Numbers Stations on Shortwave, Part 2

 This post assumes that you read the article that I linked in my previous post.  I re-read that article again last night, and I want to address some points in that article (which is still very fascinating to me).

First, why did the author call it SS/YL?  And whatever happened to the Cuban lady?  Is she still going on?  What have we learned about it?

When I was active in shortwave clubs, the bulletins used a lot of abbreviations.  The English language ws EE.  Spanish?  SS.  One club used EG and SP, but the two other major clubs stuck with EE and SS.  I can't tell you why one club did it their own way.  YL?  Young lady.  Ham radio operators, regardless of age, are either OM (Old Man) or YL (Young Lady).  Married YLs become XYLs (ex-Young Ladies).  At the time the article was written, this numbers station didn't have a name.  Thus the author coined SS/YL.

It was also known in the shortwave circles as the "Atención station" due to its callup, and later on a numbers monitoring group gave it the designator V2.  V for voice, and 2 to identify it as a specific voice station.  Later on it was re-designated V2A due to a format change with a minor variant in.....was it 1986?

The callup became something like "Atención!  Tres siete cuatro....cero uno" several times, and then for three times something like "cero uno.....cuatro cinco"....which in this example is 01-45, where 45 is the group count.  I sometimes would notice double messages.  Let's say 926-05-00, then a 05-78 message, followed by a 00-95 message......78 groups followed by 95 groups.  Why there were two messages is anybody's guess.  

I wasn't active in shortwave listening for a long while, but I knew the numbers stations kept going even after the end of the Cold War.  The V2 station was one of them, and no evidence as to their purpose surfaced until the late 90s.  In 1998 a spy ring was broken up, and it emerged that those involved got their instructions via shortwave radio, and yes, it was from V2.  Evidence of the one time pads for decryption was presented, and the perps were convicted and served time.  What was never made clear was if the messages were in English or in Spanish, but it was proven that yes indeed, the station was transmitting messages to spies.

Now it stands to reason that not all of the messages were for spy traffic.  There's no doubt in my mind that a percentage of this had to be dummy traffic, so that NSA resources would be used for trying to decode them.  Other messages might have been for training purposes.  This is speculation on my part, but I'd be comfortable betting money on this.

So where is V2 today?

Still in commission, but now it's designated HM01.  I tuned in yesterday to hear a transmission.  A voice callup is still used, but instead of group counts, the station now sends out data bursts which are in computer file format.  I looked at a decode of one message and saw both Japanese and Chinese characters in the decode.  From what I could tell, it was random.  So are the spies now using new tools?

I'm not sure.  My thinking is that the message traffic is now intended for military and embassy operations.  The messages continue for several weeks on end without changing.  The transmissions are also nowhere near as frequent, though still daily, and still on a fixed schedule.

There is still a fascination within one segment of the shortwave radio listening hobbyists about these mysterious numbers stations.  There were many others, some no longer active.  A search engine will yield several hits where you can learn more.

You also don't need to buy a shortwave radio to get in on the fun.  Look up Kiwi SDR, and take it from there. 

Numbers Stations on Shortwave

 Many years ago when I was in college and more active in shortwave listening than I am now, I would on occasion come across a transmission of numbers.  These numbers were being transmitted in groups of five, with a female voice, and were on frequencies outside of the international broadcast bands as well as the amateur radio bands.  Their spots on the dial weren't really meant to be easily found by the casual listener.  For the most part, the operation took care never to operate on frequencies used by the Coast Guard or aircraft (there is one known exception to that).  If a casual listener found the transmission, that listener was left with a mystery.  What was it?  Loggings of this nature, when they found their way into shortwave club bulletins, were written of as a "spy numbers" transmission and that was that.

One Wednesday evening in March of 1979 I came across, again, that lady reading the numbers.  I had seen mention of a "mystery numbers" transmissions in a magazine and these were credited to Cuba.  That made sense, as that the propagation pattern closely matched that of Radio Habana Cuba.  The article mentioned that in 1975 some listeners heard audio from Radio Habana Cuba, and some months later I stumbled upon a major on-air slipup.......Radio Habana Cuba on some frequency well outside the broadcast bands, signing off their English program, and then the start of a numbers transmission.  

Anyway, the following Wednesday evening I was again tuning around the bands, and guess what?  I came across that numbers broadcast again!  I noted that it was on the same frequency as the Wednesday before, same time slot, and it was then that it occurred to me that this operation followed a pattern.  If I could spend enough time chasing that station around the dial, I could figure out their schedule, and then be listening in on the same time that whoever that spy was.  The signals were very strong, indicating that they were beamed to North America, and that somewhere over here we've got an intended recipient who is getting some instructions of one kind or another.  All of that figured out, there was still a lot that I didn't know but would end up learning.  But here is what I learned in that timeframe.

One, the transmission would always start at the top of the hour.  I synced by watch to WWV (time station) and learned that they were precise in that.  Before transmitting, there would be a strong carrier, sometimes ten minutes before show time, but the curtain would always rise at the top of the hour.

Two, each transmission would be repeated.  Some repeats were at the bottom of the hour, as in 30 minutes past the top.  Others would repeat five minutes or so after the end of the first, and almost always on a different frequency.  I quickly figured out which frequency ranges to tune in to, and I got them several more times.

Three, the format was easily figured out.  For example, if the transmission started out with "Atención!  Cinco ocho tres:  seis dos" (repeated several times before going into the message), it meant that 62 groups of five digit numbers were in the message.  In this example, I am considering the 583 to be the header and 62 the group count.  I noticed in my monitoring that group counts were usually a number divisible by 5, but that wasn't always the case.  

There was more that I was going to learn.  My interest in this station fell off for a few years, but was rekindled in 1984 when I came across an article in the August 1984 Popular Communications magazine.  The link is below, and you'll have to scroll down to page 16 of the magazine.

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Popular-Communications/80s/Popular-Communications-1984-08.pdf

I'll come back to this topic again in my next post.

And Here We Are With a Curfew

 In an emergency session this past week Tucson mayor Regina Romero convened an emergency meeting of the Tucson City Council, and they voted in her mandatory curfew unanimously, only making one change.  She wanted it to start at 8:00 PM and end at 5:00 AM.  The council modified this to start at 10:00 PM, and it went into effect this past Friday.

There is no doubt a lot of science behind this.  The Democrats, the champions of science, know some things that the rest of us don't.  This new curfew has some interesting language in it, and I'm very sure that science played a large part in this.  Let's look at the science.

With the curfew being between the hours of 10:00 PM and 5:00 AM, this tells us that COVID cannot possibly be transmitted outside of these hours.  When we first had lockdowns we didn't know this.  We thought that the virus didn't care what time of day it was.  Now we know better.  It's very dangerous after 10:00 PM, and you'd better not leave your house until 5:00 AM.

What's really interesting is that these hours are not reflective of sunrise and sunset times local to Tucson at this time of year.  Our earliest possible sunset is 5:17 PM and change, and that passed us a few days ago.  Our latest possible sunrise comes in around 7:30 AM (I'll have to check that again) and that happens next month.  Now if we look at this in terms of astronomical twilight this does narrow the nighttime hours some, but still it's significant to note that the virus needs about 4 or 5 hours of darkness before it can activate.

There is another interesting fact about the virus.  It absolutely, positively can not be transmitted to or from anyone who's homeless.  How do I know that?  The homeless are exempt from the curfew.  I understand that there will be the argument that we can't really round them up and take them off the street, but if we can lock down the economy and force everyone to stay home, then why can't we round up the homeless and house them somewhere?  

Now the first responders are exempt too.  On this one there's some logic that's easier to understand.  Crime does not observe the curfew and neither do medical emergencies, so in this instance we don't need science to justify their exemption.  Other language in this ordinance allows exceptions for going to get medicine for a family member or a pet, to flee a dangerous situation, or if you're going to/from work.  Of course, those exemptions are not based on science.

All of that said, the curfew is set to expire on the 23rd of this month.  It may be extended.  Or maybe the virus will decided to wake up earlier, say at 8:00 PM.  The virus might also decide to stay up later.  As far as I know science hasn't yet figured out what makes a virus come off of a graveyard shift and work either day or swing, but I'm very sure that the scientists who are studying this will inform our mayor and city council accordingly.  

And of course, our city leaders know what's best for us, and if they say we can't eat out but they themselves get to, there has to be some science behind this that the rest of us are not capable of understanding.

The Good and the Bad

 The good news here is that I had my first performance review with my present employer.  I knew I was doing well, but I didn't know that it was that well.  I think I know what it was that got me that rating.

When I reported to work there, I realized that I had an opportunity.  I am working local and I am working in manned spaceflight development (again).  This time I'm doing it locally and I'm doing it for a company that has an excellent reputation.  I figured I had best figure out how to keep this opportunity going, and I came up with something.

I decided that two things were going to happen each day at work.  One, I would give them a reason to make them glad that they hired me.  Two, I would go to bed each night a little bit less ignorant than I was when I got up that morning.

The second is easier than the first, as that the opportunity to become less ignorant is always there in front of you each day, meaning that you don't have to go out and look for it, though on some days you might have to.  The first, well that's something that you do have to go out and look for, though there will be the day every now and then that hands you that opportunity.  

