THE LITTLE PEOPLE LOG

Where life is beautiful all the time.

Since 6/20/06

For those of you who want to read my commentary on, well, just about anything, click here: Little People Blog

Thank you Paul W7MAG and Art W6OBB, and all you mahvalous Hamcams hams, for getting so many people to come into the tent.

KN6Z would like to welcome Little People Network announcer, Art Bell.

Click here for Art Bell’s Little People Network promo: Promo

All the different Little People Network stations that checked in on 3765 kHz the week of 12/09 – 12/15, our RECORD for one week.:

KN6Z, KD7BCW, NZ7J, N7EN, W5HO, KE3KR, NR7Q, AG7G, K6MJD, W6FE, KB5B, W7LW, K6HTM, AF7J, W7LNG, KI6U, AE6FG, WQ6I, AD5SU, KT0DD, N6NP, K6AII, KE7BBX, WJ6Q, K7PSK, VA7MJS, KG6TT, AD9DX, AA8KB, AD7HP, KF7J, KC7ZNA, WA7PZR, K6LDO, VE5ANB, K6ZSR, N7TH, W7RU, K6FEJ, WB7EUH, AF6D, KG6TT, K7PRS, WG6K, WB6GGY, KO6QK, WY8I, W7KOL, K6PIC, KF6VOM, XE1HDD/W6, AD7HP, KF7J, KB1UM, WY8I, WA7CO, KE7GET, NO5I, KC0HLX, W1VO, VE7AYQ, AF6D, WC1E, WA6DAC, W7ZCX, K6USY, KD8CFU, N7FDI (Echolink/Cross band). Sixty-three different stations, not counting the blues or non-extras, smashing the old record of forty-four.

Barney Hall of Fame: Ben KD7BCW, Eric W7ZCX, John W6FE, Cary KD7KAU, Mike VA7MJS, Mike KB1UM, Duane AG7G, Joe KO6M, Bruce W6RAT, Terry KB5B, Chuck KE3KR, Moody WQ6I, Bob AF6D, Mike AA8KB, Conrad N7EN, Randy KC7ZNA, Gary ZL3SV, Mark K6FEJ, Mark K6MJD, Larry W5HO, John K7PRS, Gregg AE6FN, RoboLon KE7BBX, Dave WA6DAC, Bruce N6THN, Gary W6FH, Kevin K7TST, Art W6OBB, Kevin AD8Q, Iain K6IAM, Bob K6MIT, Tom W7PD, Keith KD7KZV, Stan WG6K, Mike AD5SU, Phil WB6GGY, Bob K6AII, Adam AF6ME, Greg W6EZV.

The EGO Grid

You-Can-Count-On-Me Tier

3688 KHz	Sun 6/28/09	Mon 6/29/09	Tue 6/30/09	Wed 7/1/09	Thur 7/2/09	Fri 7/3/09	Sat 7/4/09
KN6Z Glenn “Messianic Cult Leader” San Diego		S7 noise	S7 noise	S7 noise
KD7BCW Ben “The Horizontal Ham” Salem, OR. A.K.A. “Daddy” Commander, Northern Alliance		S9	S9	S9
K6AII Bob “Ready to Rumble” Rancho Cucamonga	B	S9	+20		B	B	B
KB5B Terry “Hillbilly” Tucson	A		+10		A	A	A
KE7BBX RoboLon “Voice of Silence” Tumwater	R				R	R	R
AF6D Bob “The Low Power King” Big Bear	N	+15	+35	+15	N	N	N
N7EN Conrad “Mr. Normal” Gilbert, AZ.	E	+10	+15	+10	E	E	E
W6EZV Greg “The Entity” Burbank	Y		+30		Y	Y	Y
W6FH Gary Nevada City				+15
AE6FN Gregg “Three G’s” San Francisco	F	+5	+20	+20	F	F	F
AG7G Duane “Mr. Sunshine” Yuppyville	R	S8	S8	S9	R	R	R
WB6GGY Phil Twainhart	E	S9	+20	+15	E	E	E
W5HO Larry “HO” New Mexico	E				E	E	E
WQ6I Moody “Moody” Claremont	B	+40	+20	+40	B	B	B
WG6K Stan “The Elitist Neanderthal” Aptos	I	+20	+20	S9	I	I	I
KD7KZV Keith “Psycho” Payson, Utah	E	S9	+5	+5	E	E	E
N6LN Jack Palos Verdes		S7
AF6ME Adam
VA7MJS Mike “Canadian Bacon” Lund, B.C.			S7	S7
KR2NZ Russel Hollywood
W6RAT Bruce Coos Bay, Or.		S9
KG6TT Jerry Fairfield			S7
KB1UM Mike “Music Mike” Seattle			S8
W9YZI Bill Princeton, Minnesota
W7ZCX Eric Portland		S6	S7	S7

Barneys in purple. Miss a week and I kick your ass off. To get back to Heaven you will have to do four weeks in Purgatory.

On-Again-Off-Again Tier

(If you don’t like it down here, then make yourself less work for the Grid Meister.)

