With 2024 drawing to a close, I felt it was time for reflection. For my household, it was disruptive. It started out with Mary’s ex husband suddenly getting sick and then dying. He is the father of my stepchildren, Mary and the kids stayed in contact with him throughout the years. She made 3 trips to Texas while I stayed home and took care of our special needs daughter.
Shortly after that, she decided she needed a hip replaced. She got scheduled for surgery a week after her examination. She had to spend 4 days in the hospital and then several months recuperating. I was doing the heavy lifting in more ways than one.
During the winter we had a very cold spell which killed about 14 50-60 foot tall pine trees. I had to bring these down with a chain saw. It took some doing as I had to make sure they fell in the right direction. They had to fall into my open field and not in the woods possibly creating widow-makers. Because of the danger involved, Mary at least wanted to be present to watch me in case something bad happened—it didn’t. I put her in out UTV so she could keep an eye on me while she continued to recuperate.
We saw the great eclipse of 2024. We were in the 85% coverage range. In reality we didn’t see that big of change. It was fun to witness it though.
This summer we had a big family reunion. We rented a huge cabin in Tennessee where we all stayed for 4 days. It was a lot of fun, but it was exhausting. It was good to see all my kids and grandkids in one location.
We saw two major hurricanes hit the southeast with Hurricane Helene doing damage in North Carolina that will take years for recovery. Fortunately, the hurricane’s path just missed us.
Amateur radio had its own shakeup in my world. After 26 years of EmComm with my church, I decided it was time to do something else. I felt the program was getting a little stale and I was getting a little stale with the program. I have since joined US Army MARS and SHARES. I am enjoying both. I have let my CW skills trail off some. At the beginning of the year I enrolled in a CW class called CW Innovations or CWI. They helped me get my code speed up. With everything that was going on with me, something had to give and it ended up being amateur radio and CW. This included most of my camping trips.
I have been retired now for a little over year and while it has been a hectic year, I still enjoy retirement. I stay busy. Looking toward the new year, I am hoping to get back to some kind of normal. So far I have winter field day with my club in January and Hamcation in February. I plan on camping in March, April and May. I have yet to make the reservations. With MARS and SHARES there is a digital component so I will work on keeping those skills current. These nets have a specific protocol and run very efficiently. It takes some getting used to, but these are some of the best nets I have been on. CW was pushed to the side but hopefully I will get back on the paddles this upcoming year. The new year holds no promises of being any better than this past year, it is my hope it will be better.
On a final note, I wish to thank all of my supporters who have stuck with me during this past tulmulteous year. I wish you all the best with a safe and prosperous New Year. God Bless and 73—de Scott
KK4Z 