If today's review is any indication, there is evidence that doing these two things daily is a big help.  I probably ought to add a third thing to that list of daily goals, and I intend to think about that some over the approaching weekend.

Now for the bad.

I'm going to open up about the election.

I don't think this one was on the up and up.  I cannot believe that someone who stayed closeted in a basement the way that Biden did could be capable of winning.  He wasn't the early on favorite of Organized Media.  Over 70 million people out there think he doesn't have all his marbles.  Telling off Cornpop and bragging about how children love rubbing your hairy legs isn't Presidential.  And then he picks a running mate who was first to drop out of the primaries.

And I'm supposed to buy this result?  There are lots of articles about ballot harvesting, dead people voting, fraud, irregularities........yes it's natural for these to arise from the losing side, but why doesn't the winning side ask for an investigation here?  If Russian collusion can be investigated, then why can't this election?

There are the legal challenges, and I have no problem with them.  Al Gore opened up that bottle and let the genie out and it shouldn't be a surprise that getting that genie back in that bottle is a whole other matter.  As to the merits of those challenges, I can't answer that.  I'm not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV.  

The whole thing stinks, and I'm wondering if I should continue being a voter.  

It goes back to something Joe Stalin once said.

It doesn't matter who votes.  What matters is who counts the votes.

One more thought.

The question isn't whether or not Joe Biden will be in office come the end of January 20th.  

The question is whether or not he will be in office come the end of July 20th.

Traveling the World by Radio (but a Computer is Involved)

 As I am typing this, I am listening to Radio Argentina.  If I were down there I would have a radio tuned to 570 kHz to do this.  Radio is still involved, except that I am listening via an internet connection to a remote receiver somewhere near Buenos Aires.  The link to the connection is:

http://lu4eec.ddns.net:8073/

Once I connected, I was able to tune the radio to the frequency I desired, and I've spent this evening tuning around, like I did last night.  Last night I learned that the David Lee Roth song "Just a Gigolo" was big down there at one time as that I heard a station play it.  When I tuned to 570, I discovered Radio Argentina, and I am finding the music from them (and from Radio Rivadavia) to be interesting to listen to.  Radio Rivadavia went heavily into the Argentine tangos, as has some other stations down there.  

Had this been a few decades ago, I'd be doing this the hard way:  a good shortwave receiver, a good antenna, and hoping for good propagation.  I have heard Radio Argentina via the shortwave before (and they were beaming an English broadcast to North America), and they were proudly playing their tangos.  I knew that other shortwave listeners were getting Radio Rivadavia, and they (along with me) were tuning the "tropical bands" to search for them as well as the Colombian and Venezuelan stations.

And here we are, years later, and the world is even closer to our fingertips.  I could connect to some (most?) of these Argentine stations by using the net itself without the remote receiver.  I've listened to the Falkland Islands this way.  I might tune the remote receiver to see how well their signal is making it to the remote receiver.  

So why am I doing this?

In one way, it's an extension of a hobby that I have had for many years.  If I wasn't trying to make contact with someone in a different continent, I was listening to signals from different continents.  The listening aspect of it would tell me what propagation was doing, but there was something else that was happening:  I was learning about the world.  I was becoming informed of world events.  

There's another reason.  If I'm tuning in to Argentina, then I'm being relaxed.  I can read books to relax and I do, but I like to vary what I do for relaxation.  Later on I'm going to disconnect from that remote receiver and I'm going to go upstairs and continue my re-read of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.  And after that, maybe I'll pickup a real radio and see if I can get that one station in Gallup, New Mexico, which mixes country & western with Navajo music.  

Is this like going out to try a different kind of food?  Like going out for Peruvian, or Indian, or Polish food?  I think it is.  I suffer from the theory that if one widens the variety of what they expose themselves to, or tries different things, then it can be good for your mental health......but up to a certain point.

Not all of what's out there is good for you.  If you go out in the wild and harvest some mushrooms, you are risking a fatal mistake.  If you fill yourself with listening to hate speech of any kind or you spend too much time reading about how wrong the world is, odds are it ain't doing you very much in the way of good.

All of that said......I find the tuning in of distant radio stations, either via my own radio here in Tucson or using a remote receiver in Buenos Aires to be an enjoyable experience.  

That is my simple pleasure for this evening.  It's also taking my mind off of current events, which I don't feel very much like discussing right now.

So Who is Going to Win This One?

 There are all sorts of polls and predictions as to what the outcome of Tuesday's election will be.  I will make no prediction, but I will make observations, and my primary observation is that this one has, for me, that same eerie feeling that the 2016 election did.   Organized Media is reporting record turnout for the early voting.  That in and of itself doesn't tell you who is going to win.  What that tells you is that a lot more people are voting earlier than ever before.

What does that mean, anyway?  Why is that happening?

No one knows what it will be like out there on Election Day.  No one.  People might be fearing social unrest.  They might be fearing the Wuhan Virus.  They might be fearing the long lines they might encounter if they wait.

Why did I vote early?

In my case it was for a different set of reasons.  I have been working a lot of overtime lately, and I mean a lot.  I am being compensated for it, which is great, because that doesn't always happen when you're salaried.  We had a major deadline of today to get a lot of things done, and I didn't know if I would be working another crisis on Tuesday.  I voted last Friday when a rare opening on my calendar emerged and took advantage of that opportunity.

It was extremely tempting to wait until this coming Tuesday.  I'll tell you why.

I very much wanted to lie to an exit pollster on my way out, though I'm also going to have to admit here that the Good Lord wouldn't exactly have smiled down on me for doing that.  Yea verily, I will admit that I get tempted to do things like that.  I'm not going to hide that.  If you're looking for an example to follow, on some days (if not most) it might be to your benefit to look to someone else besides me.

Regardless of the outcome:  get ready for riots Tuesday night, which will continue for several days.

No, you didn't hear it here first.

Eddie Van Halen is Gone

 At work today I checked a website that I've been known to frequently visit, and I learned of the passing of guitarist Eddie Van Halen.  It hit me like something of a sucker punch because I had no idea he was on his way out.  I knew that he had part of his tongue removed for cancer, and that was some years back, but not being a Van Halen fan I wasn't really keeping up what was going on with him or his bandmates.

Yes, I am very familiar with Van Halen.  They broke in early 1978 and they broke big.  One memory is driving up to Mt Hamilton in San Jose with Hal and KOME played "Jamie's Crying".  I didn't know at the time it was Van Halen and I heard from both Mark and Hal about this new killer song called "Runnin' With the Devil" by Van Halen, and I thought OK, there's this guy with the first name Van and the last name Halen who is breaking national.  I figured out soon it was a band named Van Halen after the two brothers who were in it.

There is no doubt that if you're going to sit down and compile a list of great guitarists, you're going to have to put Eddie Van Halen on that list.  The man no doubt had a talent that wasn't readily resident in most other guitarists.  He had his own style.  That's the mark of a great guitarist.  

I stated more than once, in another forum where Van Halen came up for discussion, that Eddie Van Halen was simultaneously their greatest asset and their greatest liability.  He was an integral part of the soap opera that came with that band.  I'm referring, of course, to his working relationship with David Lee Roth, Sammy Hagar, and Michael Anthony.  One manager of another well-known rock group once stated that success changes bands.  They (the members) start fighting.  And it all goes downhill from there.

All of that said, I can't describe myself as a Van Halen fan.  I never saw them.  I liked some of their songs.  I didn't like some of their other songs.  I got a kick out of "Take Your Whiskey Home" and I thought their cover of "You're No Good" was the best ever done of that song.

Eddie Van Halen played hard.  Eddie Van Halen partied hard.  And Eddie Van Halen died hard.

The shame in all of this is that he didn't (to my knowledge) patch things up with Diamond Dave, Michael Anthony, and the Red Rocker.

It's Been a While Since I Had One of These

Yesterday afternoon my cellphone went off.  Caller ID showed it be originating in New York.  I have relatives in that state (until they move out), but I didn't think it was one of them.  I thought it was a technical recruiter, and I answered since I wanted an opportunity to troll for some information.

Well, it wasn't a recruiter.  It was "Best Buy".  Or so he claimed.  He (I forgot what he called himself) wanted to know if I had made any changes to my computer recently.  A light went on in my head, as that I hadn't had one of these calls for the past five years, and I wanted to have some fun with this one, like I did with the last one who called.

I said that yes, I had made some changes.

I was then told that my computer had been sending out "security alerts".  Security alerts?  That caller five years ago said my computer was sending out viruses "all over the Internet".  Security alerts.  Well good.  I told the caller that I didn't think that was a problem, as that I installed some new software onto my computer so that I could send out these "security alerts", and I was glad to know that it was working.

Well he wasn't expecting that.  He asked me if I was near my computer, and that he could show me these alerts.  I responded with "you don't have to show me.  I want my computer to do this.  If you don't want to see them then you need to install blocking software."

"There's no blocking software.  Look, we're trying to help!"

"Well I don't want your help.  I don't see why we need to fix this.  My computer is doing exactly what I want it to do."

He wouldn't budge.  He kept insisting that we needed to fix this.  I'm thinking, how much longer can I drag this out?  And do I really want to drag this out?  I was done with the work week, and I wanted to go on the air.  I was also thinking that I wouldn't be able to keep from laughing for very much longer.

