We had an interesting 4th of July this year. The people around our bay here
on the lake had our own fireworks show. It was better than what the marinas
around the lake put on. We just sat out on our upper deck and enjoyed all of
the sights and sounds emanating, literally, from all around the bay. It was
so spectacular that next year we are going to take a larger contribution
from all the neighbors so we can have an even bigger and better fireworks
show. 

Hmm, it just occurred to me that this really doesn't have anything to do
with ham radio does it? Well, I'll end it by saying that after the fireworks
show, I turned on my TS-590 and listened around on the bands, and even
though I still don't have my antenna up yet, I was able to hear signals from
all over the world on 40 and 20 meters. All I am using for an antenna is a
long random piece of wire strung across my ham shack and tossed out the
window on the ground. I can only imagine what I'll be able to hear and work
once I get my antenna up. To be blunt about it, I am getting pretty upset
that I am having so much trouble getting my antenna up. It seems like one
thing after another is creating obstacles. I had to hire a tree specialist
to come over and trim some tree limbs and actually cut down one dead tree
that were going to be in the way of my antenna. In fact, my tree guy is here
at this very moment getting the dead tree down. When he got here this
morning, he was delayed some more because the neighbor's pontoon boat was in
the way of where the top of the tree was going to come down, and so, we had
to go over to the neighbor's house, wake them up, and ask them if they would
move their boat. Oh, my neighbor doesn't have their own dock; so, they had
their boat tied to my dock. See what I mean about one thing after another.
Hopefully, this will be the last obstacle, and now, we can get the antenna
up. I had my tree guy put up the pulleys that I need for pulling up my
antenna; so, the pulleys are all in place. Next, I need to get the mast up
and drill holes in the foundation to bring my coax into the house. You know
what -- I just realized how damned crazy we hams are! <lol>

Ron, K8HSY