93 Happy Birthday Dave

No no no, not me.. my friend Dave is 47 today. We went to his birthday party last night and had a great time with him, his wife and daughter (my Goddaughter) and some of his family. We spent a bit of time talking about how far we've come, even in the short time we've known each other.

Short... well, I met Dave in 1999, not long after I got my HAM Radio license. What's that you say, you didn't know I was a HAM? Yep. Taking the written test wasn't too bad, but I was scared to death of the Morse code test. I had learned barely half of the letters, and wasn't good at it yet when my (late) friend Kevin talked me into taking the code test anyway. Well, I took it, and here's the letters I knew as I was writing them down (you're allowed to guess the missing ones before handing in paper).

"Na-e -ere is -orraine QTH is -os an-e-es"

Where - were blanks. I figured out it was "Name here is Lorraine, QTH is Los Angeles"

You had to get 25 characters in a row correct, and I did and passed! Five weeks later I got my callsign in. "KA1TBE"
I hated it. the TBE all had that "E" sound. When spelled phonetically, "Tango Bravo Echo", they all ended in the "O: sound! Luckily, before the year was up I upgraded my license and got a new callsign. More about that soon, this is about Dave and I.

After about 3-4 months, I got on the air and met KA1RPQ. We talked for a bit before realizing we were both in the same town!

I invited him over to talk about radio, and he brought with him a bunch of his QSL cards and we had a great time looking through them at ones from all over the world. We've been incredibly good friends ever since. Today, he's a year older (and he found a new wrinkle to worry about yesterday! *LOL*

And now, a joke before I go:

Skin Transplant Surgery

A married couple was in a terrible accident where the woman's face was severely burned.  The doctor told the husband that they couldn't graft any skin from her body because she was too skinny.  So the husband offered to donate some of his own skin. However, the only skin on his body that the doctor felt was suitable would have to come from his buttocks.

The husband and wife agreed that they would tell no one about where the skin came from, and requested that the doctor also honor their secret. After all, this was a very delicate matter.

After the surgery was completed, everyone was astounded at the woman's new beauty.  She looked more beautiful than she ever had before! All her friends and relatives just went on and on about her youthful beauty!

One day, she was alone with her husband, and she was overcome with emotion at his sacrifice.

She said, "Dear, I just want to thank you for everything you did for me.   There is no way I could ever repay you."

"My darling," he replied, "think nothing of it.  I get all the thanks I need every time I see your mother kiss you on the cheek."

That's it for this week, have a wonderful weekend all!