I hung up on him, after which he called back.  I didn't pick up the call, and as I write this "Best Buy" hasn't called me up to try to convince me to fix the problem.

I've gotten calls from the IRS robot, telling me that four serious charges have been lodged against me and "local cops" will arrest me within 24 hours if I don't call them back.

I've heard from Social Security about my account being "frozen". 

And although it's been five years since it happened, "Microsoft Technical Support" has also called me about all those viruses my computer is sending all over the Internet. 

I know I've said in previous entries that I hate telephones, and my feeling is that the primary purpose of a telephone is to allow other people to interrupt you at their convenience.

That said, I get a kick out of these calls, and maybe next time I'll see if I can outlast "Best Buy".

Why I Don't Do Social Media

Every now and then the topic of social media will come up in my day to day life, and when it did over lunch a few days ago both of us stated that neither of us do it.  It also came up in a phone call last night.  I don't do Facebook or Twitter, I have no intention of doing either, and although I may have mentioned it here in this blog, I haven't said why.

The short answer is, I have better things to do.

The long answer follows.

I remember first hearing about Facebook back in 2008.  I got two invites, almost within one day of each other from people I knew well.  "You have to try this!  It's neat!"  I never bothered to check it out.  A large part of that was I was happy with how I was spending my time, and didn't want to take on any new endeavors.  As time went on, I kept hearing about it more and more, and now every business out there wants you to "like" them on Facebook.

We also have Twitter.  Again, I have better things to do.  I can't recall when I first heard about it though I'm going to say it was 2010.  Randy Bachman had a forum and he would send out tweets every now and then, which someone would repost.  Fred Turner was asked if he did social media, and he said no.  (He has better things to do with his time too).

Even then, what have I got to tweet about?  "I was on I-10 the other day and I saw some roadkill, and it was a deer!"?  On some days that's about as exciting as my life gets, and I don't complain about those days.

That said, both of those platforms have had some bad consequences for those who get involved in it.  A former employer of mine had someone over in a foreign country.  He posted some disparaging remarks about that country on his Facebook page.  To his surprise, that host country had their intelligence agency monitoring that, and they didn't like what they read.  He was forced out of that country in short order, and I'm not sure if he remained employed with us after that.

I have also read of longstanding friendships being destroyed.  I know of one of them personally, and I suspect that the person that caused that has turned some of his Facebook friends against others who would otherwise have been his friends.  With either that or Twitter, once you send something out, you can't take it back.  You cannot unring that bell.

Now are there positive uses of either of those platforms?  As big as they are, there would have to be.  I could have signed up for Facebook and continued my interaction with two of the April Wine band members.  As much as I love their music, there isn't much left I could ask either Myles Goodwyn or Brian Greenway.  I do have one question for Fred Turner which I'll have to remember to ask the next time I email him, but I don't need Facebook to do that.  Yes, it would have been nice to keep in touch with Myles and Brian, and to learn about their projects, but an internet search would turn that up anyway.

Then there's the privacy issue.  Is it really anybody's business who I'm friends with?  Most of my friends know who my other friends are and where I like to eat and what I like to do.  Yes, I write about these from time to time here, but it isn't that anyone reads this blog in the first place and to be honest I'm good with that (this blog is, these days, a platform for airing my opinions and random thoughts, and I have control over posted reactions).  I also maintain a ham radio blog, which might have even less of a following than this one, but if I'm on the air and I hear some rare DX I'll text my ham radio friends about it so that they too can get Assinassippia or Crapistan or whatever rare country I get.  So why do I need Twitter?

Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh has said on several occasions that the Twitterverse is not representative of mainstream America.  Some of the tweets I've seen posted on news sites bear that out.  I don't really care to read reactions from Hollywood as to what President Trump tweeted, and I don't need to read the reactions that some folks have for those Hollywood reactions.  If I want to know what some people are thinking there are comments on news articles, and from what I read a lot of people are as much anti-media as I am.

Anyway, there's the long answer.  I don't do Facebook, I don't do Twitter.

I have better things to do with my time.

Sunday, 8/9/20: Tucson AZ

I am doing much better today than I have for these past few days.  I am getting used to not being followed upstairs by a black furball who demanded a lot of attention from me.  I'm still sad, but I am not second-guessing myself.  Cancer is a cruel disease.  It was going to take a loyal friend away from me if I didn't intervene.  Moe died with cancer, but not from it.

I am also getting back into doing what I normally do on a weekend.  I went on the air Friday night and worked several European stations.  A new country emerged from that:  Luxembourg.  That one took three different series of attempts.  I've heard that station on before but he only activates during a major contest.  It was a special contest call....LX7I.

Yesterday afternoon I went back on.  Conditions weren't great here.  I could hear the east coast guys working Europe, but I couldn't hear the Europeans.  I took a break, returned later on, and got Europe a few more times.  And another new country:  Estonia.  That makes 94 countries I have worked from here and that magic number of 100 is closer yet.

Also last night, I cooked an Indian dish.  I love Indian cuisine and I'm thinking that I will soon make an attempt at making butter chicken from scratch.  The Patak brand of butter chicken sauce is delicious and you can find it at the Evil Walmart Neighborhood Market store.  Sheila tried to find it again yesterday at the Evil Walmart big box store down the road, but couldn't, so she brought back a different brand.  We didn't like it as much.  Yet this morning I finished the leftovers and it tasted great!  Chili will do that too.  So is the secret to make it the night before, and then wait until the next day?

The afternoon is still young here, so the next thing I will do is go out on the back patio with a good book and a cold brew.

I will miss Moe terribly for some time.

It's not easy losing a loyal friend.  Even if he was a Lieutenant Demander.

It's Getting Easier, but it Still Hurts

Yesterday I went in to work to take care of some things, came home for lunch, and worked from home the rest of the day.  I needed to do that because there were several instances of uncontrollable sobbing throughout the afternoon.  I did the WFH thing today, more sobbing, not as deep, not as frequent, and I'm still sad.  I keep thinking of that mental image of Moe lying on that table, the life gone out of him, and that look on his face.  And I tell myself that that one precious little kitten life that began 13 years ago has now returned to where it came from, and that Moe's suffering was cut short.

I have thought a lot about why this hurts so much, and I have an answer.  Moe was able to reach deep inside of my heart, more so than any other cat I've known before.  The way he curled up with me on his first night.  The way he consoled me when I broke up with Kathleen.  Aside from that one year in Vegas, Moe was with me every night I came home to cuddle.  And several was the time when Moe went to console a family member.

And yes, Larry cuddles too.  He instantly purred the very first time I picked him up.  Moe didn't purr instantly.  He had to be settled down.  He purred.  Then he wanted back inside that cage so he could play with Larry.

Larry is taking this very well.  I worry about him.  He has lost a lot of weight and is being successfully treated for a kidney issue.  Before that treatment, I was worried that we were going to lose him.  I had to fight back tears on that one.  His rebound is nothing short of miraculous.  He solicits pets and attention just like he used to.  He will cuddle, but he won't stay long.  He's got to run off and find a piece of cardboard to chew.  For him it's all about the simple pleasures.

Although the sadness still lingers, and although he won't jump in my lap any more to interrupt a blog entry, Moe is still in my heart.  He, along with Larry, brought me a lot of joy that had been missing since I had to take my sweet girl Sylvia in for her last vet visit.

Tomorrow I will be doing the WFH thing.  That's mainly because I have at least three meetings to do via Zoom, and I prefer to do them from here.  I'm going to try to get on 40 meters tomorrow afternoon as that 40 will open to Europe as sunset approaches, and Europe is having a contest.  I might also try after I post this, though sunset is still two hours away.  For all I know South America might be rolling in too.

Some advice that I got when I lost Sylvia:  find something fun to do when you're done sobbing.  Keep busy.  I have to follow that, because depression has hit some family members here on both sides, and I've had situational depression before.  I haven't needed a prescribed anti-depressant since 2014 and I have to be careful about not getting to needing one now.

Moe, the Lieutenant Demander: 3/23/2007 - 8/4/2020

Moe was taken to the vet this afternoon and from there was returned to his Creator.  He had good days over the weekend and a good day yesterday.  This morning he enthusiastically ate.

After that, he made five attempts at the litter box, and couldn't get anything out.  Confused and frustrated, he left the litterbox, made a few more attempts elsewhere, and failed.  He let out two painful meows, then threw up his breakfast.  At that point I knew it was time.

He was taken to the pet clinic where he met a peaceful end.  I watched the anesthesia take hold and knock him out, but wasn't sure I could watch him die.  I left the room, Sheila remained, and then the next injection came.  I went back in, he looked the same as when he was when I last saw him alive.  His eyes were wide open, staring into space, with a somewhat defiant look, yet peaceful at the same time.

I am convinced that his spirit remained above us for a while as he watched Shiela and I both cry.  We petted him some more, cried, and then left.  At that point he then finished his ascent, likely wondering why we were crying because that cruel disease no longer had hold of him.  I was not going to allow him to suffer.

I am at peace knowing that I did the right thing at the right time for the right reason.  Yet it's going to be hard this evening, going upstairs, and this time he's not going to follow me so that he can cuddle.  He did cuddle this morning but I knew he was in pain, and he didn't stay very long.  He wanted to go back to the front windowsill and sleep it off. 