WJ6Q		+30	+35
W7GEE
KD7KAU
K1IY	+15
N6NWX		Barely there
AF6BJ		S8
KF6VYH		S5
W7HW		+5
ZL3SV		S5

Four weeks in a row on the lower tier gets you promoted to the upper tier. Your appearance/position in the LPL reflects your participation on 3688, not necessarily your motivation, and it certainly does not necessarily reflect the Grid Meister’s opinion of your value as a human being.

Saturday KN6Z and BZ made the scene on the cement “boardwalk” along the waterfront in Pacific Beach. On the 4^th of July you can’t find a crack to jam your car into anywhere near the beach. But we brought our bikes so we just parked as close as we could, which was still many blocks from the beach, and rode to the beachfront brawl. We rode over a mile I guess down the cement boardwalk, weaving in and out of bikinis filled with drunken girls. So much flesh. So much beer. After we’d had our fill of that we loaded up the bikes and drove up to the Tropical Star, a tiny little Cuban place in Kearny Mesa. We got a can of Jupina pineapple soda and spiked it with rum, and then ordered some Cuban food. After we ate we came home, cleaned up a little, and drove to Disneyland for their version of Independence Day fireworks. That place was so packed you simply could not cram another person in there. But after the fireworks, the crowd gradually thinned out and we had some fun. Listened to some music, ate some obscenely overpriced pizza, and went on some rides. Sunday night I’ll be on the air early and QRT early.

Bike story, sixth installment:

Hermosa borders the east side of the park. Pretty steep. So I mounted the bike and the bike mounted the hill and after two blocks I came to Highland and turned right, toward Sierra Madre Elementary School.

Si—er-a Ma—dre

School—of-my child—hood,

Be—neath-the syc-a-mores

I-shall live—there

For e—ver-more,

Close—to-the mount—ains

Blue—sky up-a-bove—you,

Si—er-a Ma-dre-school

You-know-that I—love—you. (Sniff)

At the corner of Hermosa and Highland is the decrepit old building that used to house the Sierra Madre Women’s Club. Used to be a very attractive little place. Very residential looking. I didn’t know what went on in there, but I could always hope. I was surprised this trip to discover that they had moved and that the little building had gone to hell so fast. They currently have a bigger, fancier place on Sierra Madre Blvd. And so, on I coasted down Highland. The school was just a block or so away (That’s right, that means I’m not done yet. So just suck it up.) To be continued…

Bike story, fifth installment:

When I was doing that big route in the winter time, it was dark and one of the apartment buildings really spooked me. It was called Sierra Terrace. It only had about twenty apartments, all ground level. I only delivered one paper there, but the apartment was way in the back. That place had low overhangs over the apartments and almost no lighting, so it was very dark. Very spooky. I hated walking back in there with that paper. And the passage ways to the apartment doorsteps were really dark and long and creepy. I’d chuck that paper and hoof it very fast out of there. That route was just too damn big, so I cut it way back. Dumped Sierra Madre Blvd. with the apartments, and Mariposa, one block south. On my nostalgia bike ride, I took a walk through Sierra Terrace, and it’s just as scary. I looked on the directory, and among the twenty or so names listed was a “Thurman.” OMG, it was cosmic. Well, there is a public park in the middle of town. There are many memories there. There is a big, grey cannon in front of the park, apparently targeted on the church across the street. I remember back in 1962 when I was seven years old and we were just about ready to move into the town, my dad and brother and myself climbing around on the canon and laughing about it “shooting” the church. I rode my bike through the park and enjoyed it very much. Some things have changed, some are exactly the same. I walked into the foul public restroom and stood before the stinky stainless steel alter. I closed my eyes, let my head tilt back, and relaxing I anointed the alter with gold. Then my eyes rolled back in my head and I fell into a dream. I dreamed a dream of Art Bell. I dreamed that he came riding back into our lives, upon his Chariot of Fire, blazing a trail of crop circles in his wake, restoring leaf and flower to 75 meters. I turned slowly and walked outside and raised my eyes to see the heavens and the people stood and stared for I was unzipped, and the breeze chilled the dampness within and made me want to pee some more so I went back inside and peed some more and The Lord saw that it was good. To be continued…

Bike story, fourth installment:

