So I apologize in advance for tonight's post. It will probably turn out a bit on the cranky side. I've just gotten home from work after my third "13 hour day" in a row.
My WAS certificate arrived today! Yay! I was immediately struck by the number of the certificate. It is certificate number 53,773. Back on August 17th of 1995, when I was originally awarded my "mixed" WAS certificate as N2ELW, I was issued certificate number 48,237. So in almost 14 years, only 5,536 WAS certificates have been issued. That works out to approximately 395 WAS certificates issued each year. For some bizarre reason, I thought that there'd be more than that.
The other thing is that receiving this certificate is kind of anti-climatic. I guess anticipation is the sweeter part of the deal. No doubt that it's a beautiful certificate that I will frame and proudly hang on the shack wall ........ but the endorsement. I paid an extra $7.50 for the "CW QRP" endorsement; and all I get for that is "CW" and "QRP" in 24 point laser type on the right hand side of the certificate? One of those nice little gold foil embossable labels would have been nice. Somehow $7.50 for five little letters doesn't seem ....... I don't know ....... worth it.
Secondly, I got annoyed during my travels to and from work today. One of the back roads I travelled on is having the asphalt removed in preparation for re-paving. You know how the machine chews up the asphalt and leaves the road all rough and bumpy? Well, tonight, I was following a Jeep Grand Cherokee and a Toyota Highlander on different trips on this road. From the way they were driving, you'd think they were driving on egg shells! I mean I didn't want them to go super fast or anything like that; but how about just driving normally? I mean, after all, they were both driving vehicles that were designed to be driven "off road" for crying out loud! Chrysler boasts how the Grand Cherokee handles the Rubicon Trail with ease - I don't see the need to come to a dead stop just because you're going to transfer from smoother payment to torn up road. The vehicle was designed to handle that and sooooo much more!
I'd better stop before I get carried away.
73 de Larry W2LJ
Most "off-the-road" vehicles will never be driven off-the-road by their owners. I've never seen a Hummer that wasn't spick and span. Commando wanabee owners. Kinda amusing, actually.
ReplyDeleteWhen I graduated from Purdue I achieved my BSEE "with highest honors". On the diploma these words were just added in small type in the corner. But I knew all the work that went into it and those little words looked pretty good to me.
ReplyDeleteThree straight 13 hour days? Yikes. You need to tell us how much coffee is required to keep up that kind of stamina. HI!
ReplyDeleteVy 73 de Jeff, KE9V
I have a problem with coffee, Jeff. I can only drink one or two cups in the AM. If I have regular coffee later than about 3 PM or so, I have a tough time getting to sleep in the evening. It was a bad week, with last Tuesday even involving some dumpster diving, looking for server rails and power cords that building maintenance mistakenly threw out.
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