I had thirteen years of memories with him.  All were wonderful, though he managed to vex me a few times.  He was a great cat.  He had attitude, spirit, he was sweet, he would hiss at the vet, and boss me around.  

My last words to him were:  Moe, your daddy loves you.

I said those more times than I can remember.

And Some of the Other News

It's been a rough couple of days, but there are other items that I feel the need to talk about. 

These past two weeks have seen some overtime (paid) at work.  My project is understaffed, our customer has lots of things they want from us, and that's because their customer wants those things.  There's no doubt that the program manager both at our end and at the customer end know that we are going beyond where we normally go and they're just as swamped as we are.  The effort is very important in my mind, and the teamwork has been awesome.

I've had a couple of discussions with the deputy program manager.  He appreciated the patience that we've all had, and I told him that he told us it was coming and we braced for impact.  I put in a couple of long days getting what's called the Master Verification Matrix done, and I learned Friday that I was nominated for an award, which means a lot. 

This weekend we have a breather.  I tried going on the air yesterday and I made some contacts, but my heart wasn't in it.  The news about Moe hit me really hard.  I spent time with him yesterday and again today, and there will be more this evening.  Every evening I am upstairs with Sheila and we are joined by Larry and Moe.  Both want attention and it was that way last night.

In one way I am at peace.  When I brought the boys home around Memorial Day weekend of 2007, I resolved that I was going to be a better owner for them than I was for Sylvia.  These guys would see the vet once or twice a year.  They were fed better food (Sylvia was on Science Diet but I learned that wasn't the best you could get) and these guys had premium food that had no rice or other grains mixed in it.  And of course, I spoiled them like I did Sylvia. 

When they go, if they get to talk to God, they will tell God that they had a great home and were well taken care of.  Maybe they might complain that there were a few more times that they could have gotten pets.  But on most days, they got to interrupt me from doing something so that they could get their loving.

What can I say?  I like cats.  I like dogs.  I never adopted a dog because I was between marriages for several years, and it wouldn't have been fair to whatever dog I would have taken in.  So it was cats, two of them to keep each other company while I was away at work, which they did, but I didn't think both of them would be as demanding as they turned out to be.  I thought Larry would be the wallflower and Moe would be the Lap Boss.  Wrong.  And being wrong like that is a good thing.

Yes, I'm having my moments.  The grieving has started.  It has to happen.  It has to run its course.  Grief is normal and it is necessary.  I've been down this road before.

That's all for now.  I need to get outside for a bit.

Some Sad News to Report

Yesterday we learned that one of our cats, Moe, has an agressive form of cancer and will not have very much longer to live.  Its emergence was sudden as that he passed a physical around Memorial Day and had a clean bill of health.  The Xrays don't lie.  He has bone cancer and there's nothing that can be done, aside from making him as comfortable as we possibly can.

This isn't the first time I've lost a pet and it won't be the last.  It's hard, you grieve, and you wonder if you're ever going to get another one who will bring you as much joy.  Then one day you either go to an adoption fair or you meet a young kitten or a young puppy and at that point, you've been had.

I can't tell you how much longer the Lieutenant Demander has.  All I can tell you is that he enjoyed life today.  All we can do is treat the symptoms, and he is responding well to the treatment.  He's as sweet as he ever has been.....he spent some time grooming me, which is the highest honor he will give anybody.

I'm at peace, but I also have my moments.  When he can no longer find joy in his life, then it will be time to send him back to his Creator, who blessed us with Moe's presence for over 13 years.

Larry, the Solicitor General (nicknamed that for the manner in which he solicits pets) is in good spirits, though is being treated for a kidney issue.  I thought we were going to lose him a few months back but that big turkey got his old self back and is just as demanding of attention as is Moe.

Moe, the Lieutenant Demander, would "angrily" demand attention with the way he meowed for it.  He really loved cuddling and he still does as of this afternoon.

It will not be easy to say goodbye to him, nor to Larry when his time comes.

Odds are that when the grieving is done, I'll meet some kitten who will steal my heart, and at that point I'm had.

We'll do what we can for you Moe.

The Dog Days of Summer

I'm not really sure why these days of summer are called the "dog days".  I'll take a guess and say that it has something to do with the dog star Sirius.  Maybe the sun is right next to it or something like that, or maybe this is the best time of year to look for Sirius.  When I was in the sixth grade or so, I was really into astronomy and I could have told you when the best time to look for Sirius was.  I can't do that right now without looking it up. I can still recognize the Big Dipper and Orion the Hunter, and I might be able to tell you which planet is Mars.  As it is, an interest in the stars was overcome by one thing and then another, and I probably ought to get a telescope out as that I live in one of the best areas in the country for stargazing.

Anyway, with summer being in full swing, we have some really hot weather and we've almost set some records these past few days.  We've also had some afternoon thunderstorms roll in, though yesterday we got sprinkles as that that one grazed us and centered on somewhere else.  There are clouds to the south of us as I write this, but if we were in for storms there would be a dark thunderhead out there right now instead of sunshine.

The job continues to go well, though it is really intense.  I mean that in a good way.  I learned yesterday that I am considered as being part of program management but the word "manager" is not in my job title nor in my job description.  I am the one man Test Engineering Department for the program if you will, and although I may get some help and have some engineers support me, I'm not in the business of assigning charge numbers and tracking them.  I'm an engineer, I like being an engineer, and for this employer I actually get to be an engineer.  Three decades of my career was spent working for large corporations, and with two of them being an engineer meant you got to make charts and collect metrics.  Forget about making technical decisions.  They didn't want you doing that so that you wouldn't end up messing up the schedule.

Fortunately I have had small companies in the mix, and I'm in one right now, where the very nature of the job forces you to work smart.  I like that kind of challenge.  Small companies are great in the sense that the company owners know who you are, and in those situations they are very approachable.  A small company also carries with it risk, as that if they lose a customer, they end up losing employees, and that's no fault of their own.

In the case of being with a large company and funding to your project is cut off, they may get an assignment picked out for you.  Key word:  "may".  Forget it if you're approaching 50 years of age, as that their beancounters think that someone fresh out of college can do your job for half the pay and be twice the performer that you are.  You're shown the door, and if this happens to you in a downturn you'd better have one year's worth of house payments in the bank.

Thing of it is, is that your replacement, odds are, will want to be made a manager six years before they are eligible for their five year pin.  Not everyone gets to be "manager", and I can tell you that's a good thing as that many is the time when I've seen a situation where there are too many chiefs and not enough Indians.  It ain't pleasant, and if you're one of those Indians then you waste large amounts of time on the phone because every wannabe chief is calling you up so that they can "go over things".

And eventually, some of those wannabe chiefs get fed up and leave for another company.  Company A trains them for a year or so, and then Company B offers them a job with a 20% raise and Company A then wonders why they can't get people, with it never occurring to them that their reputation is in the trashcan since they ran the greybeards off some years back and replaced them with these Young Turks.  

Yes, you need some Young Turks on hand, but you also need the Moustache Petes, so that the business can leverage the strengths of both groups, and the company that does that then gives Companies A and B some competition and takes business away from both.  And folks, that is the way it is, and it cannot, nor ever should be, fixed by legislation.  The dog eat dog world has some very vicious little dogs, and it ain't the size of the dog in the fight.....it's the size of the fight in the dog.

OK.  I didn't know that when I started writing this I would go off in this tangent.  

I just wanted to say it's hot out there, the monsoon season is under way, ham radio is still fun, and I wouldn't trade places with anybody.

Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat!  And remember:  it's all about the simple pleasures!

Question for 7/9/20

If Mayor Regina Romero were to issue an order to the Tucson Police Department to shoot anyone on sight who is not wearing a mask, would Senator Martha McSally respond by tweeting a picture of her dog?

The 4th of July

Last night the neighbors got a bunch of us together to light off fireworks.  We did not wear masks and we did not practice "social distancing".  I even shook hands with one of them.  Yes, we were out there, lighting fireworks, drinking in public, and celebrating the founding of our great nation.

Anyone who has a problem with that is free to chain themselves to the door of the nearest Federal Building.

* * * * * * *

When I see images on TV and on the internet of protesters pulling down statues, smashing windows, and burning police cars, it doesn't make me want to vote Democrat.

When a bunch of Republicans stand around and watch all of this with their hands in their pockets, mumbling to themselves and not otherwise saying anything, it doesn't want to make me vote for them either.

* * * * * * *

A lady who was visiting her doctor asked "how much longer with COVID-19 last?"  The doctor thought for 10 seconds or so, and then said "I don't know.  I'm not much into politics."

* * * * * * *

A very curious thing about the news reports about the spike of COVID-19 cases in Arizona.  Not one single news outlet is telling us about how this is filling up hospital beds.  Neither is a news outlet reporting a commensurate increase in fatalities.

What it is, is that more people are being tested, and anyone having antibodies against it are going to be reported as a "case".  Even if there are no symptoms and nothing happens, it's still a "case".

Hey, a number is a number.  Gotta have numbers so we can get federal funding.

