Back Home!

 And I have almost 1000 emails to sort through.....DUH!

No problem getting in and out of SLW's car, and up the driveway into the house. The half-flight of stairs from that level to the main level is also no problem. Even made a cup of coffee unassisted.

 Getting from the lowest (Den/laundry/garage) level to the Main Level (Living, Dining/kitchen/sunroom)is easy, as it's only 5 steps. Going up to the top floor isn't bad, either. I did very well going up and down stairs, once they taught me a few things. And I have a walker up there, specifically for upstairs use.

Have not tried to go down in the basement yet, as SLW would most likely get quite nervous. Probably this weekend. Our Visiting Nurse comes by tomorrow afternoon for a meet-and-greet, and our Visiting PT gal will do the same a day or two later. If/when they clear me for basement access, I'll be quite happy.

I've already gone into the garage for a tool and some hardware, and had no problem. Yes, the Extension Cord of Doom has been removed  and banished. The cord reel goes up this weekend when my son comes by. The screws on my walker were loose, and one was missing, so I just had to fix it!

 Pebbles, as expected, turned into a Screaming Yellow Zonker for about 20 minutes, licking me everywhere she could reach, and wagging her tail so hard the back half her was a blur. It's nice to know you were missed!

Tomorrow morning is my appointment with the urologist, and we'll start looking seriously into the problems I've been on-and-off having for the last several months.

Next week is my appointment with my Primary Care Doctor, which should be fun. She's quite good, and can have a wicked sharp but subtle sense of humor.

Going Home..

 What beautiful words!

SLW will be here in about two hours, I have some paperwork to sign, and then we head home. We only live about a half mile from here, so easy-peasy drive.

I'll post later tonight after I get settled in at home.

Cleared For Release!

 YAY! 

I'm being discharged tomorrow at 1100! 

Have to use a "Foley Catheter" for a while until I see the Urologist on Thursday, and they figure out this retention problem I've been having.

Gave me a bit of a scare, as I was passing some blood, but that seems to have cleared up overnight, and now the color in the bag is normal.

We ALL gave a huge sigh of relief thlis morning.

I think I see an MRI in the near future to give us a better view on things.

Pain management is going well, and I'm taking 4~6 Tramadol per day, depending on how much I hurt. Follow-up with the Orthopedic Surgeon is the 27th, and I'll have him look at my right knee, too. I think I twisted it when I fell, but the pain from that was so far down in the noise that I didn't notice it until my hip  improved and I was off the heavy duty pain meds.

It's been a trial, but the Psalms and Proverbs helped keep my sanity and gave me comfort. I'm also very thankful for having such good medical care, and the help my wife, family, and friends provided and offered.

So I'm "Number 1 On The Runway", and we're at T-minus 26 hours and counting.

I got out of this pretty light compared to what it could have been, and for that I'm extremely grateful.

Holy Smokes....I Logged In!

 Finally found a password that works. 

First, I'd like to thank everyone for their well wishes and encouragement.

Second, posting with a cellphone SUX! I'll try and comment on your blogs, but I doubt I'll generate any content here.

I'm being discharged to home on the 5th of April,  and do a catch-up post ASAP. The hospital care was excellent, and the PT/OT people here at the rehab facility are very good. I'm about a week ahead of what's "normal" for the operation I had (a couple of plates and a half-dozen screws), and I have a PT regimen to work on at home.

And now it's nap time.

 

Fell in garage and boke hip

 No, it's not an early April Fool's joke. 

I tripped on an extension cord, went down, missed the rubber mats I stand on, and landed on the concrete.

I couldn't get up, so I hit the alarm button on the remote for the truck to get SLW's attention. She came out, and I still couldn't get up.

Called 911, got admitted last night, and had surgery this morning. Should be released tomorrow morning.

Yes, it hurts, but I didn't need a complete hip replacement, just a plate and some screws.

Pretty groggy right now, so I'll post more tomorrow.

Bread - A "Ground Rules" Home Run!

 Iffen Ida pulled it out of the oven about 6~7 minutes sooner, it'd be in the stands!

It almost looks burnt in this shot, but due due some color balance problems, it's not that dark in person. Think "dark, but still golden", and you'd be spot-on.

And yow.....does it taste great!

The last step in learning "High Altitude" baking for this recipe will be to adjust the baking time to 40~45 minutes at 410*F, and not the 45~50 minutes I used. Paper records have been updated. My white bread (can I say that?) should come out equally good.

Bon Appetit!

The Journey Continues.....

 After fighting our way through The Straights of Pioneer, we at last arrived in The Bay of Nakamichi, where they natives are indeed quite friendly and accommodating.

Total service time on the bench for this one was about 15 hours. A lot of time was spent learning the ways of the natives, but the reward was worth it. I also gave this one a complete calibration, head alignments (It has three separate, discrete heads), and verified/adjusted things to meet factory specs. It passed with flying colors, and Buffalo Springfield hasn't sounded this good in years.

