Thought Patterns

Ms. Santa was nice to me this year. Don't know why. Maybe I was good after all. Nah, can't be that.

I was nice right back at Ms. Santa. I got her a bunch of DVDs: Shrek 2, Finding Nemo, If These Walls Could Talk 2 (it was very well done!), But I'm a Cheerleader, and Buffy Season 3. She also got a bag from LLBean, a bottle cap opener (the kind you nail to the wall), a new wallet, and some other toys.

I got Zoo Tycoon 2! For some reason it is slow on the laptop, which is fairly new. Gotta check out why. I also got a Kitaro CD! I haven't heard his stuff in a long time. It was good to hear his latest music. Still rather electronic but there seemed to be more traditional instruments this time.

But the best was I basically got a 2M hamshack. There is a person on her mail route that is a ham radio operator but is getting out of the 'hobby'. He sold the lot to her for an indecently low price.

MFJ-4035MV Power Supply
Tripp Lite PR-12 Power Supply
Icom IC 2100 2M mobile (w/ manual and mic)
Icom IC T2H 2M HT (w/ manual, tiny little mic, 2 BNC ducks)
Kenwood TH225A 2M HT (no manual, tiny little mic, 1 BNC duck and 3 different power options)
Hustler G3-144 2M roof mount antenna (never been opened)
MFJ-8100 Shortwave Radio w/ long wire antenna
Mag Mount 2M antenna w/ BNC connector
log book, Q signal card and RST reference card

I already have an Azden PCS4000 2M, a Radio Shack mag mount, an MFJ-815B and a Workman SX 144/430 SWR meters, and an MFJ-557 key and practice oscillator (Morse code that is). So I have a decent shack contents, just not a shack yet. Now that my 2M set up is 'enough' , I will be starting to gather the HF gear. I have a long wire dipole already, just no radio to hook it up to.

My dream place is a room with cable internet, all my ham gear on a huge desk like structure, a work bench were I do my home brew electronics, a humongous stereo system, another large desk to hold my laptop, extra keyboard and such, a side table for a kick-butt printer, and of course a very large bookcase full to its proverbial gills with books of all sorts. Sigh. Add in that each piece of furniture has to be either made from scratch or bought and adapted. See why we haven't done it yet?

I like the idea of an 'office' where I can go to do my work. Our minds and bodies recognize where we are and what we are supposed to be doing. So a place where I always go to sit and be creative or to get into a ragchew on some net, now that would be nice.