So it was up Hermosa one block and then a left onto Ramona. There aren’t any good tid bits about houses or weird people on Ramona. There are a lot of Jacaranda trees around Sierra Madre, and it seemed that day like a lot of them were on Ramona. Seems like I rode through one carpet after another of lavender Jacaranda blossoms, fallen to the ground. And they were still falling. Heaven just sifted down all around me in the form of soft bits of lavender. The bed of Jacaranda blossoms and the misty peaks of the Sierra Madre mountains set the perfect mood for enjoying flashbacks. Four blocks of Ramona took me back to Michillinda bordering the west end of the route. Now, for most of the years that I did that paper route, that was it. Three E-W streets cutting through three N-S streets, and two N-S border streets. Eight square blocks. When I first started the route I was fourteen years old, and it was a much bigger route then than the one I just described. Maybe twelve square blocks, and twice as many papers because of all the apartment buildings I had to deliver to on Sierra Madre Blvd. So at the end of the shorter route I just described, I’d have to ride home to get another load of papers, and haul them up to do the street of Mariposa, and the apartments on Sierra Madre Blvd. Apartments were a major pain in the ass. You couldn’t just throw the paper; you had to get off the frigging bike and walk the paper into the building and dump it at the door. Bad news. When I was doing that big route, I had to get up very early to get it all done before school. 4:30 a.m., I think. In the winter it was still dark by the time I got the papers folded and loaded, and headed out on the first leg. Sometimes in winter it was pretty freakin’ cold and I was all bundled up in my cold weather gear, including terrorist ski mask. Sometimes I could see my breath billow up in front of me for an instant and rush by in the wind. All that cold air finally got me sick that first year of the route. I was diagnosed with bronchitis and a touch of pneumonia. Well, that got me out of 7^th grade for about a week. Cool. And I had my first taste of codeine cough medicine. I knew after that first spoonful that the key to a happy life was mind-altering chemicals. It took my symptoms away and I felt better than good-as-new. And another cool bonus – staying up into the wee hours on the ham radio. I was a novice and couldn’t transmit in the phone bands, but it was still magical to hear all the exotic stations coming in at those late/early hours. And on one damn school night after another! What a party. To be continued…

Bike story, third installment:

The British Home is on the west end-block of Manzanita, the longest of the four blocks of Manzanita. I continued west on Manzanita to its end, and turned left on Michillinda. Michillinda is named after Michigan, Illinois and Indiana. I coasted downhill, south, against traffic, for one block, and turned left onto busy, narrow, two-lane Orange Grove. There was no sidewalk for two blocks on Orange Grove. I didn’t remember that. I had to ride in the gutter, against traffic, hugging the curb to stay out of the way of oncoming cars. Parked cars or trash cans against the curb were a real hazard because I had to venture out into the oncoming lane to get around the obstacles, my helmet-less head boring into the wind and the oncoming steel. The lanes on each side of Orange Grove are really narrow, so parked cars really stick out into traffic. It’s a hairy ride. If I’d had big bags of heavy morning-papers hanging from the handlebars, restricting maneuverability, I might have chickened out totally. God, what a dangerous, low-paying job that paper route was. There was something about Charles Manson and Orange Grove. What was it? One morning I delivered an issue with big headlines and pictures about the Charles Manson murders, but what’s the Orange Grove connection? As I folded the papers that morning I saw the headlines over and over but I didn’t read about the murders. Could it be that I stopped on Orange Grove to read the stories? March 19^th, 1969. Was it Spring Break? A weekend? Is that why I had time to fart around reading the paper? Because I didn’t have to get back to get ready for school? This account of my paper route is so utterly fascinating that I’m sure some Little People will be compelled to investigate the date March 19^th, 1969. Was it Easter Week or a weekend? Back on the sidewalk, out of harm’s way, I continued east on Orange Grove. Snails. What is it about snails? Are they like Charles Manson? No, they are not. But on wet mornings there were a lot of snails crossing the sidewalk on Orange Grove. More than on the other streets, for some reason. Or maybe it was that I stayed on the sidewalk more on Orange Grove because it was so hair-raising out in the street. At any rate, I used to like to ride over the snails’ outstretched heads with my bike tire. And Orange Grove was the street where I spent a lot of time on the sidewalk and the wet sidewalk has all the squishy targets. And Orange Grove was a downhill coast, so it was easier to bulls-eye little heads with eyes on the ends of long stalks. It was hard to be accurate with my front tire if I was pumping a heavily loaded bike uphill. Seems like there were hardly any houses I threw to on Orange Grove. Just a long, easy coast. Three blocks east on Orange Grove took me past my own house, one block north, to Lima. The grade steepened past Lima, which is why that one house just past Lima on Orange Grove was such a pain in the ass. I had to go down a grade, throw the paper, then turn around and come back up hill to Lima, then turn right, pumping up hill on Lima toward Manzanita. Had one house on that one block of Lima. Then right on Manzanita, the east end-block of the street. There wasn’t much action on that east end-block of Manzanita, either. Only one house, I think. A very smart friend of mine lived there. He invited me one day to a meeting of his scout troop, Troop 373. My dad was pushing me to join the scouts anyway so he could get involved and live it all over again, vicariously. It just blew me away all the extraordinarily smart kids in that troop. Several went on to Cal Tech I think, and two in fact were sons of a distinguished Cal Tech biochemist. A real big shot in his field. He was my Chemistry merit badge councilor. He beat me in a chess game in like one move or something. I didn’t like EARNING that Chemistry merit badge. My ham scoutmaster simply GAVE me Radio and Signaling merit badges. And I absolutely HATED earning Safety and Firemanship merit badges, the punishment I received for setting my brother on fire. And my parents took my chemicals away from me for SIX freakin’ weeks. Can you believe that? These crazy punishments really can screw up a kid. So, anyhow, I traced out that whole route I used to ride, all the way to the east end of Manzanita, and turned left, heading north up Hermosa. One block south was the intersection of Hermosa and Orange Grove, where I used to catch the school bus. Oh, God, there are SO many more streets to talk about, but not today.

