Mayo Update

I have heard from many of you that Mayo Clinic will do wonders for me. After the phone conversations I have had with the finance department last week I now have my own point of view.
I was told to expect to pay anywhere from 15-30 grand next week.
I was in disbelief .
After talking with the finance department and my own doctor I will not be heading to Mayo Clinic. There is no way that I can afford to pay that kind of money.
I will instead continue to do my best to improve my health and follow directions given to me from my own personal doctor.
My wife and I met with our PCP Friday and talked about the conversations we had with Mayo. Our PCP informed us to take care of our home and children before spending that kind of money at Mayo. Mayo would be a great help for me but they offered no guarantees for the service given unless I had enough money.
This all saddens me; I have been out of work since May of 2006 and have become a thought. My wife had worked for about 2 years and has lost her job so now it is all about surviving as best as we can.
Both of our cars are now paid for and we have over 500 pounds of meat in the freezer. I think we will be fine for a while. Time will tell.

21 days absent

Wow, 21 days have gone by since my last post.
I have not been feeling very well the last 3 weeks. I have had some days that were not bad at all.
The wife and I managed to make it to the Lakes Mall to get in some walking over the last 3 weeks. Now that the weather appears to be warming up and the roads are longer snow covered we plan on walking around the neighborhood.
We bought a new freezer a few weeks back. After it was delivered we went to the local butcher shop and ordered a half of cow. Good eating at $2.19 a pound. We can no longer afford the market prices at many of the grocery stores. Tell me were you can get a T-Bone at $2.19 a pound.
The only down to buying a side of beef is having to pay for it. Ours was around the $900.00 adding the $700.00 for the freezer and that puts me broke, but well worth it. I will save on groceries. After all, we have 400 and some pounds of beef.
I have everything all set for Mayo Clinic. The motel rooms are reserved and it looks like my dad and brother will be taking me. I was told to be prepared to be there for 3-5 days. Then again, they say that to everyone I bet. I am not looking forward to going.
So, that is what I have been up to the last 3 weeks.

Global Disaster Network

I would like you to join me and many others at Global Disaster Network.
Global Disaster Network has 25 active members and is growing. The members are not all Armature Radio Operators, they are however Meteorologist, Geologist, Volconologist, Firefighters and Law Enforcement officers, Members of Media Organizations and hobbyist.
The Global Disaster Network has members throughout the United States, New Zealand, Germany, India and Thailand. We try to post daily about events and hold professional discussions about current events.
Information and Education in regards to World Wide Disasters and events to include warnings and updates for:Drought, Earthquakes, Flooding, Health Threats, Hurricanes, Landslides, Severe Weather Warnings, Solar Flares, Space Weather, Tsunamis, Volcanoes, Wildfires and to also discuss thoughts in the many areas of Geophysics.

Global Disaster Network Discussion Page

Global Disaster Network Blog Page

Preparing for Mayo Clinic

Friday afternoon I received a phone call from Mayo Clinic. The have me scheduled for March 23rd. At this point and after much thought and discussions with the family it will be my Dad taking me to Rochester Minnesota.
My wife is going to stay home and tend to our children and animals. I have no idea how long I will be at Mayo Clinic. They said anywhere to 2 days and up. Depends on what all they find and surgery.
I’m not really looking forward to this trip now. Mayo needs 5 grand up front. (Ouch). It really sucks not having insurance. With the wife having been out of work for the last 4 months things have become very tight. At least we are not in the same position many people are in as far as losing there home and vehicles. Those are the things we pay on first. Last payment is now due on our truck. Pretty cool, I have been off work for 3 years and got both vehicles paid off. Not to mention all the work we have had done to our home. So yes, I thank the good Lord for providing for us.

What happened to January?

Wow, January went by pretty fast. I spent most of the month in bed, had been pretty sick. I did have one week where I felt pretty good. I even managed to get out with my brother for the afternoon on Jan 22.
We went to the Great Lakes Naval Memorial & Museum. It was pretty cool. They have only been open for a few months and are still working on exhibits. They have several models of different ships and also have several torpedoes on display. One of them has been opened up and shows you how it works.
According to my brother they plan on having an amateur radio station in the museum. They did have a station on the Silversides at one time but had removed it for some reason.
After the museum we went for lunch the new stopped to visit an amateur radio friend at his place of employment. We sat a rag chewed for an hour then it was time for me to call it a day.
So that is what has been going on with me. I am feeling pretty good this morning even though I have had only 3 hours of sleep. Yesterday was a real rough one though.
I added "Southgate Amateur Radio Club" news feed to the side bar this morning. It is a great source of news and events for amateur radio.

First post of the year.

Happy New Year!
This morning we took down the Christmas decorations, inside and outside. Taking the lights off the tree was a pain this year. We had 10 strings of lights. Four of those strings are those icicle lights that hang on the outside of the house. We do like a lot of lights.
Anyway, the Christmas and New Years decorations are put away for the next 11 months.
Next week the kids will be back in school and the world will be back to normal.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all my visitors.
This year will not be missed.
The last 2 weeks have been great. My kids had a great Christmas and my son had the BEST Birthday ever. He said that to my parents.
Not bad for being new to the Blogging world. I managed to get 20 posts since October and had 650 visitors. That is better than my count on QRZ.
Happy New Year all.
73.

