Awake: 6:45am Temp 41 sleep 6+33 bright red sky to the east this morning overnight @ Long Beach, WA.
This was the morning for phone calls: 1st neighbor Donna from Nicktown. We share talk time with Donna who brings us up to date on “what’s happening” back there: Barry is a new Grandfather, Bill M. had cataract surgery & now has 20/25 vision, & Theresa has decided to renovate her classic mansion.
Next caller was Larry in San Diego: the smoke from the S. D. fires did not affect them; they were in-between the smoke from the south fires & the north fires in Oxnard. I let Larry know that I found his small LED flashlight & will return it when we get together next time.
Then I call our good friend Dick C. from Goodyear, AZ who wrote an e-mail with a “respond quickly” tone; they would like to rendezvous in Vegas sometime in December. When he realizes we are going south from Long Beach, OR to California on US-101, he offers his available camping site in Newport to us for the weekend. A very nice gesture that we couldn’t refuse; we will stay in touch about meeting in Vegas sometime in Dec.
Oh my gosh, it’s early afternoon already; I call Ray & let him know we are on our way.
Again Ray greets us with a smile as we arrive; we hang out in the radio room for (40) min reminiscing about the ole days of Amateur Radio & how Ray was encouraging me to learn my Morse code, buy a transceiver & set up an antenna back in Memphis so we could have scheduled time for chit-chat that would cost little. I did the code, acquired the license & we did a lot of talking without using the phone (Kathy reminds me that we also did plenty of talking using the phone!). Times have changed now & the computer has vastly overridden the Amateur Radio popularity.
With all that radio talk, Ray questions whether my license is still current. “Of course” I tell him. “Why just (3) yrs ago I upgraded to General Class.” Ray suggests we use the computer & fine out. Sure enough, Ray was right to be inquisitive as my license has expired; however, they do give you (2) yrs to renew. Upgrading your license does not renew your license I found out.
In the meantime, Ray fixes Kathy up with another wireless computer in their living room & she checks her messages & writes more e-mail. She finally got to see the short video that Sallie sent showing off her bathroom redo that Kathy helped with; it really turned out nice. She also got to see a video of the CA fires sent by Mark. Our computer connection is too slow to download such videos.
Try as we might, using Ray’s computer, I could not renew my General license with the FCC that afternoon; mainly due to my operator error. Regardless of that frustration, our time spent with Ray & Sharon was most delightful. Sharon returned home as we were leaving so we bad farewell to both & thanked them for their hospitality & thoughtfulness. We perused Jack’s Country Store nearby, the state’s oldest mercantile featuring a wide assortment of everything from A-Z on our way back to our motor home.
7:45 pm Dinner: Pork chops with fried noodles & broccoli.
9:15 pm Kathy calls Zack in Seattle & talks for 50 min.
Late DVR movie: “Captains Courageous” with Freddie Bartholomew, Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore, Melvyn Douglas, Mickey Rooney, etc. Spoiled rich-boy Bartholomew falls off cruise ship, rescued by Portuguese fisherman Tracy (who won Oscar for role). Boy learns to love seafaring on crusty Barrymore’s fishing vessel. 1937. Good story; difficult to understand some of the jargon the actors as Portuguese fishermen use.
Lights out: 12:46am
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