Bike story, second installment:

Now where was I? The bike ride. So I was standing there with my bike, looking at the house. There was a scalloped red brick mow strip running along the lawn that my dad put in back in the sixties. He had helped me erect a mast on the roof of the house, for my inverted vee when I got my novice license. I wondered if I got close enough if I could see any damage to the corners of the roof where the guys were anchored. There is a big boulder at the base of a big sycamore tree right in front of the house, just outside my parents old bedroom window. Other big rocks are cemented to the boulder. My dad did the cementing and at the base of the big boulder my brother’s and my handprints are still visible in the cement. I put the bike up on the sidewalk in front of the house and coasted down and out into the street, going off the edge of the driveway where it meets the street, making a little jump. I did that a million times as a kid. I made a left up the grade of the street, getting back onto the sidewalk and riding past the first few houses I used to throw papers to. As I approached the big, gated driveway to the house with the big scary dog, I almost flinched a little, expecting that damn dog to leap out of the past, snarling and growling at me through the gate. But the gate hung open, and the dog is dead, dead, dead as a dog. Halloween memories mixed with the paper route memories. I loved Halloween, and some of the houses had cool decorations and special effects outside. I looked up some history on those properties, and a LOT of the people from the old days are still there. So I continued at a leisurely pace up Manzanita, trying to remember the houses on my route. Some stood out that I will never forget, either because there was something memorable about the house, or perhaps because of the weird people who lived in the house. I had to deal with the weird people when I made my monthly rounds, collecting for the paper. The paper I delivered was The Independent, the morning version of The Pasadena Star News. One forgettable little place that I do remember on Manzanita, I remember because of the form of payment one month when I stopped by to collect. A little old lady opened an ancient coin purse, and prehistoric moths flew out. She dumped out a bunch of ancient silver coins, dimes and quarters. And some buffalo head nickels. That purse hadn’t seen daylight in decades. I still have those silver coins, stored in a turtle shaped box. One paper I used to hurl on Manzanita landed on the porch of The British Home. A bunch of elderly British people live there. I remember the big deal as a kid when Princess Somebody, one of the Royals, visited there. Right on our street. I’ll continue this riveting story perhaps Sunday.

Bike story, first installment:

Monday afternoon I put my Bones on the Chevy Nova and my bike on the Bones and headed up to my childhood home of Sierra Madre, a small city in L.A. County. I got started late and hit heavy traffic pushing slowly up Interstate 5. I should have pulled over and just ridden the bike. I’d have gotten there sooner. I was hungry by the time I got up there, so I went into Pasadena and stopped to eat an early dinner at a favorite restaurant, The North Woods Inn, on Rosemead. The North Woods used to be one of three restaurants in Clearman’s Village in which there were also a bunch of quaint shops in the same Alpine style as the restaurants. It’s all gone now, except for the North Woods, and a giant Kohl’s that just went in. A decades-long tradition is now just a Kohl’s. And the tradition of the waitresses’ elaborate but notoriously skimpy costumes is also a thing the past. Not PC I guess. Anyway, I enjoyed a mind altering beverage before dinner, then ordered my usual chili and onions burger. They throw peanuts on the table and you are supposed to throw the shells on the floor to mix with the sawdust already on the floor. As kids we loved being allowed to make a mess like that. Throwing shit on the floor. What a rush. The place was pretty dead at only 4 p.m. on a Monday as I watched two little girls make repeated trips to the basket of after dinner mints. I should have busted ‘em. They’re going to grow up to be no damn good. There were a couple of hot babes on bar stools, flashing their smoky eyes at me, and playing fishing lure with their tongues. The waiter told me that the ladies would like to buy me a drink. I would have accepted, except that the babes didn’t exist. I made that part up. I was nervous about leaving my bike outside on the back of the Nova. I threw a blanket over the bike and checked on it a couple of times during my meal. I was pretty damn full after my huge dinner. With the open-faced chili burger you get a green salad, a pickled cabbage salad, and two pieces of famously greasy garlic bread. Becky Zed always squeezes the bread and mops up before she eats it. But I had driven a long way to ride my bike around Sierra Madre for the first time in thirty-five years, so, stuffed or not, I was going to ride. I wanted to ride my old paper route, without the pain-in-the-ass burden of the papers. I pulled up in front of our old Sierra Madre address, 416 Manzanita, and unloaded the bike. I stood there next to the telephone pole in the corner of our yard. Down the street, exactly forty yards away as we measured it years ago, was the next pole. We’d use the poles to measure our distance throwing the football. I could throw the ball about fifty yards, but one day with a stiff tail wind I hurled a sixty-three yarder. I felt the urge to throw again, but there was no football and were no neighborhood kids to throw to. It was a comfortable day for riding, but a bit grey, with a mist that moved over my head, cutting off the mountains. There was a surrealistic feel to the whole thing, perfect for nostalgia and conjuring ghosts of the past. I really wanted to tell you about my bike ride, but I’m bored with this for now. I’ll try again tomorrow.

Friday night KN6Z was out with BZ. Saturday we’ll be partying somewheres for the 4^th.

Thursday night KN6Z spent the night at a friend’s, and has spent quite a few nights there recently. The friend needs some hand-holding right now.

