Spring Broke

I could have predicted the colder temps this week, because it is spring break for me, of course!

After a long and busy week, yesterday began our break from school. I was up at 5:30 in order to get Ryan packed to go to west Georgia with Grandma Judy. (Robin flew to Georgia with Grandma 2 1/2 years ago, so it was Ry's turn...only they were driving.) Worked hard all of the rest of the day, too...just to get started on the work of the week. And there's plenty of it to do!

I have been going through cheap keyboards for some time now. Meg brought one out from her room for me to try...and I fell in love. Went out the very next day and got one. It's a Logitech "Wave", which is one of the ergonomic ones. It was a little pricey (just over $50) but well worth it. I will recycle the others, keeping one as a backup...but I doubt it will be necessary unless I do something stupid like spill stuff on this one. I'm careful!

In celebration of being "off duty" today, I actually turned on my HF radio and started refreshing my memory of how to use it. I actually had to wiggle some wires to remember which antennas went to which positions on the antenna switch. I checked into three SATERN nets. (Happy, Patrick??) We are at the bottom of the 11-year sunspot cycle, so conditions aren't the best. In fact, the spots should be on the increase by now, but the cycle seems somehow delayed. (Solar flares=bad for radio; sunspots=good.)

Robin will be back from Muncie tomorrow. We'll have to plan our week. (She and I will man the fort here at home for the rest of our break.) I think she has a Girl Scout outing and an invitations to make Girl Scout SWAPS for a camping excursion she will attend with Meg later in the spring.

My main goal for the week is to get the house in order. If I get lucky, I can actually do some yard work. I have contracted with TruGreen Chemlawn to put on a pre-emergent herbicide to keep the dandelions in check so mine won't be the yellowest yard in the neighborhood this spring. If I'm REALLlY lucky, I'll be able to finish scraping wallpaper in the bathroom and get the room painted (after a year of shredded wallpaper walls!)

Just a couple more months before I am officially retired. I look forward to less stressful days (said with fingers crossed!).