Severe Weather

Wow, Look at all the warnings and watches.
For more info; Click Here

Saturday after Christmas

We had a really great Christmas. I think we are one of the lucky parents whose kids slept in. The kids awoke around 9am. Once that happen my wife and I could hear them in the living room with excitement.
It took my wife and me forever to get organized before we handed out the presents.
The snow is almost gone. It has rained for the last 24 hours now. I was worried for awhile, we had a lot of snow on the roof and with the added warmth and rain the snow becomes very heavy.
Flood warnings have been posted throughout the state as the rain continues and the snow melts away.
My current conditions
Observation Time: Saturday, December 27 2:50 PM EST
Humidity ; 94%
Dew Point; 55°F (13°C)
Visibility; 4SM
Wind Speed; 16 MPH Gusts to 22
Wind Direction;South (180°)
Pressure;1003 mb (29.62 in)
Feels Like: 54°F (12°C) It's a Heat Wave
OvercastFog/Mist 57°F (14°C) Temp Trend:Steady

Christmas Eve

The snow just keeps on falling. We have had one storm after another the last 3 or 4 weeks it seems.
I have a 4 ft. fence in my front yard, see the pictures on my Dec. 14 post, anyway, the snow is 8” away from the top of the fence. The Candle in my picture is buried. Same with the snow man figure in my front yard.
This Saturday they are saying we will have rain, 40º temps and a thunderstorm late Saturday evening. Then the temperatures will start dropping to the 20’s on Sunday. Sounds like we may see lots of localized flooding, large puddles of water on roads, then slick roads as the water freezes. Forecast here

I know have recorded 56 inches of snow this season.

I have this link to Tracking Santa. Click Here
My daughter has been checking it out hourly. She is so very excited. Weren’t we all at that age?

Storm Results

We had a really nice Snow Storm on Sunday. It got so bad the NWS issued Blizzard Warnings for West Michigan.
Here in Muskegon the County Road Commission pulled there Snow plows of the road because they could not keep up with the drifts.
We got 11.4 inches of snow from this event. I have not had a chance to add up my snow accumulations yet, my guess is around 50 inches.
I will gather my info and post it here as an update.
Muskegon Chronicle has story on our weather. Click Here
Sunday we had our family Christmas Party. Weather wise it was a bad day but almost everyone showed up, great time and more than enough food.
My wife was asking me several questions today about an HT I use to have. We had gone through the same round of questions a few weeks ago. I wonder if, maybe Santa might have a little something in my Stocking.
I had to sell all my Ham gear to pay bills. I was given a mobile unit with a power supply but I need an antenna. It is a 2 meter rig.
I might try a little harder to upgrade this year. I have lost interest to some extent in Ham Radio. Looking for the bug.

Storm update

It is 8:40 pm or 1:40 Sunday, December 21, 2008 UTC time.
It has now just started to snow. I have 3 snow boards here at my QTH and will take measurements and give the avg. as I have done so far this winter season. I figured my blog site would be a great place for this info vs. space on my PC.

My Weather Station is reporting;

Wind Speed: 10.48 kts (5.39 m/s)
Max Wind Speed: 15.32 kts (7.88 m/s)
Wind Direction: 103° (ESE)
Air Temperature: 17.4 °F (-8.1 °C)
Wind Chill: 4.4 °F (-15.3 °C)
Dew Point: 11.3 °F (-11.5 °C)
Relative Humidity: 76.4 %
Station Pressure: 29.23 in Hg. (990.00 mb)
Sea Level Pressure: 29.94 in Hg. (1013.93 mb)

Another Winter Storm

We have just cleared our driveway again this morning. Yesterday the snowplows had our street turned into a one way. Last night they completed the job leaving a 2ft high by 3 ft wide snow bank at the end of our driveway. That is the worst part of keeping the driveway cleaned.
Glad we have a 8hp snow thrower.
We have another storm on the way tonight.
Local media forecasters indicate that snow will be moving in from the west Saturday night and picking up in intensity through Sunday morning.
Accumulations will range from 3-6 inches, with the highest amounts to the northwest of Grand Rapids. Another facet to this storm is the wind, which will really be whipping during the day on Sunday. Gusts will be in the range of 30 to 40 miles per hour and with falling snow, this could create extremely low visibilities. Expect near blizzard conditions at times Sunday with temperatures only in the teens. Wind chills will be much lower.
Information from the National weather service cautioned that temperatures will be bitterly cold as a strong cold front comes into the region carrying a blast of extremely cold arctic air. Wind chills could drop as low as 15 to 25 degrees below zero.
Gotta love winter in Michigan.

Comet 8P/Tuttle

Got this from Space weather. For all you star gazers.

RADIO METEORS:
The Ursid meteor shower caused by Comet 8P/Tuttle peaks this year on Dec. 22nd. About a dozen meteors per hour will fly out of the Little Dipper (Ursa Minor) as Earth passes through the comet's debris stream. Watching these northern meteors can be a chilling experience, so why not stay inside and listen to them instead? Spaceweather.com is broadcasting live audio from the Air Force Space Surveillance Radar in Texas. When a meteor passes over the radar--"ping"--there is an echo. Give it a try; feedback is welcomed.

A Blessed Surprise

Tonight my family and I received a blessed surprise.
The church that, well, my wife, kids and parents go too showed up at our door step singing Christmas Carols.
I/we have never had that happen before. I did not know how to act.
It was a very nice of the church to stop at our home. I wish I had warning though; I had just awoken from a nap not even a half hour before and was not feeling very well. I looked terrible and had bed head. If I had prior warning I would had a pot of hot coco prepared.
I think I am going to have to put more effort into going to church again. The church has been very good to us and it is hard to find such a church like ours.
Thanks Trinity for keeping us in your prayers and thoughts.