Wednesday night KN6Z checked in about 10:40. Moody WQ6I had already been on. He’s doing his part to help me get the 10 p.m. start time established, but I didn’t hold up my end. Phil WB6GGY reports that his son is in the hospital with acute leukemia. The good news is that that type of leukemia is 96% curable. We are keeping Phil and his son and family in our thoughts. Psycho KD7KZV axed the group a question about a mic circuit voltage. Bob AF6D and some others picked that up and ran with it for quite a while. Then we moved on to a story about a passenger on a commercial flight who stripped naked and refused to put on his clothes. The plane made an unscheduled landing and he was arrested and cuffed in the buff. Jacko, who is still dead, came up again in conversation. People were doing some whining that his death overshadowed Farah Fawcett’s, and that she didn’t get the coverage she deserved. It was a very pleasant surprise when Texas Mike AD5SU checked in after a VERY long hibiscus. He filled us in on the construction of his pole building. He’s got the skin on, and the cupola on, and has poured 3000 square feet of concrete. He’ll be returning to Williams, Az. very soon, and will be on freq with us regularly once again. We talked about the Vatican’s investigation into American nuns. American nuns have to be reigned in. They have dumped the habits and moved out of the convents and are just being outlaws in all sorts of ways. Bob axed about the land mile, the statute mile, and the nautical mile, and what’s diff and why. We discovered that there is a veritable shitload of different miles. I axed if shitload was one word or two. It was pointed out that the Urban Dictionary lists it as one word. The Urban Dictionary also gives a number of hilarious definitions of shitload. Things really went downhill fast from there. I’ll spare you the details. The Little People Net was ham radio at its worst, tonight. Fourteen dog night.

Tuesday night KN6Z checked in at 11:30. Bob AF6D was blasting in at +35 tonight. He has made some antenna improvements, including getting it way the hell up in the air. Terry KB5B was back on frequency after a long hibiscus. He’s feeling good and sleeping on a $15K bed. He said he was glad I’d been out of town (?!). We got a music jamming attack by the QRP jammer tonight, I think. It’s always so hard to tell. Terry and Bob had a long QSO tonight over their shared experiences at Ft. Hood. Facebook came up again. People think Facebook is for me. That I’m the type. Hmm. I don’t see it happening anytime soon. Michael Jackson came up again, so we sort of talked about him, but it was mostly to say that nobody really cared much for him as an entertainer. The official Little People position on Michael Jackson is that we are indifferent. We are so utterly indifferent that we are not even sure if indifference is indeed our position, or if we even care. Duane AG7G and Stan WG6K revisited the worst sex QSO I’ve ever heard. Stan said women have sex because they want to get pregnant, and Duane took exception to that, so they were off on an awful sex QSO again. They are both bright guys, and have all sorts of interesting ideas about all sorts of things, but their sex QSOs with each other are the worst sex QSOs I’ve ever heard. Poor Gary ZL3SV checked in very late and Duane started laying that same old shit on him about sending him (Duane) two IRCs and an SASE and Duane would send Gary a QSL. It’s the final courtesy. Happy birthday, Mom. Twenty-three dog night.

Monday night KN6Z checked in at 10:10. Moody WQ6I and Bruce W6RAT were already on freq. Moody took his grandson to see Up today, a 3-D animated movie about a guy who suspends his house from balloons and goes floating around. We read some reviews about that. We sweaty Southern Californians complained about the heat and humidity down here, and the Northerners told us about their cool, dry weather. We talked about some Drudge stories, including some about Michael Jackson, and MJ fans committing suicide, Indian cloud-seeding, and brain wave control of wheelchairs. Bob AF6D axed the group for some advice on where he, his kids, and his dog should sleep. Fifteen dog night.

Sunday night KN6Z was at Disneyland with BZ. We went to the San Diego Highland Games in Vista, today. Drank some beer in the beer cage, listened to The Wicked Tinkers -- a Celtic band, watched some caber tossing, watched some border collies herd sheep, did some shopping. I bought my mom some guest towels with thistle embroidery and pillow covers with thistle embroidery, for her birthday. She loves thistle shit. She’s Scottish, mostly. I also bought two swords and two battle axes to add to my collection of medieval weapons. BZ bought some English toffee for my mom. After the games we loaded up the instruments of violence and doom, and headed up to the Happiest Place On Earth -- that’s right, The Mouse Park. On the way we ate dinner at a Cuban restaurant in Oceanside. Pretty good place, but BZ didn’t like her vegetable plate too much. I’ll tell ya right now, if you’re stuck eating vegetables because you’re a vegetarian or have some other eating disorder, it’s going to be bad. We had ice cream at California Adventure and watched some of the Electrical Parade before walking over to Disneyland. There is a big, patriotic float at the end of the parade. One time while watching that parade, I marveled at the amazingly feminine dancing and movement of the electrified colonial soldiers walking alongside. Turns out they were women, each at least 5’9”, with their hair tucked up under their three-cornered hats. They looked so damn feminine because they were really women. See? Get it? Do you require any further explanation? I’ll tell ya right now, those colonial uniforms are really fruity, but they look damn cute on women. We had a lot of fun today, but I couldn’t fit in the ham radio, too. Monday night I can’t stay on the radio late, so I’ll be on freq very early.

