Catching up is a good thing to do! Posted a lot in December but January has been rather sparse.

1. We need snow! The snow pack is about 40% of normal for this time of the year. The storms are going south of us and leaving only traces behind here in Pocatello. The weather has certainly been cold enough, but no moisture is making its way here.
2. I turn 65 in March. That means getting set up on medicare. I’m looking forward to having real health insurance back, but this is a rather convoluted process. There’s Part A, Part B, Part D, and Part F. I’m automatically enrolled in Part A (no cost) and Part B (about $110 a month automatically deducted from my social security). I can elect Part D and Part F. Or else, I can buy a Part A/B/D (and then can not get Part F). Or I can buy a Part A/B and skip Part D…. It’s a convoluted system to be sure. I’ll probably write more about this Real Soon Now.
3. Now that our oldest grandson Christopher has received his mission call (to the Singapore / Malaysia Mission), he could go to the Temple and receive his own endowment (pure LDS lingo!). Nina and I were invited to go with him and his parents to the Bountiful Temple for this experience. I thoroughly enjoyed being by him in the session and thinking about this from the view of someone being there for the first time.
4. The Idaho Falls Temple is closed at the present time for some remodeling work. It reopens the first week in February. As a result we were able to go to water aerobics last Friday and for the next two Fridays. This is a somewhat intense water aerobics session that goes nonstop for an hour and is held Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I’ve been going with Nina for past couple of months and it’s quite a workout for me. The hot tub next to the pool at the fitness center is very welcome when the hour’s workout is finished.
5. I’m slowly but surely getting my ham radio setup working. I built a cabinet for the four devices I currently have … a power supply, a 2-meter transceiver, an HF transceiver, and an antenna tuner. I haven’t been able to do anything yet with the HF transceiver because I don’t have an appropriate antenna. That’s on order and hopefully will arrive on Friday. Then I have to assemble it. It’ll go out in our front yard next to the 2 meter antenna I built some time back until I can get some coax cable pulled up into the attic and get up on the roof to install the antennas in their final location.

The new year has a good start!

Ta ta for now.