questionable state.  I hate, I absolutely hate to throw away food but
that doesn't mean that i'm going to eat rotten veggies.

I want to go to the Farmer's Market at the Veterans hall here in
town.  I don't know the hours but it's Sunday and Wednesday.

Had a flat tire the other day.  I called a tow truck to get the tire off the
car, i didn't think i had the strength to break the nuts.  So, I am using
the spare.  Need to get the regular tire patched.

Pesto is doing good.  She hides a lot, but sometimes i'll issue a
~kitty kitty kitty~ and she'll come running and jump on my lap other
times she just stays in her hiding spot.  I think she's hiding under the
bed.

I have the Yaesu FT 101 up for sale.  I got a couple of people who
were interested.  In fact 3 people contacted me.  My price is
$ 150, but one guy said he got a basket case for $ 60.00 I told him
if i didn't sell it to one of the other guys then, i would let him have it
for $ 80.00.  He said, 'Call Me'

It's the Yeasu that i mentioned before the FT 101.  I have the
Service Manual for it too.  I could burn it to a CD for whoever
picks it up.  So, that's a plan, as an extra I can burn the Service
Manual to a blank CD.  And give it to the guy as a bonus.  I already
have a mic i'm going to throw in.  So the rig, the power cord, a mic
and the Service Manual.  That sounds like a sweet deal.

Well, that's all for now.

-marcus

Valentines

Hi, there.  It's Valentines Day and it's been 2 months and 1 day since I was
operated on at Sutter Community Hospital.  I can twist my torso smoothly
with only the faintest twinges of pain.  I don't do this often.  I just kinda use
it as a measurement of my mobility.

I am off to balance the checkbook and drink some iced tea.

Vicki will be by soon with homemade Tamales.  These are from some guy
who rides his bike near her work.  He has a cooler built into his bike and
he charges $ 1.50 per tamale. I'm getting three.  I wish she would hurry I'm
hungry.  Hi Hi

I'll keep you posted as things transpire.  Hang in there, fight the good fight.
And keep your chin up.

Oh wow, I thought this was cool.  It's leap year, and I have a counseling
appointment on the 29th of February.  What are the chances of that?
Yes, indeed, I do wonder.

Goodnight

-marcus

Lubuntu on the P3 1.7 GHz 80 GB HDD 512 MB Ram machine

Well, Vicki gave me an old computer.  It's a P3 1.7 GHz machine
with 512 MBs of Ram and 80 GB of hard drive.  I put Lubuntu
on it.  It seems to work just fine.  Now if i could only think of
something to do with it.  It plays YouTube just fine.  If i had an
extra set of speakers i would hook em up to it.  Lubuntu has a lot
of stuff going on.  There's some DVD/CD authoring software.
Libre Office and some KDE stuff.

Picked up Pesto and held her for a while tonight.  I had to buy cat
food at the deli, cuzI forgot to pick it up at the grocery store.

Got 2 loads of laundry done today, and checked the car for oil.
I was surprised to find the car all set for oil.  It wasn't even low.
The laundry was a piece of pie.

I have some chicken quarters to cook.  I'm all out of BBQ sauce.
maybe i'll roast the chicken in the oven.

Tonight i ate 1 whole can of frozen orange juice concentrate, i just
spooned the stuff down like it was ice cream.  Very tasty, a little
too much sugar though.  Definitely not good for my diabetes.

I think tomorrow that Vicki and I will go for a walk.

I'm thinking about my Lubuntu machine, If only i could figure
out something to do with it.  Like i said it has some pretty strong
DVD/CD authoring tools.  Plus Libre Office.

Maybe i'll look online for a spreadsheet tutorial.  I like
spreadsheets they make sense.

c-ya l8r

-marcus

P.S.   Danny's cat, Nancy has died so if you have kittens or know
of any, contact me.  I'll tell him.

Back to normal

It's been 1 month since the operation.  I'm feeling a lot better.  Just a
tad tender in the belly regions, and some deep muscular stuff that will
probably last for a few more months.  I've been walking around and
last night I helped Vicki carry some groceries.

I sold the Kenwood TS440s for $ 200.  Pretty good price for a broken
radio.  I wonder if (Steve)  is going to get it fixed.  Still need to take the
FT 101 Yaesu over to Ed's and see if we can get out on it.  I could be
taken by surprise, and the thing might just work right out of the box.
Then again it could be a boat anchor or a basket case.

I threw Pesto over my shoulder today and went out in the hall.  Then
I knocked on Danny's door and let him give her scritchies, he has a
kitty named Nancy, but she's real finicky about her food and skinny
as a rail, he seems to think that she might be dying.  Kinda makes me
sad.  I'll get him another one via Craigslist.  In the mean time we have
to wait until either she passes away, or he feels like euthanizing her.

John my friend is still roaming about the hills in Northern California.
He's up in Shasta country.  He's running a special event station from
Mount Lassen, call sign N6L I have no idea when the event is
scheduled.  I'll post here when I learn more.

Well, i have things calling for my attention, so i'll say good day.

be well

-marcus

My first major operation.

Well that was a first for me.  Under the knife on the 13th of
December.   My appendix decided to explode.  They put me to
sleep, opened me up and tried to clean all the poop from out my
belly.  Lots of X-rays, Cat Scans, EKGs and EMGs.  They didn't
let me eat or drink for the first couple of days.  Boy that first tray
of food was...  I can't begin to describe, I was ravenous. To make
matters worse i had fasted for a few days prior to the operation
thinking that whatever was wrong with me would work it's way
through my system better if there was no food to digest.

Let's see.  I called the ambulance at 5:00 AM on a Monday that
would have been the 13th.

I had a tube down my nose and throat and into my belly to suck
up stomach juices.  There was a catheter in my urinary tract so
that I didn't have to get up to urinate.  I was on a constant drip
IV of antibiotics through the vein in my neck.  I was on a
constant drip of saline through the same tube.  They tapped a vein
on the back side of both my hands.  There was a 'drain' that
siphoned off the puss from my belly.  Once that stopped filling
up and the drained liquid looked clear they gave me the go-ahead
to go home.  I was in excruciating pain.  The likes of which i had
never experienced before.

I had never spent the night in the hospital since i was a baby.  I
got 13 staples and a hand full of sutures on my belly.  I don't
know how many sutures they used inside.  I just hope i don't
break them until they've done their job.  To their credit they
tried to go in using Lapro Scopy through my belly button.
I guess i was just too far gone for that approach.  Such a
mess.  Well, I owe my life to the doctors and nurses who
were working that morning.  Now, after New Years i'm feeling
much better and i'm really grateful for the help i got at
Sutter Medical Center right here in Santa Rosa.

So, HAPPY NEW YEAR, may it be healthy and happy for all.