I’ve been doing this ham radio thing for about a year and a half now. I have a couple more observations to add to the blog post I wrote last year. 1. The amount of learning required to get started is not massive. You can get started with a relative minimum of technological knowledge and if that’s all you want, you can do quite a bit. But… If you want to get really good at it or learn the nitty, … Continue reading
Quoted for posterity in its entirety from the lovely and talented Beth Geyer’s Facebook page. Emmett’s feeling much better and wrote this lovely letter to thank us for taking such great care of him. He’s the sweetest! “DEAR FAMILY, I WRITE THIS IN ALL CAPS, NOT SO IT’S EASIER TO READ, BUT SO YOU CAN TELL I’M YELLING. MY DISAPPOINTMENT IN YOU THIS WEEK KNOWS NO BOUNDS. FIRST OF ALL, HOW DARE YOU. ALL I DID WAS VOMIT ALL OVER … Continue reading
After months of house hunting, mortgage applications, moving company disasters, long-distance commuting (sorta), unanticipated major home repairs, government administrivia and last-minute projects at work, I’m finally retired. Again. I’ve told folks for years that the eight months after I retired from the Army were the best months of my life. While that’s only a slight exaggeration, not working for those eight months was wonderful. I could see a movie in the middle of the day, schedule medical appointments at my … Continue reading
I do not intend to debate who touched whom first or the truth of the CNN reporter “… placing his hands on a young woman…”. Everyone can decide for themselves from the plethora of imagery out there. To establish blame for this incident misses the greater point. One of the tenets of good public affairs work is the relationship an organization or individual holds with the press. For example, the Department of Defense provides office space in the Pentagon for … Continue reading
Here’s another in a series of posts I’m going to make when I find some of these treasures. Some will be captioned, others will not. The only criteria for posting in this series is that: a.) I’m in the photo or… b.) … I took the photo. In the summer of 2017, Nate, Garrett and I went on a biking tour of the National Mall in Washington, DC. We stopped at all the sights – and there are many. Here’s … Continue reading
I almost didn’t re-post this. Nearly every year, I have. It always refreshes my memory far too realistically and emotionally. Just now, I re-read it and I realized that’s the whole reason I re-post this in the first place — so that I don’t forget how I felt that day. So at the risk of being repetitive, here it is. — Dan I wrote this back in 2009 in response to all the “Where were you when 9/11 happened?” questions … Continue reading
Most of you know that in a previous life, I was an actor. You can see how successful I was by my long-term employment with the government. Back then, I did a lot of stage plays and I admit it, I’m a huge ham. I love stage because you can be broad and loud and all those things that are far tougher to do on film. I was never very good at subtlety. In the fall, at the urging of … Continue reading
I wrote this back in 2014 and it generated a bunch of comments on Facebook. It’s posted here again because of recent FCC announcements about the potential revocation of net neutrality regulations that were instituted in the previous administration. The bottom line for me and for others is that Internet Service Providers should not prioritize the delivery of information based on content. The technical nature of the Internet Protocol does not discriminate between differing points of view as could paid … Continue reading