Back-to-school toys

Jeffrey started middle school today. It seems hard to believe…I clearly remember his first day of kindergarden, and that was just last week!

The construction crews are also starting in on his new school this week; they’re tearing down and replacing almost all of the buildings over the next two years. With luck, he’ll have an almost brand-new school for his last year.

I celebrated his return to school by spending the weekend deeply immersed in electronics; on Saturday, I played with my ham radio stuff and eventually proved that it worked by making a contact on HF — true, it was only across town, and true, I did have to call the other guy on the phone to schedule it, but at least I got confirmation that my equipment does work. And I learned that I needed to increase the modulation and talk louder to make my signal better, so it wasn’t entirely an empty effort. On Sunday, I bought a new receiver and speakers for our home theater, and then spent all of Sunday night installing it (with the invaluable help of a friend who survived the process with only a small bruise). I still have to finish the installation and tweaking, then do it again when the subwoofer arrives, but now that the rear speakers are on the wall, it’s all easy stuff — no power tools required.