Monday Update

Saw this in the window of the car parked next to us at the hotel the other day - new one on me.

My new shop radio was waiting for me when we got home from the trip. It's from C. Crane, model CEP. It's just a radio. Plays AM & FM and does it well. I was thinking that someone had to make a radio that got decent reception and I think this is the one. I bought the external antenna for it, plus the telescoping one that's on the radio is a big-un and seems to work pretty well all by itself. The radio comes with an AC adaptor or it can be run on four "D" cells. Its got a light for the tuning dial and an input for an MP3 player. 

There's a station that's fairly close by that plays a variety of music I like to listen to as well as the Bears' games. On any other radio I've tried in the shop, the signal would fade in and out, either on its own or when I walked by and disturbed the incoming signal. I had it on yesterday during the Bears game and the signal came in loud and clear the whole time. Didn't help the Bears performance any but it's just a radio, not God.

Since the weather was so great over the weekend, I spent most of it doing odds & ends around the shack including putting the labels on the TIG filler rods. I figured I was done painting for the season but since it was so nice I decided to paint the trim on the shop. I had planned on getting the whole thing painted this year but with all the rain and working on the bike, no such luck, but the windows are now painted and washed - give me a little head start for next year. Actually, one more good day and I could have the siding on the ends of the building painted as well.

Also harvested some persimmons. We've had a couple of frosts, so it was time to get those picked. The fruit is not nearly as astringent after a frost. The Missus is going to turn these into persimmon bread. Yum, yum. This is the only fruit I got this year. No apples, no peaches. Good thing I wasn't counting on the trees to keep me fed. Last year I had apples and peaches out the wazoo but no persimmons. This year there was so much fruit on the persimmon the top broke off in the big rain because the weight of the fruit and the water was more than the tree could hold. Funny how Mother Nature works some times.

Going to try and get some more done of the Sportster this week. I've still got a few other things I'd like to get done before it gets too cold but I'll just take it a day at a time. I just don't want to lose my momentum of the bike. 

Have a good week.