Fall In Indiana

The best time of the year is here for this Hoosier-Turned-Floridian. Not much happens from January through August down here, except for heat and hurricanes during the summer. When I lived in South Bend up until 1983, the fall was the most beautiful time of the year up there. To this day, Joyce and I still go up every year to see family, friends, football and fall in Indiana. It's a great break from the heat and humidity down here, and it's nice to be able to sleep in the cool Indiana air with the windows open. And of course, the best part about fall is college football.

Election '08

John McCain has picked his VP - Sarah Palin, and she's an excellent choice! You can tell how good she is because of the onslaught of garbage from the left. The first thing that the Democrats don't like about her is that the Republicans were the first to have a woman on the ticket, whereas Obama picked an old guy from Washington. Obama could have had Hillary.

Let it rip with your comments about anything political here. Anything is bad taste will be deleted since the search engines run around the web, and they will link any bad comments to my name.

Stay Away From Here

Lastest track as of Sunday night, September 7, 2008: Looks like it will miss Fort Myers and go out into the gulf.

September 4th, 2008: There are three hurricanes running around out there in the Atlantic. Hanna is no threat to southwest Florida, but Ike might be a different story. It's projected to come around us next Wednesday morning, September 10th, 2008.

N4RNW Is Back On The Air

After renewing my amateur radio license and buying a new radio, I am back on the local 2-meter and 440 repeaters here in Fort Myers. When I was last on the air, it was in the late 90's with a Kenwood HT. I took out the radio recently to attempt to use it, but found that the internal clock battery that enables the radio to retain all settings had to be replaced. It looks like the repair charge to replace that battery wouldn't be worth it (the battery was soldered in by the manufacturer), so a new radio was soon on its way. It's a Yaesu VX-7R Silver - cute little thing that's no bigger than a deck of cards (see pic below for the black version). Besides transmitting on 2M, 220, 440 and 6M, it has extended receive for everything from the AM and FM broadcast bands through aircraft, amateur radio bands, to all the way up to 999 MHz. It's fun to listen to the aircraft bands for planes arriving and departing from RSW and Page Field.

Jerry Reed Dies at 71

First Chet Atkins a little while back, and now Jerry Reed is gone. To any guitarist like me, these are both great losses. Most people know Jerry as "The Snowman" in the Smokey and the Bandit movies, or the singer of "Amos Moses" and "When You're Hot, You're Hot". But, as one online account described him, he was a "guitar virtuoso". Play any of his albums, especially those from back in the 70's, and you'll hear guitar work that is so intricate and complicated that all you can do is shake your head!

Jerry was also a regular on the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour back in the early 70's. When Jerry and Glen would get together in the Concert Spot, their singing and playing together was as good as I have ever heard.

I remember back in the summer of 1975 when I was attending a summer session at Indiana University in Bloomington, he was in concert at the Little Nashville Opry, about 15 miles east of Bloomington in Nashville, IN. I was able to go backstage and briefly meet him between shows. Great singer and great guitarist. There is an instructional DVD out where Buster B. Jones teaches the Jerry Reed style, and it'll take me years to unravel how either of those two guys play.

http://www.jerryreed.onlyhere.net/
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-reed3-2008sep03,0,6038546.story