* * * * * * *

Another curious thing.  This time with the local spike, the elected leaders in Arizona are *NOT* calling for a lockdown like they did in March and April.  They want us to wear masks, and they want to fine us if we don't, but they're not making us stay home.

I find that very odd.  Don't you?

* * * * * * *

Although not under house arrest, I am working from home three days per week.  Sometimes four.   There really isn't any reason why I should go in and sit at a desk if I have to spend a good chunk of the day doing Zoom meetings.

That may change in a few weeks, as that my job title is "Lead Test Engineer", and one of our programs is going to need me to support testing of a ground unit, that is identical to a flight unit that's going up to the Space Station in December.

* * * * * * * 

I could say more, but I want to move on to something else.

Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat!

Brainless in Seattle

I have consciously avoided posting anything about recent events and social unrest, aside from the government-imposed house arrest related to the virus, but that situation in Seattle has now been deemed worthy of observation and comment.  If you're of the snowflake type, you might want to stop here because of the possibility of you not liking what you are about to read.  If you're not of the snowflake type, then odds are you're going to find yourself in a safe space, but without coloring books and therapy dogs. 

As you no doubt know, a bunch of "activists" in Seattle have seized control of the Capitol Hill district, and immediately started calling it "CHAZ".....Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.  The first thing these activists did was erect barricades around it, and not even being aware of their hypocrisy in being against the border wall.  Many of the guards are carrying guns, which is legal and their right to do so, but again they're unaware of their hypocrisy in wanting to outlaw the types of guns that they're carrying. 

It gets better.  This morning there was talk of renaming it "CHOP", as in Capitol Hill Occupied Protest.  Some of the movers and shakers within that entity are now saying they're not trying to secede, which explains why the signs they put up saying "YOU ARE NOW LEAVING THE USA" have been taken down and are no longer available in Google searches.  "CHOP" might be more accurate as that an "autonomous zone" would not have to be soliciting donations in the form of cash, cigarettes, liquor, food, and the like. 

So what do we do about this mess in Seattle?

One, we can do nothing.  This is hoping that the activists will get tired of it all and then go home.  In some situations that might work.  Whatever happened to "Occupy Wall Street"?  Have you heard anything from them lately? 

The problem with that is that Organized Media and some fatass politicians don't want this CHAZ/CHOP thing to go away anytime soon.  You have to wonder what they want out of this.  Do they want a civil war?  Are they hoping for some extremists from the other end of the spectrum to show up with their weapons and then starting something?  Odds are those other types might regard that as a waste of their time and ammunition, and they'd rather be doing what they are doing now instead of doing something about this. 

Two, we can build a wall around CHAZ/CHOP.  No one goes in.  No one comes out.  No commodities are allowed to breach that wall in either direction.  It won't result in another Kurt Russell movie, but it might have the effect of starving them out.

There's a problem with that too.  What about the civil rights of residents who are trapped within that barricade?  Many people regard that area as still being United States soil, and the residents as being willing citizens.  Do we punish them along with the activists?

Three.....send in the Marines.  Just go ahead and invade them, take it over, and then place them under military occupation.  Eisenhower had to send in the 82nd Airborne to enforce desegregation in some places in the South, so there's precedent for military action.  But does this go beyond the scope of what we have a military for?  Before we answer that, didn't we send an Army into the Confederate States of America to quell a rebellion, and take back the states that seceded?  How do we argue that this is not an option?

One thing I think is clear.  President Trump has told the local government there to fix it, or he will.  Is he bluffing?  Does he mean that?  I think he does. 

It doesn't appear that Seattle will fix this anytime soon.  The police chief is saying that it wasn't her idea to abandon Capitol Hill.  The mayor, well she's suffering from the Neville Chamberlain Syndrome.  Governor Inslee claimed that he didn't know what was happening, so it's not like he can be relied on knowing what to do.

Regardless of how this plays out, we're in for some interesting news. 

And soon.

It's Still Going Good

It's hard to believe that it's already been over one month in the new job.  I have been very busy, I've gotten two people I know hired (and two referral bonuses are pending), a third might get an offer this week (and that would be a third referral bonus pending) and I'm already helping out the President/CEO with a task.

No, I can't talk very much about it.  We are in that sector of aerospace that is very healthy right now.  One other local company is not doing well, but they've brought that on themselves. 

That's as far as I'm going to get with this post.

I'm putting in some long hours, but I'm having a great deal of fun in this job.

Much Better Than Expected!

I am now done with day 2 of the new job and all I can say is, wow!  It's already turned out to be much more interesting than I thought it would be, and much better at that!  I have already been assigned to a challenging program and it's likely that I'll be pulled off of it from time to time to assist with another challenging program.  Some significant contract wins have rolled in recently and we are in the hire mode something fierce.

It's also possible that my responsibilities will be expanded beyond what I interviewed for.  It would be a real resume enhancer if I pull that one off and succeed at it, and.....well I hope I won't have to be updating my resume if I don't have to.  I want this company to be my last stop before retirement, and retirement, if I have my way, is still some years away. 

I can't talk very much about what I do, even if I haven't been this excited about a job in years.  I've been assigned to a proprietary project, and leading the test efforts for getting the components flight qualified.  The company is going to grow and it's exciting to be riding this wave.

So far, I am not teleworking, but I see that happening on a 50% basis.  There will be some weeks in which I will need to be physically present there, and other weeks where I can take care of things remotely. 

Oddly enough, the person on the panel who asked me the toughest questions seems to be the most glad that I am on the team.  I now better understand the thinking behind the questions he threw at me.  It wasn't so much as to gauge my knowledge as it was to gauge my thought process.

The situation reminds me of one I had four years ago, when I returned to Tucson and took a job with involving testing the reliability of medical diagnostic equipment.  I knew I had wandered well off into uncharted waters, but it was get going on the job and worry about the unhcarted waters later.  It turned out to be one of the neatest experiences in my career.

Odds are I'm going to feel the same way about this one.

Getting Worse Before it Gets Better

Earlier this morning I dialed into an all hands meeting with my present employer, which will be my former employer around noon tomorrow.  The program manager has been very good about keeping the troops informed, but there is only so much that he can say.  He doesn't lie; he will tell you what he knows, and he will tell you what he doesn't know.  And this morning what he didn't say told me a whole lot more than what he did say.

Down there in Sorry Vista, the lockdown will very easily go thru the entire month of May, and it's possible that it may go all the way until the end of June.  That's a long time for people to be teleworking and once house arrest is lifted by the governor there's going to be a lot more teleworking than there was before all of is.

He admitted that he couldn't tell us what is being discussed between him and the customer, but he did say that the tests aren't coming in any more, which was also admitted by an officer at the O-6 level in an email I saw a few weeks back.  No tests, no need for testers, and certainly no need for test engineers.  He said he was trying to avoid the situation he had when they took over the contract, and in that one some key people were furloughed for six, maybe eight months.

What that told me is that down there, it's going to get worse before it gets better.  I don't think that is applicable to most situations outside of that one, although Organized Media can't wait to tell you otherwise.  Our useless governor waited until yesterday afternoon before announcing two more weeks of house arrest, which suggests there was a big argument up in Phoenix over who was going to get to flip that coin.  (I am proud to say that I haven't donated as much as a plugged nickel to either major party.) 

As for that operation down there in Sorry Vista, that is, that specific test center I was supporting down there.....stick a fork in it, it's done.  Testing of satellite radios will have to continue in one way or another as per a Pentagon directive, but it doesn't have to done in Sorry Vista.....there are at least two other facilities that I am aware of that can pick it up.  I know of one other workaround that can also be used, and why it hasn't yet been used might be a good question. 

Anyway, I separate tomorrow morning.  I am personally glad about it, especially considering the next chapter in my career starts Monday.   From reading their employee handbook, I'm joining a good company.  Yes, I'm leaving a good company as well, but that came with a situation that I will be glad to be leaving behind. 

We need to do to a lot of politicians what they are now doing to us.

And Now, Something Else I Can Make Public

This morning I accepted an offer of employment from a local aerospace company, specializing in subsystems intended for manned spaceflight.  No, I'm not going to tell you which of the three or four companies that do that tendered the offer.  What I can tell you is that these wheels started turning a few weeks ago, well before I was aware of my impending layoff.  My experience up in Las Vegas was a big plus as well as more recent experience here in Tucson involving the development of environmental test procedures.

I was initially hesitant about going forward with this when they first contacted me.  I really wanted it, but concerns over the virus situation gave me some reservations.  But when circumstances threaten your income stream, you go where the money is, and that's what I did.

The interview was done online, and it was a panel.  It took place yesterday morning and it was one of the more challenging interviews.  They gave me a reasonable expectation of continued work and expanding business.  They have been in business for several years, and their presence here has helped other Tucson aerospace firms get started. 

I wasn't even sure that I had passed muster.  I was told I would get my answer on Friday.  Instead I got it yesterday afternoon, and they wanted to make an offer.  There was some exchange of emails regarding salary, and they came in higher than what I had asked.  There are also performance bonuses available depending upon both company performance and my performance.  That would put me very close to what I was getting down in Sorry Vista, except that this time I won't be spending a lot of money on gas and lodging, and it will help getting some debt paid down.