The EGO Grid

You-Can-Count-On-Me Tier

3688 KHz	Sun 6/21/09	Mon 6/22/09	Tue 6/23/09	Wed 6/24/09	Thur 6/25/09	Fri 6/26/09	Sat 6/27/09
KN6Z Glenn “Messianic Cult Leader” San Diego		S8 noise	S8 noise	S8 noise	S7 noise
KD7BCW Ben “The Horizontal Ham” Salem, OR. A.K.A. “Daddy” Commander, Northern Alliance		+5	S9	+10	+5
K6AII Bob “Ready to Rumble” Rancho Cucamonga	B		+5	+20		B	B
KB5B Terry “Hillbilly” Tucson	A					A	A
KE7BBX RoboLon “Voice of Silence” Tumwater	R					R	R
AF6D Bob “The Low Power King” Big Bear	N	S8	+5		S9	N	N
N7EN Conrad “Mr. Normal” Gilbert, AZ.	E	+15	+5	+20	+15	E	E
W6EZV Greg “The Entity” Burbank	Y		+30	+40		Y	Y
W6FH Gary Nevada City			+10
AE6FN Gregg “Three G’s” San Francisco	F	+10				F	F
AG7G Duane “Mr. Sunshine” Yuppyville	R	S9	+5	+10	S9	R	R
WB6GGY Phil Twainhart	E			+10	+5	E	E
W5HO Larry “HO” New Mexico	E		S8			E	E
WQ6I Moody “Moody” Claremont	B	+20	+25	+40	+25	B	B
WG6K Stan “The Elitist Neanderthal” Aptos	I	+20	S8	+10	+20	I	I
KD7KZV Keith “Psycho” Payson, Utah	E					E	E
N6LN Jack Palos Verdes
AF6ME Adam			S7		S6
VA7MJS Mike “Canadian Bacon” Lund, B.C.			S8		S8
KR2NZ Russel Hollywood					S9
KG6TT Jerry Fairfield			S9	+15	S9
KB1UM Mike “Music Mike” Seattle		S8	S7
W9YZI Bill Princeton, Minnesota		S9	S9
W7ZCX Eric Portland		S8	S7	S8	S8

Barneys in purple. Miss a week and I kick your ass off. To get back to Heaven you will have to do four weeks in Purgatory.

On-Again-Off-Again Tier

(If you don’t like it down here, then make yourself less work for the Grid Meister.)

W6RAT
AD5SL
WJ6Q	+20	+20	+25	+30
W7HW
WB6JON
K1IY
W7GEE			+15
ZL3SV	S6
KD7KAU				+10

Four weeks in a row on the lower tier gets you promoted to the upper tier. Your appearance/position in the LPL reflects your participation on 3688, not necessarily your motivation, and it certainly does not necessarily reflect the Grid Meister’s opinion of your value as a human being.

Saturday night KN6Z was on a date with BZ. We had dinner at BZ’s fav, Tender Greens, way out on Point Loma. We came home for some TV and a nap, then went back out for a late movie. We saw My Sister’s Keeper. Not bad. Kancer Kid movie.

Friday night KN6Z was in the local mountains conducting a “star party” for his summer school astronomy class. Turnout was much better than usual. Not sure why.

Thursday night KN6Z checked in at 11:30. Nobody was on yet, but it wasn’t long before I raised some Little People. I was interrupted a number of times by problems around the house, and really didn’t take enough notes to write much here. The late Jacko was the first serious subject of conversation, mainly because I had managed to get through the whole day without hearing about it. After everybody was done laughing, they filled me in. Jacko used to own a big chunk of the Beatles catalog, so we started wondering who all have shares in it now. The Little People welcome Russel KR2NZ in Hollywood. He’s an animator with credits on some very big movies. He says he’ll be back. Toward the end of the evening people were talking about super secret aircraft projects. Friday night I’m taking my summer class to the mountains for some star gazing, so I may be very late or absent Friday, ditto as usual for Saturday. Fifteen dog night.

Wednesday night KN6Z checked in at 11:50. Really late, but again I’m sorry. BZ and I were out having fun and we didn’t get home in time for the net. It’s not like I was sitting on my ass in front of the TV, or sleeping or reading porn magazines. The Little People welcome back Phil WB6GGY. He’s been on a road odyssey. John WJ6Q demonstrated his new mike for Moody WQ6I. He A-B’d the narrow and wide setting for us. I told the gang about our evening in Hillcrest. They have homosexuals there. So we all had a gay time talking about our homosexual encounters, that is to say, our encounters with homosexuals. We enjoyed discussing pix on Drudge of the volcanic eruption of Sarychev Peak in the North Pacific. Another story we discussed, that eventually turned into a can of worms, was about a program in Greensboro, North Carolina, where they pay girls 12 - 18 a dollar a day for not getting pregnant. That led to a wide open sexual discussion which made a peanut gallery station very unhappy with us. Actually, it was the worst sex QSO I’ve ever heard, on multiple levels. Thirteen dog night.