This coming week we'll be visiting the nearby Village of TEAC, meeting up with some old friends, and picking up this castaway who needs a good home.

Yep....10.5" reels, ferrite heads, and really good specs. Progress reports will follow, at least until Spring arrives, and Ms. Swan comes out of hibernation......

Feeling much, much better, and today marks Ten Days without a cigarette. Felt so good I'm making rye bread. Results to follow....

Yowzir.......What Hit Me?.....

 Been out-of-the-loop for about five days now with some kind of tummy bug. Knocked me flat out for two days, and then Sweet Little Wife said I looked like this poor guy:

....All Weekend Long....

Yeah, not pleasant, but I'm back to about 90% or so. Worst part was I missed TLG's 6th birthday party. Bummed out over that one. The best part is (yes, Virginia, there is a best part) that I haven't had a cigarette in FIVE DAYS. Not quite jonesing due to some help from one of those "e-Cigarette" things, and my cough is gone, and my sinus passages seem clearer. Fingers crossed I'll keep on going like this until the little things are gone, things like lighting up after a meal.

Got The Yucks

 Flat on my back all day Thursday and Friday. Got up about 2100, had some milk, some bread, and made this post.

Back when able...

The Journey - Part The Third

 Lest you think all is smooth sailing through The Straights of Pioneer, let me assure you it isn't.

In the case of this thing:

We ran smack into Halsey's Typhoon. It fought me Every Step Of The Way. Fix one thing, something else pops up. Fix that, and then you have to fix a brittle plastic part that broke while you were fixing the first item. Or a teeny, tiny part gets away from you, and goes sailing off into oblivion. The bent chassis was straightened so all mechanical assemblies were in proper alignment and dry-fit perfectly. The tape transport mechanism was taken apart and cleaned FOUR times. New drive belts, idler wheels, and pinch rollers were fitted. The last cleaning would have done a Class 1000 clean room proud. Use of lubricants was strongly discouraged, and highly controlled.

And STILL it doesn't work with front panel attached. It plays, records, and fast forwards 100% with the panel removed. Rewind is a bit flaky, so something is still amiss in the tape transport. It might be something subtle I'm missing, but I'm all out of speed, altitude, and ideas on this one. I went 10 rounds with this thing, and I'm battered, bruised, and bloodied. I'm "ahead on points", but I just don't have another round left in me, so I'm throwing in the towel, cutting my losses, and making a strategic withdrawal.

 

Nest stop in The Journey, The Bay of Nakamichi, where I hear the natives are friendly.

We should be pulling into port Monday afternoon.....

 

The Journey - Part The Second

 The next castaway we picked up in the Journey was the SX-980. Another crusty, dirty piece of derelict flotsam we thought "salvageable".

This was also another pleasant encounter, and after delousing our new arrival, we proceeded to give them a physical, and return them to health. It required a session Under the Knife to restore it to health, having been afflicted with a failing trimmer capacitor.

The offending part is the small teardrop shaped item dead center in the picture.

The offending part was replaced with a proper air variable device, more suited to this application.

A forensic anakysis of the failed part revealed a crack through the ceramic dielectric, seen here as  a dark line at the six O'clock position.

Now that I had solid frequency setting for the Local Oscillator, I could move on to aligning the FM Multiplex section . Some of the adjustments were a bit off, and two of them, the "19kHz Notch Filter", and the Left/Right Stereo Separation controls, were way off. The Multiplex alignment was rewarded with a perfectly locked receiver to the Pilot Signal, as shown here with the Lissajous Figure.

It's not "Text Book Perfect", as one of the Sine wave components being fed to it has a prominent 76kHz sawtooth component riding on it.

Finishing the alignment resulted in a perfectly tracking dial. It's nice to tune to 88.9, and your station pops in perfectly clear, with the tuning meter dead center. I deviated slightly from the procedure when I set the FM Muting and Signal Strength Meter to be more useful in the Real World.

And this thing has a really "hot" tuner. It easily exceeds the Pioneer specs by 6~10dB, pulls in distant stations far better than the SX-780 did, and I wonder how it'll do when I get the outside FM antenna properly mounted in the Spring.

Adjusting and testing the Power Amplifier was a breeze. The DC Offset and Bias controls adjusted smoothly, and wound up being about dead center in their adjustment range. To adjust the "Power Output" meters, I fed it a specified signal, measured the voltage across the dummy load, and set the meter adjust to read what the actual power is into an 8 Ohm load. One thing I accidentally "discovered", was although this amp is rated 80 Watts per channel, it easily made 135 Watts, with no sign of clipping, when I accidentally drove the input too high. So at it's rated 80 Watts, it has a LOT of "Headroom".

In fact, the SX-980 had such good test results and "Qual Ratings", that it was promoted to Senior Chief of Operations, responsible for all audio switching and reproduction duties.

In its Quarters:

And so, The Journey continues......