I may have said here previously that private spaceflight is a very risky venture.  It is.  My Nevada employer ceased operations last month and one local firm here didn't make it.  I think this company will, as that it was founded years ago and is still run by engineers who know the business a great deal better than others who have attempted the market.  I texted one of my former co-workers from my Las Vegas days who is now up at Blue Origin in Seattle, and he said that he knows people who had worked there and liked it.

I was also able to determine that some engineers have been there for several years.  That's a good sign.  High turnover is indicative of some underlying deep issues, and that company up in Las Vegas had the highest turnover I had ever seen in my life, and this is coming from someone who worked in fast food and retail many years ago.

My projected start date is Monday, the 4th of May.  From what I can tell it is an "essential" business and the mayor of Tucson did not succeed in shutting them down.  Yes, they are teleworking too, and I might be doing some of that, and it wouldn't surprise me if teleworking becomes more widely practiced. 

I have already informed the management of my soon to be ex-employer of this development.  They were one of the greatest firms that I had ever worked for and they had much more of an employee-focused culture than I've gotten used to from previous employers from years ago.  I am sorely tempted to identify them here to add to their reputation, but I would be breaking precedent if I did that, and I don't feel like breaking precedent.

I'm hoping that I can drag a few people I know in there with me.  I have one friend in mind and he's thinking about it.  He's going to wait to see how it goes for me before he comes out of a retirement that started for him last year.  If I end up having to put together a test team I would want him on it.

I am truly a blessed individual.

And Yet Another Transition

Last Friday I was notified via email that I was being laid off.  Apparently the government customer has decided not to pay for the services of lead test engineers for third party certification of specialized radios.  No, I did not see this coming.  From what I can tell that decision was made a few weeks ago and my department manager tried to find work elsewhere for me, but to no avail as that one of the other test centers took a bad hit three months ago.

As it was, the government action officer and my employer have had an adversarial relationship from day one.  I can speculate as to why it was that way, but this blog really shouldn't be the place for that.  If I were to ask King Solomon why, he would say "I've seen this before.  There is nothing new under the sun". 

I am taking this well, but I will admit that sleeping at night has been a bit difficult to come by.  I kept myself very busy this weekend with ham radio activity, and when it's time to wind down for the night it's hard to wind down.  My mind goes into fifth gear.  I start strategizing my job search, I start thinking about what I'm going to do to the yard while I'm on down time, I start thinking about some other things that need doing around the house, and I'm frustrated that the state is still on a lockdown order. 

And now that the virus situation has come up, I'm wondering when this mess will be over.  Protests are erupting in some states and I learned that one is being planned for this state.  I'm very skeptical as that these measures are unprecedented........we've done far less for worse pandemics.  It's easy to suffer from the idea that the politicians and bureaucrats are trying to see how far they can go with us, and now pushback is happening.  My concern is that the next time something like this happens, there will be this eagerness on the part of some to shut this country down, not because they need to, but because they can.

Meanwhile, there are now reports of how China let this genie out of the bottle that seem plausible.  As I said last time, I don't think they bioengineered this.  They may very well have let this loose so that others could share in the misery.

I'm sure that more information will emerge in the time to come.

Teleworking Ain't So Bad

Last week saw my first complete week of telework.  I'm updating several test data sheets, all of which are in Excel.  It's an older version of Excel and even if it were the latest I'd still have to be fighting it here and there.  I've had to go online to get help in figuring things out.  The data sheets would be usable if we left them alone, but the customer wants these to look like what the data sheets we use for another series of test standards.

With the nice weather (save for yesterday) we've been having, I've been taking the company laptop out on the back patio, and working outside, enjoying the fresh air and watching cardinals perch in the trees in the wash behind my back yard.  I watch lizards run along the block wall, stopping every now and then to do "pushups".  When I look over the block wall, I might see quail or desert cottontails.

As much I enjoy not having to do the drive, it's strange.  It's like I don't have a job....except I do.  I just don't go to the office and work from there.  I'm not on the test floor since testing is suspended pending the fatass politicians lifting the house arrest orders that they all want us under.  I send in a daily activity report to my lead, and then I power down the laptop.  If I feel like it, I power up my transceiver, and I start spinning the dial to find some other hams to talk to.

I leave the house once or twice per day.  I don't enjoy going to the grocery store unless getting items to barbecue is what I'm there for (I need to start doing that).  I go to the store for the purpose of getting out of the house, to grab some items that I don't need but will eventually use, and then I come home.  I haven't seen the interstate for well over a week.  I sometimes feel the urge to drive down to Tubac or Patagonia, but there's no point, since most everyone there is under house arrest too.  Spending time outside is psychologically comforting to me, and that plus the store visits plus amateur radio plus recreational reading are helping to keep me sane.  Well, my cats help keep me sane too, in giving me a sense of purpose, which in their case is making them comfortable and keeping them spoiled.

Others are not taking this well.  Last Friday during a telework break, I stepped out the front door, and witnessed a confrontation between a couple who live about four houses away from us on the left side of the street that breaks off in front of our house to go north.  There were some somewhat loud words being exchanged.  The young lady, late 20ish it seems, was walking south, towards my street which runs east-west.

She was being followed by husband, or boyfriend, or domestic partner, or some such something.  He would try grabbing her arm and asking her to come back.  She reached my street, and then started walking west.  I positioned myself to be out of the line of sight of both of them.

When she got to the community mailboxes, she sat down.  He reached down and pulled her up.  More words were exchanged, and then they started slapping each other.  And I'm thinking, great, why do I have to see this?  They started walking east, and then turned on their street, with the lady about six feet behind the young man.

Then she bent down to pick up a rock.  And I'm thinking lady, if you're going to do a head shot, I'm going to have to call 911.  She threw it at him, aiming for his legs.  It hit him, he turned around, more words were exchanged, and they walked back to their house.

Last night the cops were at their house.  This was around midnight.  I didn't see it, but one of my stepdaughters did, and she told Sheila.  I heard about it this morning.  Whatever is going on there, it isn't good.  I don't know if someone got hauled off to the slammer or if the cops left after getting whatever it was under control.  I went online to see what police dispatches took place in my neighborhood, but it wasn't posted.  The cops don't come here all that often anyway.  We have two, maybe three of them, living nearby.

The situation with the Chinese virus does have almost everyone old enough to understand under stress.  Some are taking it better than others.  I know I'm under it.  I believe that China let the genie out of the bottle deliberately, guessing correctly that this would wreak havoc on a nation with a President who will stand up to them in trade negotiations.  No, this wasn't biologically engineered in a lab somewhere.  It was instead an opportunity to wreak this havoc, and for the Chinese to remove a part of their population since they themselves think they have too many people living there.

To steal a line from an overrated news anchor, that's the way it is, on Sunday, the 12th of March, 2020.

Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat.

Two More Weeks?

President Trump yesterday warned us that the next two weeks are going to be rough.  He is right in the sense that Organized Media will be very rough on us with the stories.  I've heard the projected death toll of 250,000, and I'm going to greet that with skepticism because the models that they use are not infallible and we've already seen a revision of what the predicted death toll will be in the United Kingdom.

How many times over the past few years have you seen where hurricanes are predicted to make landfall?  The best they can do is come up with a cone and then revise it several times each day.  The hurricane is pretty much going to go where it wants to go, and if there's an initial impact point that has been proven right then I'm not aware of it.

One thing that Organized Media absolutely positively refused to tell you.

How many people have recovered from this?

We're told how many cases have been recorded.  We're told how many fatalities have resulted.  There's still some debate over what the death rate actually is, and I've read where some of the eck-spurts are conceding that it just might be in the one per cent range.  But with the numbers that we now have, you'd think there would be a known recovery rate based on what we know so far, but why is that not being reported?

We know that there are risk factors.  I'm at a higher risk because of my age.  I'm aware of the need for social distancing and handwashing and all of that, but do I really need to go hide in a cave somewhere because of this?

Yes, I am avoiding public events.  I started doing that ten days before the first government mandate went out.  I'm washing my hands more frequently than I used to and I've now been recently known to open the door of convenience stores using a paper towel.  I'm going to call that prudent caution.

My problem here is that I suffer from a steep distrust of fatass politicians and Organized Media who enable them.  What will happen when this is over?  What are the consequences?

One consequence is that the public has now been conditioned to fear more than question.  Fear is very difficult to overcome, and I'm going to tell you that I am not immune to it.  I don't fear the virus, but I fear the loss of civil liberties and the willingness on the part of society to surrender them for a sense of security.

Is fear rational?  No, but concern is.  There is a Biblical proverb that says something like "a prudent man sees danger and takes refuge".  No sane person should attempt to argue against that.

But what if the danger is overstated?  I don't know if it is in this case or not.  If it turns out that this is not as bad as some want us to believe, that's good, but what will we learn from it?  Will we prepare for the next pandemic?

These are my thoughts at this time.

Life with the Chinese Coronavirus

A couple of weeks ago, on the 12th to be exact, I was telling Sheila and Kira that we'll have a better idea in four weeks as to what things are going to be like.  It's thirteen days later and now you can't find canned goods or soups in the grocery store.  The volume of people in the store has subsided per my observations and those of my snitch network, and water has returned to the shelves.

