A Crummy Commercial

Judging from a sample of one (my Mom), Japanese people like spicy food.  I was never much for spicy food although it is a little like diving into cold water.  Once you get used to it, it's not that bad.   Anyway I bought some of these snacks on Ebay: It was gonna be a twofer.  A snack that while good is resist-able - I won't finish the entire can in one sitting, that's for sure.  But also, I remembered that the plastic lid from a Hapi Wasabi Peas was perfect for sealing up a partially eaten can of Campbell's Chunky soup.  Negative lesson learned: that is no longer true: The Hapi cans are bigger now, the plastic lid will fit tightly on a can of tuna though.  One other thing:  these peas will last a LONG time past the expiration date.  I found a can years after my Mom had died that I popped open and the peas were fine. The Ebay seller also included these freebies: I learned something positive:  a little chocolate eaten after a hot sna...

I have started drilling the maples: This is actually two trees right next to each other And yesterday the accumulated sap was over 4 liters so time to start boiling.  Unfortunately the result was well below a brix of 58 - IOW watery.  I must have made a mistake in the reading of the initial sugar concentration which appeared to be 2.6%.  Also, there was an extended power outage this morning of over 20 minutes so that may have messed my calculations up. Anyway, it is done and brown and fragrant.  It will require a finish boiling down later. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

A communications course I took in college was previously mentioned: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-bit-player-claude-shannon.html The bottom line:  the students wanted to learn how TV and radio worked, the prof and one student wanted to talk about signals and noise.  Unfortunately the practical side was emphasized but the theory was what we needed. Rita doesn't know what to think Anyway I clicked on this old Watch Mr. Wizard program and wish I had seen it when I was younger although I would have been only 7 or 8 in 1963: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l381_ho8KR8 Don Herbert does a nice job (especially considering he was on regular commercial TV) of explaining the topic of noise.  Really this is what ham radio is all about, getting your signal through the noise whether that noise is natural or man made. Don Herbert wiki:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Herbert Don Herbert site (everything is sold out :)  http://www.mrwizardstudi...

It's the day before Fat Tuesday but the truck from the mainland comes up on Monday and Thursday so this is the day to go to Mann's.  I roll up to the store and my next door neighbor is out front and says: "weren't you just here last week ?"  - so I said: "Donuts, man !" I tried them and they were OK.  Boxed donuts are never quite as good as ones right from the fat but these were fine. It was a nice day here in the afternoon, sunny, above 40F.  If my tummy wasn't weighed down by the Paczki (only one) I'd go out and drill some maple trees !  :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

I have a Thomas Nelson KJV Bible from the 20th century.  It was furnished through the courtesy of the Not Ashamed Ministries, Lawrenceville GA, director: Lloyd Ferguson.  Incidentally, I happened to hear about the free Bible offer from a SW broadcast of Not Ashamed Ministries, shortwave used to be useful :) As can be seen the words in red are those of Jesus. On a completely different subject: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-strange-case-of-peekaboo-power-bill.html I was thinking about the billing date and finally dug out the latest bill and saw this: This would have been more helpful BEFORE they started ! I'm afraid I usually just ignore the words in red on the power bill.  Maybe my customers do the same with my website and documentation ? Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

It was such a nice day that I took a walk out to the woods even though the snow is over my boot tops in some places.  And the widowmaker is still up there. There are two little trees holding it almost level so I guess it's going to take some trunk rot before it finally comes down. not seeing too much rot so far, being off the ground hurts   I'm still debating whether to start drilling the maple trees, this would be kinda early but OTOH it's a shame to miss a "run" of sap.  It's been hard freezes at night but sunny and warm during the day - that's the recipe for both pot holes and maple sap.  I did see some budding pot holes on Thursday, evidence of freeze-thaw.  Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

IMO the internet stinks for recent history, the boring details like what did this place look like in 1969 - that kind of thing.  However there are a few outposts like Pinterest that do have a little history (along with a LOT of ads). Recently I saw this Red Barn ad in a Pinterest email.   Curiously while I don't think I ever was in a Red Barn restaurant the ad did spark a memory. As I recall there was a Red Barn on Fond du Lac avenue right next to Amateur Electronic Supply.  So I jumped in my internet car and tried to take a "drive" around that area.  Unfortunately Microsoft Bing has killed their streetside part of the maps.  Fortunately Google did a pass through that area for street view fairly recently in November 2025. I *think* this used to be the Red Barn: the barn roof is gone though To the north is where AES used to be: South of the Red Barn was Evans and Kunz pet shop: And finally here is the former Fruit Ranch food store: I tried to verify some of these...