Tuesday night KN6Z checked in at 11:30. Very late, I know. There was some bitching about my very late check in. I guess people had been in very early expecting I’d be on early as advertised, but then I wasn’t. Tue-Thur nights I teach, and I may be late on those nights. Things really started off slow. We talked about a couple Drudge stories. The current unmanned moon mission got everybody going. The impact probe will separate from the orbiter and crash into a lunar crater thought to contain permanently shadowed comet ice, in October. We talked space for quite a while. KN6Z axed Bob AF6D about daughter Rachel. She has been free of cancer for at least eighteen months, and is going to get hormone treatments to help her get growing again. It’s tricky though, because hormones encourage cancer growth, too. John WJ6Q got a decent mike and is sporting much better audio than what he had. It will be easier to tell him apart from Bruce W6RAT, now. Eighteen dog night.

Monday night KN6Z checked in at 10:15. I welcomed myself to the frequency because there was nobody else on freq to do it. It was maybe a half hour before anybody showed. But I enjoyed the static and my own good company just fine, thank you. We have a very sick cat and her days are numbered. I told the gang about her, and we spent some time talking about sick cats and how much to do for them. It can get very expensive. Tonight I was drinking some old, flat, Remy Martin Champagne Cognac right out of the bottle. It was awful. Stan WG6K recommended that I hold a little in my mouth and sort of pull air through it so I could breathe the fumes and get stoned. It burned out my mouth and throat and I choked to death. When I came back to life we talked about jammers and jamming for a while. I did some whining about the high price of beer at events like the San Diego County Fair and the Irvine Irish Festival. But I pay it. So we talked about how to get your own booze into theme parks and events and save money. Stan mentioned Garrison Keeler and Prairie Home Companion, so we talked a bit about that stuff. I mentioned that at the Irish Festival I heard a band play the old song “Those Were The Days.” I recently researched the history of the song. It was a Russian folk song of the 1920’s, set to new, English lyrics having nothing to do with the original Russian lyrics. Mary Hopkin recorded it in 1968 for Paul McCartney’s Apple Label. Anyway, we got onto the subject of pop music, especially the Beatles, and we spent a very long time reviewing Beatles songs and singing them on the air, over the jamming. Stan was being a real in-your-face heretic about the Beatles, maintaining that they only had a few good songs. But by the time we were done with our Beatles review, Stan allowed that the Beatles had as many as FIFTY good songs. I attribute Stan’s initial hard line stance on the Beatles to an imbalance of fer-moans. Stan is a connoisseur of ancient Yugoslavian rock and roll. He emailed me a sample. By the end of the night, Stan, Moody WQ6I, Duane AG7G and The Peanut Gallery were arguing about medical insurance and related topics, and it went on and on and on. Stan was most unhappy with The Little Socialists by the time he signed off. Thirteen dog night.

Sunday night KN6Z was collecting BZ and her parents from the airport. They had been in SF attending BZ’s cousin’s wedding.

The EGO Grid

You-Can-Count-On-Me Tier

3688 KHz	Sun 6/14/09	Mon 6/15/09	Tue 6/16/09	Wed 6/17/09	Thur 6/18/09	Fri 6/19/09	Sat 6/20/09
KN6Z Glenn “Messianic Cult Leader” San Diego	S8 noise	S9 noise	S8 noise	S8 noise	S9 noise
KD7BCW Ben “The Horizontal Ham” Salem, OR. A.K.A. “Daddy” Commander, Northern Alliance	+15	+5	S9	+5	+5
K6AII Bob “Ready to Rumble” Rancho Cucamonga	+20			+20	+20	B	B
KB5B Terry “Hillbilly” Tucson						A	A
KE7BBX RoboLon “Voice of Silence” Tumwater						R	R
AF6D Bob “The Low Power King” Big Bear						N	N
N7EN Conrad “Mr. Normal” Gilbert, AZ.	+15		+20	+20	+10	E	E
W6EZV Greg “The Entity” Burbank	+30		+20			Y	Y
W6FH Gary Nevada City		+20			+15
AE6FN Gregg “Three G’s” San Francisco				+10	+20	F	F
AG7G Duane “Mr. Sunshine” Yuppyville	S9		+5	S8	S9	R	R
WB6GGY Phil Twainhart			Heard			E	E
W5HO Larry “HO” New Mexico		+10				E	E
WQ6I Moody “Moody” Claremont	+40		+30	+30	+30	B	B
WG6K Stan “The Elitist Neanderthal” Aptos	+20		+15	+20	+15	I	I
KD7KZV Keith “Psycho” Payson, Utah				+15	+5	E	E
N6LN Jack Palos Verdes			+20		+20
AF6ME Adam					S9
VA7MJS Mike “Canadian Bacon” Lund, B.C.	+5		S9
KG6TT Jerry Fairfield
KB1UM Mike “Music Mike” Seattle			S7
W9YZI Bill Princeton, Minnesota	S9		S9
W7ZCX Eric Portland	S8	S8	S8		S7

Barneys in purple. Miss a week and I kick your ass off. To get back to Heaven you will have to do four weeks in Purgatory.