I was upset last Monday when I was in Safeway for the first time in over a week.  Almost all of what I went in there for was gone.  There's food available, it's just that you're likely going to have to come up with a plan B if you had something specific in mind for supper.

As for my work situation, I am still working.  For the time being I am "essential" and I'm coming in to help out with the testing and certification of satellite radios.  Half of my co-workers are teleworking, and I will likely be sometime next week when my test is complete.  I don't have to be physically present to write the test report; I can do that at home (and I'd be glad to).

This may surprise you, but I have all off a sudden started hearing from technical recruiters.  Last week and the week before I wasn't getting so much as the form email from whatever staffing agency trying to get me to apply for a position that I'm not a match for.  I've now been getting emails and phone calls, and I've been invited to webconnect to some hiring managers who I think are in Las Vegas (yeah, like I want to live there again).  The jobs of course are in those blue states with high taxes, high cost of living, and high rates of the Chinese Coronavirus.  I remarked to the gentemean who called me this afternoon about calls like his are a surprise, and he said there is a lot of hiring going on.

So.....the engineering firms have reason to believe that this will be behind us soon.  I tend to believe the same thing, but one question I will have to ask myself is, do I dare change companies before a Presidential election?  Odds are Trump is going to win this, and that Biden will be formally nominated and gaffe his way into a landslide loss reminiscent of Mondale and McGovern.

Anyway.....we have almost wrapped up week number two since my conversation of the 12th.  I'm optimistic that we, as a nation, will get thru this, in spite of the fatass politicians and Organized Media.

If Shakespeare were alive today, the quote might well have been "the first thing we do is let's kill all the journalists".  (The word "journalist" is being used very loosely here.)

The Panic Has Arrived

As I write this, a state of panic induced by and fed by Organized Media is sweeping the nation.  COVID-19, a/k/a the coronavirus, a/k/a the Wuhan virus, a/k/a the Chinese virus, is out there.  The first case in Pima County was reported yesterday (and that person has since recovered) but this was a few days behind the panic.

You can't find hand sanitizer or clean wipes anywhere.  Walmart was almost out of toilet paper when I stopped there yesterday for kitty litter.  At Safeway this morning, the toilet paper shelves were 1/3 empty, and I would not be surprised if they are now 1/3 full.

The Tucson Festival of Books for this coming weekend has been cancelled.  Spring training games up in Phoenix may go forward without fans in attendance.  Some music festivals out there have been cancelled outright or postponed.  Italy is on lockdown.  Israel may have finished locking down as I write this.

I'm not personally worried about getting this virus.  If I get it, I get it.  If I don't, I don't.  I didn't fear the bird flu, I didn't fear H1N1, and I don't fear the virus.  That said, I've been washing my hands every time I go to the can, but that's been my standard operating practice since I was in the fourth grade.  For several months I've used the store-provided sanitizing hand wipes to clean the shopping cart handles.

Organized Media, is of course, going to instill as much panic as possible, since in their own cretinous little minds, they think this will sink President Trump.  They're not going to let this go.  This is either the Lie of the Month or it's the Lie of the Year.  Either way, it may be a while before we hear the end of this.

Recent history has shown us that outbreaks of this nature are temporary and will fade.  My own personal opinion is that this will go the way of H1N1.

I suppose I should visit some of those websites that I mentioned last time, about how this time this is it, this is the end, and the Rapture will happen in a matter of weeks.

I think I'd rather read something else, like a ham radio magazine.

Leap Year Day, 2020

Every time there's a Leap Year Day, I try to remember something about it each time it happens.  I remember starting a new assignment on 2/29/88.  In 1980 I was sick.  I can't remember what I did on this date in 1984.  I barely remember 1992, and in 1996 I was fresh in a new job.  On 2000 I remember going to dance lessons at the Maverick and afterwards dancing with this one lady I knew named Lois.

I thought about asking Lois out, but never got around to it.  Oh, she was nice, but I didn't see relationship potential in it.

I can't remember the Leap Year Days of 2004, 2008, 2012, or 2016.  Will I remember this one?

Today I had a hearty breakfast around noon with a good ham radio friend of mine, Wendell.  Before that I worked South Carolina on 20 meters, my last state that I needed for that band.  I was on the air this evening, and there was a noteworthy QSO with an American down in Costa Rica.  I also briefly talked to Mark over the air.

Tomorrow begins March, no Bible study on the first Sunday of the month since it's Fellowship Sunday.  Next class on Revelation is a week from tomorrow.

Also we're going to need a new garage door.  I've got that to get into motion.  Sheila is preparing for enrolling in college classes.

Life goes on, and for the most part it's enjoyable. 

The Book of Revelation, Part 2

Since my last post I've been to yet another Bible study on Revelation, where we are now on chapter 7 and we have finished with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.  I've also had some time to read it a little more, as well as some online research, and I tried to figure out what a "preterist" is.

The first thing I'm going to note is that the author, the Apostle John, had a circular style of writing.  In one of his epistles, I noticed that he came back around to revisit a point, but from a different angle.  Some years ago when reading Revelation, I noticed that he did that there too, which meant to me that it isn't a chronological order of what will happen.  He comes back around again, and it turns out that our pastor stressed that too.  So my observation about that isn't a case of where it's just me.

The second thing is, is that I looked up on Wickedpedia (oops, typo) what a preterist is.  I probably can be categorized as one but I didn't agree with the types of preterist that they listed.  As stated before, I believe that some of what Revelation has prophesied has already happened, but not all of it.  Does that make me the partial preterist that they described?

No, because I believe that some of Revelation happened before Christ appeared to John to give the revelation.  I'm talking about the white horse.  I believe that Christ was present at the Creation, and the appearing of that horse is representative of that.  And that is where I part company with the "partial preterists".

If that article can be relied upon, it says that some partial preterists have tied some of the symbolism to specific events.  Some might say that "this" was the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 A.D..  I won't go that far.  I don't personally think it's wise to do that or to try to reach those kinds of specific conclusions.

Some of the other online research turned up websites that seemed to suggest that the prophecies of Daniel were about one set of events and those that Christ stated were about events yet to come (which they were) and that those in Revelation are about others.  Nope.  In my view, Daniel spoke of things which we have yet to see.  The prophet Joel touched upon the end.  So did Christ and so does Revelation.  Am I a partial preterist?  Call me that if you want to, but that's not what I call myself.  I will tell you that we've already had war, earthquakes and famine, and you'll agree.  But we are NOT done with war, NOT done with earthquakes, and NOT done with famine.  Those prophecies have been partially fulfilled in my view, but have not been completely fulfilled.

Now let's get to the earthquakes.  One of the sites I looked at today said there would be more earthquakes.  Are there "more" earthquakes happening now than there were 2000 years ago?

I digress to that controversy called "climate change", the now preferred title of what they used to call "global warming".  We've got a lot of scientists out there telling us that the Earth is getting hotter, and that the human race is responsible for that.  Some forty years ago there was a new "Ice Age" coming.  Regardless, these scientists will insist that this viewpoint is valid.  They've done studies and these studies were all "peer reviewed".  (Did you know that the decision to launch the space shuttle Challenger in January 1986 was also "peer reviewed"?)

Well are these scientists telling us that earthquakes are happening more often than they used to?  Are they?  If they are, I haven't been made aware of it.  So are earthquakes happening more often than when Christ was here?

What has happened is that we know about more earthquakes happening because our technology at detecting them has improved.  The disciples didn't know about earthquakes that were hitting Indonesia or the Cascades or Alaska.  We record more earthquakes because we have seismographs and we now know just how big the world is.  There aren't any continents waiting to be discovered.

But many of those who insist that there's going to be a rapture are insisting there are more earthquakes.  No one, to my knowledge, has made the case that we're having more earthquakes than we used to.

Then there are nations rising against nations, and kingdoms against kingdoms.  Yes, that's true.  It's happening right now.  And it was happening back then.  If we have more wars now than we did back then, it's because we have more people.

Christ said one other thing about something that had to happen before the end.  The Gospel must be preached to all nations.  Has it?  We have several shortwave radio stations beaming the Gospel to every corner of the world.  Has the Gospel been preached to "all nations"?  If you look at it in those terms, you can say yes, right?  But does everyone out there have a shortwave receiver?  If you look at it that way, you can say no, right?  So has the Gospel been "preached" to "all nations"?  My own personal viewpoint on this is that it hasn't, that there is someone out there who has to hear it and believe it before the end comes.  I can't tell you if that person is alive or has not been born yet.  And even if that very last person has been reached, will the end come right after that?  How do we know that God won't "grow" that person some before the end comes?

I realize that I have raised a lot more questions that I have answered, and maybe I shouldn't even be claiming that I answered a single one of those questions.  The purpose of this post was really to raise them, and to get anyone who cares to read this post some things to think about.

But don't ask me what the answers to my questions are.  I don't know any more about the answers than you do.

The Book of Revelation

Over the past few months we've been having a Bible study on the Book of Revelation after the service.  The pastor is going thru this at a pace to where it can take two or three Sundays to get through one chapter.  The book is I think, one of the most fascinating books in the Bible.  What does it really mean?  What is it trying to say?  What's with all that weird symbolism?

Before I move forward from here, a little digression.

