I’m eligible for a COVID-19 booster shot. There is a lot controversy about taking the vaccine. My stance is to be part of the solution rather than come up with reasons not taking the available vaccines.

As of now I’ve been test a couple of times for COVID-19 and each time with negative results. Once at the local library at San Andreas and the other the most recent at Kaiser Permanente, Stockton CA. Even though I myself have been tested only twice I’ve gone several times taking wifey to her appointment and checks.

I found a gem at a local estate sale. It seems the best deals at an Estate Sale are the ones that do not have any major advertisement. I’m talking about a sale put on by the family members and not a paid crew that follows a strict procedure based on how many days they are going to be selling.

This particular estate sale was a couple of miles from our home. The seller was very motivated in selling what was left of the families belongings. I purchased several radios and the Packard Bell AR-851 “Gilligan’s Island” model was a cool score.

You can find out more details on this particular radio by checking this site

One interesting note between the radio seen on the show and mine is the handle and antenna is missing. It turns out the prop team on the show added both the handle and antenna. Being this an A.M. radio model an antenna is not needed since F.M. wasn’t an option.

The big joke is the professor was able to recharge the radio batteries using coconut shells and he couldn’t figure out how to plug the hole on the boat. That’s some classic shit right there. LOL!!

This is the original radio used on the Gilligan’s Island series that debuted in 1964.

I drive through this area 10 times a week. I typically will see the sunrise and sunset in one day. It all depends on daylight savings time and the current month of the year.

These two shots were taken the day after the record setting rainfall. The location is a lookout point at one of the highest hill tops.

I think getting a COVID-19 test will become the normal for many years.

Today I’m taking my second test. If you’re working for a company with a large work force you’ll eventually have to comply with the health guidelines.

The current COVID testing process at Kaiser Permanente is in car. You don’t apply the swab, the worker does it for you. Another change is the swab doesn’t need to hit your brain to be effective. A couple light sample from each nostril and you’re done.

The whole process took approximately 30 minutes and that is with a prearranged appointment.

When we first moved to Valley Springs Verizon Wireless Services was had the best coverage. Unfortunately that doesn’t mean at our specific location in the hills.

The signal strength in the small town area has the strongest signal. The cellphone (iPhone 12 Max) will get the the full 4 bar LTE signal. Once you drive away from town the signal strength decreases rapidly. I guess this would be expected since the hills and mountains will have an effect with the transmission towers “line of sight”.

I know for a fact AT&T signal strength is much better than Verizons at our home location. I have another iPhone with AT&T as the carrier and it consistently has 3 bars. Switching our personal phones over to AT&T was not a desirable option.

After researching the possibility of a LTE Extender I decided to go with the model you would purchase at the Verizon Store. I found a reviews online and it seemed rather split in opinions. The folks that actually got it to work said it was fine and other said they couldn’t get it to work at all. I can see if you’re not a tech savvy person this may be challenge.

I consider myself very tech savvy and I had some difficulty. The issues I was having I thought it was on end. I thought my router firewall was blocking IP address from being reached, possibly the GPS signal wasn’t strong enough, I even thought the ethernet hub I was using wasn’t compatible since it was a special type that power PoP IP cameras.

There are a various steps the LTE Extender goes through to successfully establish connection and function as expected. If any of these steps does not complete your box is not going to work.

One step that I didn’t perform was to call customer technical support and activate / register the LTE Extender device. I would get an error “5A” connecting to the server using CMP. This error would repeat no matter how many times I tried restarting the Verizon Box.

Once I contacted Verizon technical support and they performed the registration on their end I was able to establish a connection once the boot process completed. The actual boot process is lengthy but my LTE Extender required a software update. Additional time and setup is needed.

All in all this product works great. I have a strong signal everywhere in my home and outside. One added plus is being able to use my Verizon cellphone reliably 100 feet away down the hill inside my shop.

Time to to head back to reality. We got a late start for our trip home. The girls were pretty much wiped out. I wasn’t doing to bad, I woke up at 7am. The girls started waking up around 10am. Lol.

The ride home wasn’t eventful. It seems like there is more traffic on Highway 5 then I can recall. We did see a couple of cool rides at Santa Clarita during a gas station stop.

Another cool classic.

We are getting a late start.

Ready to rock and roll, waiting for our shuttle

We left Valley Springs early Thursday early morning.

Ended up at In N’ Our Burger. Updates to come.

I know absolutely nothing about Auto Harps. This particular piece was found as “left-overs” at a local garage sale that took place yesterday.

I drove by thinking there would be an actual sale but everything left out was free for the taking and I was the first one there.

I picked up this musical instrument with no clue how it worked or functioned. Once I brought it home a quick search showed it was made by a manufacturer Oscar Schmidt.

There is still a market for new models and sold all over the world. The particular model I have is an early version. I saw the same model on eBay going for $700. Not too bad for a freebie.