On-Again-Off-Again Tier

(If you don’t like it down here, then make yourself less work for the Grid Meister.)

W6RAT		S7
AD5SL
WJ6Q	+15
W7HW		S9
WB6JON		+10
K1IY		+25	+20
W7GEE				+10

Four weeks in a row on the lower tier gets you promoted to the upper tier. Your appearance/position in the LPL reflects your participation on 3688, not necessarily your motivation, and it certainly does not necessarily reflect the Grid Meister’s opinion of your value as a human being.

Thursday night KN6Z checked in about 10:15. Keith KD7KZV was already in the water, being mentally ill. Then Duane AG7G dropped in, very early for Duane, and we started covering the kooky Drudge stories. PETA dissed Obama for swatting a fly on TV. He should have used a fly trap and then released it outside. PETA want the Pet Shop Boys band to change their name to the Rescue Shelter Boys. And we covered the story of the Continental pilot who died of a heart attack during flight. There were two other pilots available to take over. He was 60. Duane axed whether you get to Heaven faster if you die in a high-flying plane. We talked about another story in which a couple of impatient cops pointed a gun through a fast food window because their food order was taking to long. They drove off without paying. Now they are in trouble. William Shatner was apparently a bad boy on The Tonight Show. He was lude and rude. Some of us watched the video and discussed it. Conclusion: much ado about nothing. Chemical elements, a favorite Little People topic, came up once again. We did a lengthy treatment tonight. Stan WG6K invented a new element: Bacterium 1. It is found in a bacteria known to be the only form of life that powers itself through nuclear reactions. The Little People welcome Joe W7GEE in Phoenix. And welcome back Adam AF6ME. Fourteen dog night. I will be M.I.A. Friday and Saturday. BZ is going to a wedding up SF way over the weekend with her parents, and I am going to party with a friend in Vista for the weekend. We are going back to the San Diego County Fair Friday night, the Irish Music Festival in Irvine on Saturday, and then to a hanger party on Sunday that attracts a few small-time TV and movie actors, at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima. I will be telling anyone and everyone who will listen that I know Art Bell.

Wednesday night KN6Z checked in about 10:20. Keith “Psycho” KD7KZV, The Voice of Mental Illness, was on freq. Keith is sounding good. He upgraded from his old drifty Kenwood 530 SE to an FT-897. He is now on frequency. Keith’s son just earned his tech ticket. No call sign yet. Another warm body, Orv. The Little People are saving ham radio. Denny K1IY checked in very early, full of enthusiasm over the DX he was working tonight and the past couple of nights on 20m. He said hi then blew us off to go work more DX. Last night we talked about My Face, Space Book, and Tweety. Tonight we checked out Hunch.com. We had some laughs comparing answers we gave to the questions Hunch axed us. Hunch recommends Duane AG7G vacation in PI. I think Duane should shack up with Art Bell and his family. We briefly spoke about David Letterman’s continued apologizing to Sarah Palin over a slut joke directed at the wrong daughter. Ten dog night.

Tuesday night KN6Z checked in about 11:00. Moody WQ6I and Duane AG7G were already at it. They were talking about Duane’s road trip to pick up supplies for his pole barn. KN6Z read a story about a Florida boy scout who used a racial epithet, and was punished by fellow scout punks who made him drink urine. I bet he was pissed. I read some other old, but weird, stories. We talked about them for a while. Stan WG6K wanted to talk some about Obama’s health care plan. That generated some discussion, but it ended abruptly when Stan signed off abruptly. Stan was most unhappy about some of the company on frequency. Eighteen dog night.

Monday night KN6Z checked in around 10:30. Very noisy tonight, so Ben KD7BCW and I spoke briefly about the noise. I stuck it out til around 12, but didn’t sound like anybody was going to show. Three dog night.

Sunday night KN6Z checked in about 11:30. We talked a lot tonight about sniffing solvents. Too tired tonight to write more. Turpentine always makes me drowsy. Twelve dog night.

The EGO Grid

You-Can-Count-On-Me Tier

3688 KHz	Sun 6/7/09	Mon 6/8/09	Tue 6/9/09	Wed 6/10/09	Thur 6/11/09	Fri 6/12/09	Sat 6/13/09
KN6Z Glenn “Messianic Cult Leader” San Diego		S7 noise		S7 noise	S9 noise
KD7BCW Ben “The Horizontal Ham” Salem, OR. A.K.A. “Daddy” Commander, Northern Alliance		+10		+5	+15
K6AII Bob “Ready to Rumble” Rancho Cucamonga	B	+20	B	+15	+20	B	B
KB5B Terry “Hillbilly” Tucson	A		A			A	A
KE7BBX RoboLon “Voice of Silence” Tumwater	R		R			R	R
AF6D Bob “The Low Power King” Big Bear	N		N		+10	N	N
N7EN Conrad “Mr. Normal” Gilbert, AZ.	E	+15	E	+15	+10	E	E
W6EZV Greg “The Entity” Burbank	Y		Y			Y	Y
KE7FAE Joe “Captain Kirk” Near Salem, Or.
W6FH Gary Nevada City	F		F			F	F
AE6FN Gregg “Three G’s” San Francisco	R	+20