My first exposure to it was in junior high school, in the 8th grade.  We were attending a Baptist church then.  Although I can't recall a single sermon or Bible class about it, the Baptist way of thinking was somewhat strong in Florida in those days.  I remember reading little comic books about the end of the world.

What I remember about that was that there was going to be this thing called the Rapture.  After the Rapture, the world would only have seven years left.  There was this guy called the Beast who was going to rise up out of nowhere, become a world leader, and everyone would have to have 666 tattooed on their forehead or right hand.  The USSR was Gog.  The USA was Magog.  There was going to be this big war with this big battle called Armageddon.  All sorts of chaos and death, and a bunch of locusts flying around and stinging people.

One of the tracts said that John was describing helicopters.  Also, that creature rising out of the sea with the ten horns (or something with ten horns) was the Common Market, now known as the European Union.  The EU now has more than ten member states, so I don't know what the person who wrote that would now say what it meant.  Anyway, the message was this is it, we who are alive will witness the end, and you'd better get ready for the Rapture.

I will admit that I suffered from that way of thinking for several years.  When I came back to repentance, this way of thinking was still with me.  But I was determined to read the Bible from end to end, and skipping ahead.  I got to the book of Daniel, and a chill went up and down my spine.  It was coming.  So I went out and bought Hal Lindsey's book that isn't in print anymore.....the one titled "The 1980s:  Countdown to Armageddon".

Trouble is, when you start reading the Bible to look for answers to back up the conclusions that you've drawn from others who read it before you and told you what it meant, when you're trying to figure out just exactly what will happen before the world ends, you might end up with a different set of conclusions......like I did.

I came to discard my original belief in the Rapture.  The church I was attending didn't really believe in it anyway.  I kept reading passages.  Yes, it will get worse before it gets better.  Yes, this will all come to an end.  But I also noted a "business as usual" aspect as to what would be happening on the day before the last day.  People marrying.  People being given in marriage.  Earthquakes.  Famines.  Wars and rumors of wars.  And I'm thinking.  It's this way now, but it's been this way now for a very long time.

What did people think when a world war broke out in Europe in 1914?  That the end is near?  That this is it, that Armageddon's on the doorstep?

What did people think in the 1930s, when there was a worldwide depression, this thing called The Dust Bowl, and FDR confiscating all the gold?

What did people think in 1939, when Europe's going at it again, and this time we've got this monster called Hitler who's the cause of all of this?  Did people think Hitler was the Beast?  

And what did people think in 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan?  Folks, I remember that one, because I was in college back then.  I wasn't convinced that Armageddon was around the corner but I remember thinking that here we are in 1979, and are we now thinking some of the same things that people thought in 1939?

The Soviet Union has collapsed.  China has emerged as a power to be reckoned with.  We've had wars, earthquakes, and famines.  Rome got hit with a big one sometime around 400 AD.  San Francisco got a big one in 1906.  And the earthquakes aren't done yet.

Here's something I just thought of.  When Christ said there would be earthquakes and famines, he didn't have to tell his disciples what they were.  They already knew what they where.  Did he say "an earthquake is where the ground starts shaking, buildings fall over, and people get killed."?  Did he have to say that "a famine is where there isn't enough food to go around, and a bunch of people starve to death"?  They already knew what a famine was.  Egypt had to prepare for a big one some two or three thousand years earlier, and it was written about!

But let's get back to where I was.  

We've already had wars.  We've had famines.  We've had economic calamities.  

Has some of Revelation already happened?

I suffer from the belief that some of it already has.  I told someone that once some years back and he told me I was a "preterist".  OK, I remember looking up what one was but I wasn't sure I was one or not.  I might look that up later.

But let's get to something that I think most of us can agree on.

The first few chapters are Christ giving feedback to seven churches in Asia Minor.  Here's what you're doing right.  Here's what you're doing wrong.  Here is what I have noticed.  Here is what you need to do.  I think that feedback that those seven churches got should be examined by a regular basis by any church in existence today.  Folks, that's still relevant!

As for what's after that, we're getting into that now.  We've been told to be careful about drawing specific conclusions.  We've also been told to look at other Bible verses that might shed some light on what is being said in Revelation.  And, something else:  Revelation contains inside knowledge written by insiders for other insiders.  Meaning........we're not going to figure it all out.  

But we will have a lot to think about.

It's All About the Simple Pleasures

My longtime readers (if I have any) will know that I have two cats, named Moe and Larry.  I have had them for coming up on 13 years.  Moe is frequently referred to as "The Lieutenant Demander" in my house.  Larry?  Sometimes he's "Mr. Larry" or "Big Larry" or "Larry-Berry".  Both of them are nice cats, sociable, but they have a favorite person (besides themselves) and that's me.

A few years ago I realized an important lesson from Larry:  it's all about the simple pleasures.

Moe will demand attention.  He's pretty much an in your face cat.  He will jump in your lap whether or not you want him to, and he's been known on several occasions to demand attention by the way he meows at me.  It's not a request.  It's an order.

Larry will also want attention from me on a daily basis.  He doesn't demand it in the same way Moe does.  He instead will block your passage in order to get a pet.  He's also an opportunist.  One night he snuck into the room after I had drifted off to sleep.  Pretty soon I'm aware of this cat head burying itself into my right hand.  He wanted his head scratched, and was moving his head back and forth across my hand to get it scratched.  The way that he enjoys pets is, simply put, to the max.  I realized one day that with him, it was all about the simple pleasures (I think Moe's favorite simple pleasure is bossing me around when it comes to the food dish).

So why do I bring this up?

We live in a world that can be enjoyable on some days and a place you want to escape from on others.  I'll be honest.  I am on several days extremely dissatisfied with my situation and wondering how I can improve it.  Work is comic relief on some days and aggravation on others.  One day you're the pigeon and the next day you're the statue.  Some days you get money and other days you have to spend it.  Some days bring you nice pleasant sunshine and other days bring you bee eye itch cold.  Some days you're walking six feet off of the ground and other days you want to hide under the ground somewhere in a cave.

But on every day Moe wants to cuddle, Larry wants his head scratched, and every day both of those guys are focused on the simple pleasures.

On a day like today, I have to think about the simple pleasures.  No, this wasn't the worst day I ever had in my life.  What it is is that it's been slow at work, it's going to be slow for a few weeks, and I'm on a "make work" task for the next two weeks or so.  I don't exactly enjoy going in.  I am on some days vexed by a co-worker and these days Friday is my favorite day.

So what are my simple pleasures?

One of them is getting an old nickel in your change.  Another is getting on the air and getting to talk to someone in another state or another country.  Another is the church that I go to.........blessed with a great congregation and a pastor who's leading a fascinating Bible study on the Book of Revelation (I need to post about that some time).  I enjoy coming home to my wife and family.  And yes, it's a simple pleasure to see Moe and Larry get their simple pleasures.

Could my situation right now be better than what it is now?  In my mind it could.  How come it isn't?  Maybe it's where I need to be right now.

How can my situation be better?  I have a neat wife.  I have great friends.  I live in Arizona and not California.  I'm not turning hamburgers at Jack-in-the-Box.  I'm not living in Trashcan.  I've had (in my mind) a lot of success in amateur radio.  I get to go out and shoot guns if I want to.  I can email Fred Turner and ask him BTO questions whenever I want to (I don't have very many of them left to ask, to be honest).

In other words........I've got it pretty danged good.

I can either be a malcontent this evening, and whine about how bad I've got it.

Or, I can reflect upon my blessings and enjoy a simple pleasure.

It's all about the simple pleasures.

And Now We're in 2020

Depending on who you talk to, the new decade either started yesterday or it won't start for another year.  Regardless of how you slice it, we are in the 20s now, one hundred years after the Roaring Twenties, and the 21st century is now 1/5 gone.  Where is the time going?

On New Year's Day 2000, I'm thinking we've had quite the odometer rollover.  I remember going out to a wildcat shooting range and exercising a single action .44 revolver, and thinking I'm using cowboy technology in a new millenium.  When I was a kid I thought we'd be wearing spacesuits or dressing like the Jetsons, but as I'm typing this I'm wearing blue jeans and shirt that looks like 1985 (it's newer than that, I assure you).

Technology wise, we've now had the "smart" phones for almost ten years.  No one (to my knowledge) uses a dial up modem any more to access Al Gore's invention.  Yet one of my favorite technologies to use is a vintage telegraph key to talk to other amateur radio operators around the world as well as stateside.

As to what our new year will bring, we will have a Presidential election, but it won't be a tabloid type of election like we had the last time.   Aside from that I make no predictions.  A few Democrats have dropped out since I last mentioned them, and the New Age Queen is barely hanging on.  I'm not worried about Trump losing, but I am worried about what the Establishment Republicans will do after he leaves office.  Folks, make no mistake about this, but the fatass politicians infesting both parties are not happy about We The People making this kind of decision.  Look for them to change how things are done later on this decade.

Meanwhile, life goes on.  The work situation has changed some in respect that our lead left, and a new one is in charge (he's well liked and capable).  I can't say that I enjoy being in Sorry Vista, but it ain't Trashcan, which is where I was five years ago.  I am coming up on being married five years to Sheila, and to be honest I want 500 more years of her.

That's pretty much it for this post.

Happy New Decade (in my mind it's started) and don't forget to pet a dog or a cat!